The dissolution of the monasteries

by Francis Aidan Hibbert

Rocester Abbey

The house of Austin Canons at Rocester was often called an Abbey, and its Abbot was William Grafton. It was a house with a history containing many points of minor interest. We see how the religious were able to turn the difficulties of others to their own advantage when we read that when Sir Hugh de Okeover’s unwavering loyalty to Henry III during the Welsh War and the Barons’ Revolt seriously impoverished him and he had to sell much of his patrimony, the neighbouring Abbot of Rocester was a ready purchaser of his lands.

The wool trade made Rocester prosperous for a time, and Edward I granted the Abbot a fair and a market. So late as the reign of Henry VI a second fair was obtained. The Manor of Rocester had been granted to the Abbey when the Chester Earldom was appropriated by Henry III as a provision for the heir-apparent. The house had once maintained two chantries, one at Halywell in Warwickshire and another at Lees in Staffordshire.

The prosperous days of the canons had ended even before the Black Death. In 1318 they alleged that the cattle plague and bad harvests had reduced them to such poverty that they had been obliged to go out and beg quasi mendicantes. But on Bishop Norbury’s personal visitation of Rocester Priory he found that heavy debts had been incurred through the attempt to obtain possession of the appropriation of Woodford in Northamptonshire. There were other abuses, too. He forbade the granting of corrodies and the keeping of canes venatici, but his injunctions were not observed.

It was in the time of Bishop Norbury that the interesting question arose about Easter Communions, which has already been mentioned.

The arrangement of the summary in Valor Ecclesiasticus[101] is identical with that of Croxden, with an interesting addition which will be noticed presently. Ecclesiastical revenues include the tithes of straw (“garbas”) and hay in Rocester (with Waterfall and Bradley), Edensor, Kynston, and Woodford. The tithes in Rocester, etc., appear to be leased (de firma). The total is £46 13s. 10d.

The fixed rents were from lands in “Le Clownams” (Clownholme), Glaston, Great Meadow, and Rocester, and amounted to 13s. 1d.

Lands and tenements produced £40 8s. 8d. They were situated in Rocester, Swinscoe, Stanton, Combridge, Quickshill (“Quitsell”), Denstone, Alton, Waterfall, Foston, and Hognaston.

The value of the demesne lands is stated to be estimated, by the judgment of the Commissioners and others appointed by them, at £23 16s. per annum: they were reserved “ad usum hospicii monasterii.” From the Paper Survey we know they consisted of arable, 70 acres; pasture, 201 acres, and meadow, 20 acres.

The outgoings begin with the fixed payments: 1d. to the Earl of Shrewsbury for lands in Alton, £1 to William Bassett, Kt., for lands in Swinscoe, and 10s. to the King.

The ecclesiastical payments included fees to the Archdeacons of Derby (for procurations and synodals for the Church of Edensor) and Stafford (for Rocester and Kynston); £4 6s. 8d. for a chantry in Lichfield Cathedral; 6s. 8d. to the Rector of Kyngeley for the chapel at Bradley, and 10s. to the Rector of Blythfield for the Church of Kynston.

Only two lay officials are mentioned: Henry Pole, Steward of the Courts at Rocester (13s. 4d.) and John Needham, collector (£2).

Lastly comes an interesting section of “Annual Alms to the Poor,” which amount to £1 17s. 4d. At Easter four quarters of frumenty cakes were distributed (a quarter is reckoned to be worth 8s.); and at Hallowmas 8 dishes (“fercula”) of meat, 16 loaves, and 8 gallons of ale (“servicia”). These are the only doles mentioned in the Rural Deanery, and it is expressly stated, in accordance with the official instructions, that each is “ex fundatione monasterii.”

In the valuation made subsequent to the Dissolution we find the site and demesne had risen in value from £23 16s. to £36 8s. 10d. The Rectory of Rocester (£4) is added and also a fulling mill there (£2 6s. 8d.). Rents had slightly fallen at Waterfall and Swinscoe, but had risen £2 at Rocester, and 16s. at Quickshill and Denstone. Additions are, besides those already mentioned, perquisites of the Court at Rocester, 6s. 8d., tithes at Waterfall (£1 6s. 8d.), Calton (£1), and Quickshill and Denstone (11s. 8d.), and rents at Somersall—pasture—(10) and Scropton (£1 3s. 4d.). Kynston Rectory had fallen from £7 to £1. The omissions are small and amount to £6 only, but the total valuation was raised to £129 6s. 3d.