There was at least one other canon, William Boudon, and when the affairs of the house were wound up next day he received no pension. No doubt this was his punishment for refusing to sign the Deed of Surrender. The whole was sold to Bishop Roland Lee.

From Stafford a long journey was made northwards as far as Leek. There stood the imposing Cistercian house of Dieulacres,[184] with its fine church, with a timbered roof and a screen bearing twelve candles, a glazed cloister with carrells, a dormitory and fratry, an infirmary, hall and buttery, larder and kitchen, and outhouses of various kinds. Dr. Legh’s eyes must have glistened as they came in sight of the wealth of lead which covered the roofs, and which he subsequently computed to be worth no less a sum than the enormous amount of £720. There was also a fine peal of bells. Sheep and cattle, horses and pigs, were in the fields, stores of grain were in the granary, and abundance of hay was on the site. So large a house gave employment to a large number of servants. The monks numbered thirteen, under Thomas Whitney, the Abbot.

The King’s Commissioners did not know how their visit had been prepared for. The personnel at Dieulacres comprised a useful proportion of members of the Abbot’s family. Besides himself there were four other men of the name of Whitney—Humphrey, who was bailiff of the Cheshire Manors, John, who was Chamberlain, and two other lay members of the household. Under these circumstances it was not difficult to devise a scheme which should to some extent defeat the plan for wholesale confiscation. William Davenport, steward of the courts and collector of the rents in the Frith and elsewhere, who acted as Abbot Whitney’s secretary, prepared blank forms which were duly sealed with the Convent seal while it was still in the Abbot’s keeping. On these forms various leases were subsequently made out, when Legh and Cavendish were safely out of the way, one of which was the lease and reversion of the Manor of Poulton for a tenure of sixty-one years.

All this was carefully concealed from the Commissioners when they arrived. The seal having been used for the last time on the Deed of Dissolution on October 20th,[185] was duly handed over, and it was not till Elizabeth had reigned for some years that John Whitney turned Queen’s evidence and divulged the whole story.[186]

There is no reason for supposing that John Whitney’s confession was untrue. It was by no means improbable in itself, and no doubt represented action which was often attempted. But there appears to have been considerable hesitation in believing it and in acting upon it. It was made in the seventh year of Elizabeth’s reign, and so long afterwards as fourteen years later one of the alleged ante-dated leases was cancelled by the Master of the Rolls and the Solicitor-General. There had evidently also been much selling of stock here as elsewhere. Legh only found sixty sheep, six oxen, three horses and thirteen pigs, all of inferior quality. These represented but a small proportion of the farm-stock which had formerly made Dieulacres rich and prosperous, and obviously would give but little occupation to the thirty men-servants who applied for “rewards.” Abbot Whitney had evidently played a bold though dangerous game, and it is impossible not to feel considerable satisfaction in the knowledge that it succeeded so well.

On October 21st the whole was sold to Edward, Earl of Derby.

As the agents went about their work, they lived well and spent large sums on their own entertainment. Even at Brewood they spent on themselves nearly as much as they gave in rewards to the Prioress and her nuns. At Stafford they spent £8 19s. 10d. on themselves, and at Dieulacres £10 17s. They looked to be well treated by all who desired their favour. Their path was strewn with bribes and gifts from prospective makers of easy bargains. Robert Burgoyne, who had acted as auditor at Stafford, sent Scudamore a buck: “good Mr. Giffard kylled yt for you yesterdaye.”[187] Another time he is told a hostess “hadd provyded a ffat swane for you.”[188] Master Bothe, the “grett bylder,” who hoped for a good bargain in regard to the Friary at Newcastle-under-Lyme, was careful to “show Bishop Ingworth many pleasures.” On August 13th Bishop Ingworth wrote to Cromwell asking “that yf before my cumyng ther be any order taken for Newecastell Underlyne, that ye wolde be good lorde to on master Johan Bothe, a servant of the kynges graces, the whyche ys a grett bylder in theys partes, that he myghte for money have the slate and schyngyll ther; for ther ys no other to be don with the more parte of that howse, but save the lede and the slate, and take the profete of the grownde. That master Bothe for yower sake scheuyd me many plesures, and gave me venyson; wherefor I may no lesse do but wryght to yower lordeschype.”[189] Fault was found with William Cavendish, who had accompanied Legh to Brewood, for having given higher “rewards and wages” than he had divulged. These were probably intended as bribes, for while riding back from Merivale in Warwickshire they learnt that the Abbot had not sold some plate as he said he had done. They accordingly despatched a messenger back to fetch it, and the Abbot sent it by way of bribe to them “to be good masters unto him and his brethren.” Both Cavendish and Legh confessed that the whole story was true.[190]

In 1541 the sum of £3 10s. was paid by warrant of the council to sundry witnesses, including some of the servants of the late Priory of St. Thomas’s, Stafford, for “coming up to the Court of Augmentations to give evidence for the King against William Cavendish.”[191]

Archbishop Cranmer maintained his paltry petitions for his friends right through the whole period. As long ago as 1535 he had begged for the Priory of Worcester to be given to one of the monks of Burton.[192] On December 14th, 1538, he wrote to Cromwell to accomplish his suit for his servant the bearer, Francis Bassett, who had carried the image of St. Modwen up to London, for the Monastery of Croxden.[193] Among Cromwell’s notes there is “A remembrance to speak to the King for Francis Bassett, servant to my lord of Canterbury”: “The ferme of Musden Grawnge, appertaining to the Abbey of Crocksden, within the county of Stafford, being of the yearly value of 20 marks by the year.”[194]