We shall take the remaining houses in alphabetical order, and it will be our endeavour to ascertain the details of their income and expenditure.
Brewood Nunnery
The old market town of Brewood stood on the western border of the county, and for centuries the Bishops of Lichfield had possessed a manor there. On the Shropshire side of the town, and just beyond the county boundary, stood a Cistercian nunnery. On the Staffordshire side stood a Benedictine nunnery.
The latter was a small house containing in the sixteenth century four sisters only, and the record of its possessions in Valor Ecclesiasticus[88] is very brief. It was apparently made by the same clerk as he who also drew up that of Dudley. The name of the Prioress was Isabel Launder. It shows income only and gives no disbursements. The house itself, with the demesne, provided the bulk of the total, viz., £6 15s. Chief rents in Brome (Staffs.) amount to £3, and besides these two items there are only small “alms,” amounting to 8s. 6d., a tenement in Horsebrook[89] (16s.) and a cottage in Kidderminster (2s.). The “alms” come from the following: William Woodhouse in Albrighton, John Gifford Kt., in Chillington, Sir — Vernon in Tong, Roger Corbet Kt., in Dawley, and — Blakemore in Bradeley.
When we compare this with the account given by the Commissioners at the Dissolution, we see at once from the latter that the Valor Ecclesiasticus took no account of stores or stock in hand. When Thomas Gyfforde bought the place[90] he took over:
| s. | d. | |
| 1 qr. of wheat | 6 | 2 |
| 1 „ „ munke-corn | 8 | 0 |
| 1 „ „ oats | 1 | 8 |
| 1 „ „ peas | 2 | 8 |
| 10 loads of hay | 15 | 0 |
| 1 horse | 4 | 0 |
Little can be done to harmonize the two accounts of lands and rents, but possibly Thomas Pitt who paid 2s. for “a hole yeres rente” at the Suppression was the tenant of the cottage in Kidderminster, and John Penford of the tenement in Horsebrook. William Woodhouse, of Albrighton, appears, as William Wydowes, among those who were in arrears, as also does the bailiff of Tong, presumably the Vernon who is named in the Valor. In 1538 a grant in fee simple (by exchange) was made to Charles, Duke of Suffolk, of various Crown leases, including the Manor of Brome. Its annual value then was given at £3 10s., with 7s. rent.
The valuation made after the Dissolution (Monasticon, iv, 501) is in most respects identical with Valor Ecclesiasticus so far as the same allotments appear, except that Brewood produces £1 2s. 4d. only instead of £6 15s. The following additions are given:
| Blithebury—lands | £3 | 12 | 0 |
| Hampton, 1 messuage | 13 | 4 | |
| Henyngton „ | 8 | 0 | |
| Shardycote „ | 6 | 0 |
The total valuation amounts to £10 8s. 3½d.