Dieulacres Abbey
Dieulacres was another Cistercian house which had profited by the wool trade, and had done much to bring the Moorlands into cultivation. Its monks had improved the course of the river Churnet, which flowed down the valley, had effected a great scheme of drainage, including the building of a stone drain so huge as to give rise to an impossible story of an underground passage from the Abbey to the Church, and had constructed a raised paved road across the valley. They had been well endowed at the commencement, and had begun with the advowson of the Church at Leek and its chapels. They owned a London house. The Abbot’s court was sometimes attended by as many as three or four hundred persons. His gallows stood at the end of the town, and his fair was held at Leek annually for seven days at the Feast of St. Arnulph (July 28th). He was a county magnate of importance, and even so late as 1504 we find him stipulating in the lease of the Manor of Pulton that he was to be entertained there with twelve mounted companions twice a year. Such a position was dangerous, and it is not surprising to find that the Abbot sometimes carried things with a high hand. In 1379 it was alleged against the Abbot that he attempted “to perpetrate maintenance in his marches” (in marchiis suis manutenenciam facere) and to oppress the people. He had a band of twenty-one retainers, who are described as common disturbers of the King’s peace, living at the Abbey and doing all the mischief they can, lying in wait for travellers, assaulting, maiming, and even killing them. Some of them were captured on the definite charge of murdering John de Warton at Leek, and were committed to the Marshalsea, with Edmund de Draycot, Cellarer at Dieulacres, and William del Brugge, Vicar of Leek, who, with the Abbot, had harboured the murderers. But the Abbot managed to delay proceedings again and again, and finally no one was punished.[94] In 1413 a monk of Dieulacres, with a large number of armed men, raided a neighbouring park, and took by force much stone, the Abbot being privy to the deed. The Abbot in question was Richard Whitmore, and one of the armed men who led the expedition was Adam Whitmore, Knight. Abbot Whitmore was frequently engaged in quarrels with his neighbours, as was his successor, John Goodfellow. He once stole goods worth £40, and once engaged in a riotous attack on the Vicar of Ilam, who had given the tithes to a neighbour he disliked.[95]
When the Commissioners visited Dieulacres the Abbot was Thomas Whitney, and subsequent events showed he inherited the spirit and vigour of his predecessors.
The summary[96] is arranged like that of Croxden and Rocester. The ecclesiastical income is mainly derived from Leek and its chapels: £1 4s. from glebe, £18 3s. 8d. from tithes of straw and hay, £46 8s. from oblations, £10 from tithes of sheep and wool, and £6 from tithes of cattle. From Leek also comes £6 5s. 4d. in Easter dues. Besides these there are two items from Sandbach: £23 16s. tithes of straw and hay, etc., and 14s. 8d. from glebe.
Fixed rents include 5s. 8d. from Leek, 1s. 6d. from Thornley, 5d. from Stafford, and 11s. from Norbrook and Biscopham in Lancashire; other “lands and tenaments” produce £160 15s. A salt-pan at Middlewich, worth £3 yearly, is included.
The demesne is said to be reserved ad usum hospicii monasterii, and to have been estimated by the discretion of the Commissioners to be worth £8 18s. 6d. per year. “Perquisites” of the Court and other “casual [fees]” are estimated in a similar manner at £4.
The outgoings begin with a payment of £4 13s. 4d. to the Royal Exchequer at Chester, and include 2s. to the landlord of Field for lands there; £3 13s. 4d. to the Abbot of Shrewsbury for the Lancashire lands; 8d. to Lord Audley for lands in Longton, and 2s. to Thomas Butler, Kt., for lands in Biscopham. “Pensions, Procurations, and Synodals” are paid to the Archdeacons of Stafford (15s.) and Chester (7s. for Sandbach), and to the Abbot of Combermere (18s. 6d.).
Wages to lay officials are given as follows: William Damport, £1 6s. 8d., as steward of the courts, and a similar amount for his fee as “Collector or Receiver” of the rents in Le Frith and elsewhere in Staffordshire; 13s. 4d. to John Corden, collector in Leek, and £2 to Humfry Whitney, collector in Cheshire. It will be noticed that the last mentioned bears the same surname as the Abbot. In 1537 he received a 49 years’ lease of a salt-pan at Middlewich.
Other possessions named, besides those already mentioned, were situated at Heyton, Tentisworth, Esyng, Lowe, Longnor, Horton, Cheddleton, Pulford, Poulton, Duddleston, Chirton Cestria, Byveley, Yatehouses and Rudheth, Bagford and Hadford, Knutsford, Newbalt, and Rossall.
At the Dissolution the following lay officials received “fees and annuities”: Lord Derby, steward of the monastery and town of Leek, £2; Richard Grosvenor, Steward of Poulton, 26s. 8d.; Humfry Whitney, £3 6s. 8d.; William Davenport, £4; Robert Burgh, forester (amount not stated); John Gordon, bailiff of Leek, £1; John Aleynn, bailiff of Rossall, etc., 26s. 8d.; Richard Daun, late steward of the household at Rossall, etc., £3; and eleven others, one of whom was subsequently described as chamberlain to the Abbot.
In the post-Dissolution valuation there are only two omissions, which amount to £2 12s. The site and demesne had fallen from £8 18s. 6d. to £3 18s. 1d. Rents at Heyton had risen nearly £3, at Thoreby, £1 4s.; at Tettysworth, £2 8s. 5d.; at Middlewich, over £4; but in some places they had slightly fallen, and at Esyng they had dropped from £3 3s. 8d. to £1 5s. 6d. The value of the Frith had fallen from £35 16s. 3d. to £31 4s. 11½d., and the salt-pan at Middlewich from £3 to £1 16s. 8d. Perquisites of the Court at Leek had fallen from £4 to £1 17s. 9d. Perquisites of the Court are added at Heyton (8s. 9d.), the Frith (2s. 7d.), Lowe (4d.), and Poulton (6s. 8d.). Other additions are water-mills at Leek (£4 6s. 8d.) and Heyton (12s.). Rents in kind at Heyton—“reddit’ mobil’ caponum”—(10s. 6d.) and at Lowe (8s.); rents at Nether Tettysworth, etc. (£1 17s. 4d.), Newbold in Aslebery (£1), tithes at Gostree (£3 6s. 8d.), and Hulme (£6 13s. 4d.), rents at Aldelegh (£2 5s.). Rents in Leek remained practically unchanged, but the Rectory was raised nearly £20. The manor of Poulton remained at £25, but the tithes at Sandbach had fallen £10. Rossall Grange remained almost the same. Grants under the seal of the Abbot or Convent appear at the Frith (£24 14s. 2½d.); Tettysworth (£2 19s. 8d.) and Lowe (£14 6s.10d.); perhaps these are the ante-dated leases, which Abbot Whitney arranged, and which were divulged by John Whitney long afterwards, as will be related in due course. The valuation amounted to £285 14s. 6d.