The temporal income from Derbyshire was £141 14s. 3d. and from Staffordshire, £29 4s. 1d.; £38 11s. 5d. from Doveridge and £8 from the demesne lands called Doveridge Holt there; demesne lands (£5) at West Broughton, and Tutbury (“Chapel Yard,” £3 16s. 10d., and “Prior’s Holmes,” £2 6s. 8d.); perquisites of the Courts at Doveridge, Matherfield, Kirkbroughton, and Marston, 16s. 8d.; lands, etc., at Somersall, Osmaston, and Edulneston, Wotton, Ednaston, and Holington, Kirkbroughton, Duffield (John Prince), Norbury (called “the lands of the demesne”), Fenton, Brailsford, Overton, and Matherfield. At Mulneston is a mill worth (with lands) £2 0s. 9d.
The temporal outgoings included £2 0s. 8d. in fixed rents and £18 13s. 4d. in annual fees. The former comprised 5s. “Sheriff’s Geld” for Wetton; 2s. 4d., chief rents in Tutbury; 3s. 4d., “Palfrey Money” in the Hundred of Apultre, and £1 10s. to the Keepers of Needwood Forest at the Feast of the Purification. All except the last item went to the King.[119]
Annual fees comprised £3 6s. 8d. to the Chief Steward, George, Earl of Shrewsbury; £1 6s. 8d. to Henry Pole, Clerk of the Manor Courts; £2 to Francis Basset, Auditor, and £2 to Humfry Meverell, receiver of the bailiffs, Roland Heth (the franchises of Tutbury and West Broughton) paid £2, and the others £1 6s. 8d. each as follows: William Hyll (Wetton), Ralf Wodcoke (Matherfield), Richard Lane (Edlaston and Osmonston), William Wetton (Adnaston and Hollington), Thomas Wyllot (Marston and Duffield), Henry Mylward (Doveridge).
The spiritual outgoings comprised 13s. 4d. to the Bishop for the appropriated church of Broughton; £6 13s. 4d. to the Dean and Chapter for the church of Matherfield; £8 2s. 2d. to the Archdeacon of Derby (Richard Strete) for Kirkbroughton and Marston (procurations and synodals); £5 to Thurston Courtnay, Vicar of Tutbury; £6 13s. 4d. to Robert Gaunt, Vicar of Kirkbroughton; and 15s. to the Archdeacon of Stafford for procurations for Matherfield and Tutbury.
The alms were £2 given to the poor at Corpus Christi, by ancient foundation, and £1 given on the anniversary of the death of the founder.
The valuation subsequent to the Dissolution, as given in Monasticon (iii, 399), is impossible to compare with that of Valor Ecclesiasticus, the items and allotments being so grouped and apportioned that they do not correspond with the earlier arrangement in the great majority of cases. New rents appear at Doveridge to the amount of nearly £48, and the demesne there has risen from £8 to £25 7s. Doveridge Rectory is increased exactly £2. At Wetton, demesne is given worth £8 16s., rents £36 16s. 10¾d., and the Rectory, £8 6s. 8d. Matherfield Rectory was only worth £4 10s. in tithes. The tithe at Sudbury is called “St. Mary’s Tithe,” and appears at only half its former value. Sales of wood and perquisites of the Court are mentioned at Churchbroughton, Edelston, Calton, Wetton, Shirley, Hollington, Esteleke (Leics.), Hatton, Tutbury, Langley, and Doveridge, but in every instance the amount is stated as nulla. Redditus mobiles are mentioned at Wetton (£4 4s.), and Doveridge (13s. 6d.). At Hollington £15 13s. 4d. is given as “payment in lieu of pigs” (Pens’ sive Porc’) and at Wymondham the tithes of pigs appear as having been leased at a rent of £1 9s. 8d. [Firm’ Porc Xmae ad Firm’ dimiss’). The total valuation was £358 2s. 0¾d.
It will be noticed that no friaries have been mentioned: the Diocesan Returns of Valor Ecclesiasticus entirely omit them. The reason is possibly to be found in the remark which is made under the heading of “House of the Friars Minors at Coventry”[120]: “Brother John Stafford being examined upon oath, says that they have no lands or tenements nor any other possessions or revenues spiritual or temporal of any annual value, but only the licensed alms of the neighbourhood and the uncertain charity of the people.” That no attempt was made to estimate the worth of such “alms and charity” may be taken as indicating a certain amount of sympathetic regard for the friars.
We know, however, that the Black Friars at Newcastle-under-Lyme received rents to the amount of £2 per year. At Stafford the Austin Friars had rents bringing in £2 11s. 8d. and the Grey Friars £1 6s. 8d. The latter had some timber and growing corn, six “lands” in the common fields, a close and an orchard, and a meadow which had been given them recently by Robert Quytgrave, gent., for a yearly obit. Half of it was let at 20s. annual rent. At the Dissolution Quytgrave asked for the return of the gift as, he alleged, the bargain had not been kept.
There are other omissions which are more surprising. Woods were extensive in Staffordshire yet they are unmentioned in Valor Ecclesiasticus in all the Staffordshire houses with the single exception of Burton-on-Trent. Even in the post-Dissolution valuation of Tutbury Priory woods are only mentioned in order to record that they produce no revenue. Yet the earlier history of the houses shows that they possessed large tracts of woodland which should have yielded a profitable income. The Black Friars at Newcastle, we learn from Bishop Ingworth, had a “proper wood,” leased to Master Broke. The value of mills, whether water-mills for grinding corn, or fulling-mills, for fulling or milling cloth by beating it with wooden mallets and cleaning it with soap or Fuller’s earth, is often small, and there is no mention of any revenue from tolls or markets. A recent Act of Parliament (21 Henry VIII, c. 13) had forbidden the monks to engage in trade, and they appear to have complied with its behests. The revenue from salt-pans is small: perhaps for the same reason. Water-mills are mentioned at Burton (2), Bromley Hurst, Derby (belonging to Burton Abbey); Alton, Cauldon, and Ellaston (belonging to Croxden); Hulton, Normacot, and More (belonging to Hulton Abbey); Ronton; Drayton (belonging to St. Thomas’s, Stafford); Stone; Trentham (2), and Chaldon (belonging to Trentham Priory; and at Mulneston belonging to Tutbury Priory. The three at Hulton were only worth in all £1 5s. 8d. a year, and that at Ronton was only worth 18s. 9d. a year. The three belonging to Croxden produced at most £6 6s. 8d. a year, and the one at Tutbury £2 0s. 9d. On the other hand, the one at Stone was worth £4 a year, and the two at Burton were worth no less than £12 a year.