Spiritual outgoings include £2 4s. to the Bishop for appropriated churches, and £3 6s. 8d. every third year for visitation fees; 3s. 6d. to the Archdeacon of Stafford; £18 10s. to the Dean and Chapter; and 15s. to the Priory of Coventry.
No valuation subsequent to the Dissolution is given in Monasticon. The fine for continuance was £133 6s. 8d.[108] The house was comfortably furnished, and there were considerable quantities of stores and a fair amount of live stock, etc., as will be detailed later.
Stone Priory
The Austin Priory of Stone had had many struggles arising out of the encroachments of the “religious” on the sphere of the “secular” clergy. In the twelfth century it employed an agent to purchase livings and many troubles arose in consequence of his success.
In the competition for appropriations and tithes which went on between the religious houses there was keen rivalry. St. Thomas, Stafford, attempted in 1278 to obtain the Church of Stone, and sought to get Bishop Longsword on its side by submitting the matter to his arbitration. But Stone retaliated by appealing to the Dean and Chapter with a gift of 10 marks. In the same century there was a dispute between Kenilworth Priory, on behalf of its dependent house at Stone, and St. Remigius, on behalf of Lapley, about the tithes of Shefford. Ultimately, they were taken from Lapley and bestowed on Stone, but in 1368 there were further disputes about the same subject.
In the reign of Henry III there was strife between the parishioners and the Priory about the payment of tithes, and it was formally arranged that all parishioners, freemen and villeins alike, should pay the definite sum of two farthings a year, with “oblations” four times yearly.
The Canons of Stone trafficked largely in corrodies. From Edward I they obtained permission for a fair. They entered thoroughly into the affairs of the world. During the Barons’ War they were not above plundering the lands of those who were fighting: their cellarer was charged with breaking into the house of a man who was a prisoner in the hands of the Barons. The Priory suffered, however, from making itself too “secular,” and in the days of Bishop Norbury it was brought to the verge of bankruptcy by the frequent calls which were made on its hospitality by travellers on the King’s highway beside which it stood. It maintained its spirit of worldliness. In 1473 the Prior is found associating himself with one Sir Thomas Fyton, Kt., in disseising Richard Whalley of property in Darlaston, Anslow, and Aston, near Stone. Neither appeared to answer the charge, and their bail was forfeited. The Prior was fined £6, and the Knight £120, with £60 damages, he having taken the property vi et armis.[109] The Prior in the time of Bishop Smythe (1493–1496), whose name was Thomas Fort, acted as suffragan bishop in the diocese while the diocesan employed himself in political work.
The Prior at the time of the Suppression was William Smith. In the returns which he supplied to the Commissioners for Valor Ecclesiasticus[110] there are not many details of particular interest, though the old connection with Kenilworth is shown to be still maintained.
From the Manor of Stone came £27 13s. 2d., the items of which are of tenements with their appurtenances, £8 12s.; 26 cottages, £5 7s.; demesne arable, £3 6s. 8d.; pasture, £2 10s.; meadow, £2 1s. 4d.; a water-mill, £4; perquisites of the Court, 13s. 4d.; chief rents, £1 2s. 10d. £16 came from Stallington, and smaller sums from Stoke, Walton near Stone, Aston in fee of Walton, Burston, Shebridge, Stafford (5s. 8d.), Coppenhall, Wotton, Hilderstone, and Darlaston. Among these an orchard at Aston produces 4d., and Hilderstone, “de crofto et orio,” 2s.
Temporal outgoings included 1s. 8d. to Henry, Lord Stafford, and 5s. 1d. to the heirs of Henry Vernon, mil. The chief steward was Edward Aston, mil., and his fee was £1 5s. 8d.; his deputy, Thomas Moreton, received 13s. 4d. Walter Walkeden, the bailiff, received £1 6s. 8d.