As the tithe paid (£11 19s. 6d.) is correct for £119 14s. 11¼d. the mistake is probably due to the official: he wrote £lviiii when he put down the total spiritual income, but read it as £lxviii when he added the total.
Trentham. In temporalities the balance should be £75 13s. 2d. according to the figures given, and this error of 10d. affects the whole calculation. The final balance, according to the figures given in V.E., should be £106 2s. 10-11/12d. If the 10d. be added it becomes practically what V.E. makes it, viz., £106 3s. 8-11/12d.
From the table it is evident that the total income of the religious houses amounted to something like £1,608 5s. 2¾d., at least, so far as Staffordshire is concerned. Only a small fraction of this was returned to the Church when the property of the monasteries was confiscated, and practically nothing of the “moveable” wealth they contained. How great this latter was is shown by the proceeds of the sales which were conducted at the Suppression. We shall revert to the subject later.
The extent to which the monasteries had “robbed” the parish churches is shown by the following figures, taken from Valor Ecclesiasticus. The first column gives the tithes received by the monasteries, the second gives the amounts which came from parish churches in other ways, such as glebe, offerings, etc. The third gives the payments made by the monasteries to churches. In all cases the figures are from Valor Ecclesiasticus.
| Tithes Received | Other Income from Churches | Payments to Churches | |||||||
| £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | |
| Brewood Nunnery | |||||||||
| Burton Abbey | 46 | 6 | 8 | 52 | 13 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 8 |
| 1 | |||||||||
| Croxden Abbey | 8 | 15 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | |||
| Dieulacres Abbey | 57 | 19 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 18 | 6 | |
| Dudley Priory | 18 | 16 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 0 | |||
| Hulton Abbey | 18 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 4 | |
| Rocester Priory | 47 | 13 | 10 | 16 | 8 | ||||
| Ronton Priory | 46 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 0 | ||||
| St. Thomas’s Priory | 40 | 2 | 8 | 9 | 19 | 8 | 3 | 4 | |
| Stone Priory | 53 | 10 | 0 | 22 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Trentham Priory | 14 | 10 | 4 | 21 | 13 | 4 | |||
| Tutbury Priory | 49 | 0 | 4 | 20 | 16 | 4 | 11 | 13 | 4 |
| £401 | 7 | 0 | £141 | 19 | 5 | £19 | 7 | 10 | |
In all, the Staffordshire monasteries took £543 6s. 5d. at least from parishes in tithes, glebe, oblations, Easter dues and the like, and gave to churches the utterly insignificant sum of £19 7s. 10d. As Cistercian houses, long ago exempted by the Lateran Council of 1215, Croxden, Dieulacres, and Hulton, paid no tithe on land in their own occupation, and many other houses had obtained a similar privilege by special Bulls. Probably also the Commissioners did not return the tithe when it was paid to the church belonging to the monastery. In such cases, the payment of tithe among the disbursements would simply have cancelled the receipt of the tithe among the receipts. The following details illustrate the way in which money came from the parish churches. It is not an exhaustive table:
| Glebe | Tithes | Easter Dues | Oblations | |||||||||
| £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | |
| Hulton Abbey | ||||||||||||
| Audley | 1 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Byddell | 10 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| Cambryngham (Linc.) | 10 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 0 | |||||||
| Trentham Priory | ||||||||||||
| Trentham | 8 | 13 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | ||||
| Barleston | 5 | 17 | 0 | 13 | 4 | 3 | 0 | |||||
| St. Thomas’s Priory, Stafford | ||||||||||||
| Stowe | 1 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Bushbury | 6 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 8 | |||||||
| Cariswall | 3 | 6 | 8 | |||||||||
| Weston-on-Trent | 1 | 17 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 6 | ||||||
| Geyton | 5 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 10 | |||||||
| Berkswick | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 13 | 4 | 1 | 13 | 4 | |||
| Meyre | 2 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
| Aldelem (Chesh.) | 1 | 7 | 0 | 13 | 6 | 8 | ||||||
| Stone Priory | ||||||||||||
| Stone | 19 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Milwich | 8 | 10 | 0 | |||||||||
| Tyso (Warw.) | 8 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Ronton Priory | ||||||||||||
| Seyghtford | 13 | 4 | 6 | |||||||||
| Grenburgh (Warw.) | 32 | 17 | 0 | |||||||||
| Dieulacres Abbey | ||||||||||||
| Leek | 1 | 4 | 0 | 34 | 3 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 8 |
| Sandbach (Chesh.) | 14 | 8 | 23 | 16 | 0 | |||||||
| Rocester, Waterfalland Bradley | 15 | 7 | 2 | |||||||||
| Edensor (Derbysh.) | 11 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
| Kynston | 7 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
| Woodford (Northants.) | 13 | 6 | 8 | |||||||||
| Croxden Abbey | ||||||||||||
| Alton | 2 | 5 | 4 | |||||||||
| Tokeby (Leics.) | 4 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
| Norton „ | 2 | 10 | 0 | |||||||||
| Tutbury Priory | ||||||||||||
| Doveridge | 6 | 6 | 8 | |||||||||
| Church Broughton | 12 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
| Marston | 6 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
| Tutbury | 7 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
| Matherfield | 10 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
| Wymondham and Thorpe (Lincs.) | 13 | 4 | ||||||||||
| Burton Abbey | ||||||||||||
| Burton-on-Trent | 23(£33) | |||||||||||
| St. Modwen’s Chapel | 2 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
| Abbots Bromley | 13 | 6 | 8 | |||||||||
| Ilam | 8 | 13 | 8 | |||||||||
| Blithfield[68] | 1 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
| Grindon[68] | 13 | 4 | ||||||||||
| Leigh[68] | 3 | 6 | 8 | |||||||||
| Hamstall Ridware[68] | 5 | 0 | ||||||||||
| Cauldon Chapel[68] | 2 | 6 | 8 | |||||||||
| Mickleover, etc.[68] | 8 | 13 | 4 | |||||||||
| Stapenhill[68] | 10 | 0 | ||||||||||
| Allestree[68] (Warw.) | 15 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
[68] In these cases it is not stated from what particular source the amounts are derived.
The figures in heavy type are from the second survey in Valor Ecclesiasticus.
Voluntary offerings amount to an absolutely insignificant sum, £7 19s. 8d. for the whole county. This is not surprising. It was difficult to obtain particulars if the monks were reticent on the matter, and, also, there is no doubt that recent religious events, and the whole trend of affairs, had seriously affected all forms of charity. It is probable, therefore, that although the voluntary offerings ought to be larger in amount than they appear in Valor Ecclesiasticus, they did not stand at a very high figure.