An agreement was made between the King and Longford. The Patron surrendered his claim of presentation, and agreed to the suppression of the house in 1532. He was to hold the lands in farm from the King, and the rent was to be fixed by a local jury. Strete recommended the Abbot of Rocester, Sir William Bassett, Sir John Gifford, and himself, but the Sheriff refused to “affirm” the panel by reason of its manifest partiality.[37] Strete’s inclusion was in itself sufficient to condemn it: in the long letter in which he suggested it he maligned Longford for “slackness,” and recommended Cromwell to press him for £60 which was owing on account of Calwich.
Another claimant to the lands, or part of them, was the Earl of Shrewsbury, and the Sheriff’s panel consisted of the Earl’s tenants. It was, therefore, as little impartial as Strete’s, but it met with the approval of Brabazon,[38] one of Cromwell’s emissaries, who was sent down to Lichfield to help in the business; and evidently no idea of fairness entered the minds of any of the officials. There were other claimants, too, apparently Sir Henry Sacheverell and Mr. Oker (Okeover), but they could be disregarded. Strete and Brabazon used their powers of persuasion, and the members of the jury, having served their lord’s ends by deciding in favour of the Earl’s claim to “a small portion” of the property, were ready to give their decision as the Crown required. Yet they judged it wiser to save appearances by a show of hesitation; they insisted on an adjournment, though at the same time they promised the requisite verdict. This was in the third week in August, 1532. Of course Strete was able to write to Cromwell in due course (October 21st, 1532):[39] “The Office of Calwich is passed for the King.” At that time Longford owed £46 5s. 2d. He had also in his possession the tithes (£13 3s. 4d.) and the last Michaelmas rents (£11 16s.). These he undertook to deliver to Cromwell. An escheator was appointed to receive the dues on the King’s behalf, and on March 11th of the next year we have a note of Cromwell’s (11th March, 1533) that £30 had been received from Strete on the Calwich account. By April 26th the legal formalities were completed, and Strete was able to report to Cromwell: “The Priory of Calwich, now void, rests in the King’s pleasure.”[40] This was the year in which the Act was passed giving to the King the rights of visitation of the religious houses, and, of course, considerably before any Act was passed for their dissolution.
But all was not plain sailing for Longford. In 1534 among the “bills to be signed” was still that of “Sir Ralf Longford for the late Priory of Calwiche.” Moreover, Strete was instructed that Mr. Fitzherbert, Longford’s father-in-law, was to have the tithes and the growing corn “at such prices as may be deemed sufficient,” and Findern and Curson, already mentioned, were repudiated in his favour.
The letter, dated June 14th, 1533, which Cromwell wrote to Archdeacon Strete is as follows:[41]
“Maister Strete as hertelye as I Can I commend me unto you, and whereas by my last letteres I wrott unto you in the Favors of Curson and Fyndern to be prefferyd unto the Catell and Corn of late belongyng to the priorye of Colwyche, and Sythyn that tyme I wrotte unto you on the behalf of Mr. longford for his prefferment unto the demaynes of the sayd pryorye so hit ys that now the sayd maister longford by his Fatherinlaw, Mr. Fyzherbert moche desyryth to have the Tythys and also suche Corn as at thys tyme ys Sown uppon the demaynes of the sayd late pryorye for this yere whych tythe and corn sown uppon the demaynes I require yow that he may haffe at such prysys as ye shall thinke convenyent and in such wyse as the kynge’s highnes may be Substauncyallye answeryd of the proftyttes growing of the same without any Favour to be born to anye othre partye and wher as I wrott in myn other letter that Curson and Fyndern shold have the preffermentt of the Catell and Corn I dyd not wrytt for anye Corne growing on the grownde ne yet for any tythys which in no wyse ye shall Suffer them to have but to order hyt as ys afforsayd most to the kynge’s proffytte advauntage. I well persayve who grauntyth suchemen an Inche they wyll take an ell. I am Infformyd they avaunte them selfs to have Commyssyons and graunttes of the kyng which ys untrew I praye yew advyse them to use no such Facyons. Syr, the kynges highnes trustyth that ye with all spede will bryng up the halfyere’s Ferme and Renttes of the Busshopryche which I praye yow may be here before his gracyous departyng in progresse, and as to the Chanon off Colwyche ye may translate hym unto Sum good howse of that relygyon being nere unto yow and to gyve hym sumthing after your discrecyon suche as may stand with the kynges honour and also to his honest Contentacyon, and thus trustyng in your approvyd wysdom and experyence Commytt all the premysses unto your discrecyon trustyng ever that ye wyll have respect to your dew and charge and also that I may have short answer of thes and other my letteres, and so Fare ye well at London, the xiiiith daye of June.”
Where Dr. David Pole was placed we are not told, but in 1535 a David Pole is found as Prebendary of Tachebroke, in receipt of a stipend of £10 a year.[42]
On February 12th, 1534, Richard Harecourt became the escheator for the year, and remained till November 18th, when another was appointed, who proved to lack the necessary property qualification, so Longford had to pay the King’s dues direct. Next year (November 24th, 1535) Thomas Skrymsher was appointed.
The King now made one of those “exchanges” which became so frequent later. The manor of East Molesey was pleasantly situated on the southern bank of the Thames, in Surrey, and had obvious advantages over the remote estate in North Staffordshire. It belonged to the old and historic priory of Merton, where Becket had been educated, where the Parliament had sat which enacted the statutes of Merton, and which had provided a refuge for the patriot Hubert de Burgh in his days of adversity. Its past fame and present wealth seemed to warrant its inmates in a confident assurance of security, and they agreed to give the King their riverside manor of East Molesey in exchange for the distant and forlorn cell of their Order at Calwich. No doubt they hoped eventually to retrieve its fortunes and to re-establish it as a religious house, though for the present they had to acquiesce in the arrangements regarding it which had just been made. The exchange appears to have been made in 1535–6, and Merton renewed the lease to Longford for £43, with the obligation to discharge the pension of sixty shillings to “the late priory of Kelyngworth.”
Almost immediately the process of squeezing the larger houses began, and Merton Abbey soon succumbed. The date of its surrender, with Abbot and fourteen monks, is April 16th, 1538. The lease of Calwich to Longford was renewed in the same year. In 1540 he obtained an acknowledgment that he had paid all his dues to Cromwell and Gostwick, and was empowered to receive from the various escheators “tayles” (tallies, i.e., receipts) for them. The Augmentation Book in 1543 has a record of his twenty-one years’ lease, but the reversion was sold to John Fleetwood.
Longford soon found himself in financial difficulties. In spite of the grant of Calwich, for which Sir Anthony Fitzherbert wrote to thank Cromwell on April 18th, 1537, he could not pay the rent due. The royal escheators were hard taskmasters, exacting the uttermost farthing, and Fitzherbert’s letter shows Longford had been some time in debt. In 1541 they levied a distraint, and ejected from the estate the tenants to whom Longford had sublet it. He had to enter into a bond of £200 to settle the matter, and this only added to his embarrassments. In 1543 he was in the Fleet, the debtors’ prison, writing piteous appeals for loans wherewith to discharge his indebtedness to the King.