“The Archdeacon of Richmond, we are told, in his initiation to the Priory of Bridlington, came attended by ninety-seven horses, twenty-one dogs, and three hawks. Walter de Suffield, Bishop of Norwich, bequeathed by will his pack of hounds to the king; whilst the Abbot of Tavistock, who had also a pack, was commanded by his bishop, about the same time, to break it up. A famous hunter, contemporary with Chaucer, was the Abbot of Leicester, whose skill in the sport of hare hunting was so great, that the king himself, his son Edward, and certain noblemen, paid him an annual pension that they might hunt with him.”
The faithful portraits Chaucer drew of the Sumptner and Pardoner, agents of ecclesiastical courts—one to hunt out delinquents who were wealthy, the other to make them pay well for their sins—are familiar to most. The prior of the Madeley manor carried this so far that he drew down upon him one bright day in April, 1243, before he was aware of it, a king’s writ for exacting “toll,” “on beer, seizing the third of widows’ goods who died within the vill of any deceased tenant, before his debts were paid, and otherwise oppressing those within the limits of the priory.” As the author of the “Antiquities of Shropshire” has said,
“The prior ground down the vicar, the vicar in turn impoverished his subordinates, and they (the chaplains) either starved their flocks or were themselves paupers. The bishops moreover, doubtless for certain considerations, connived at, nay, prominently aided the whole system of extortion.”
This had been carried so far as to require the presence of Bishop Swinfield, who held the See, in 1285, to rectify misappropriations of tithe in sheep and corn, and to arrange disputes respecting them within the boundaries of the Priory. In April, 1290, the bishop paid another visit, being by invitation the guest of the Prior; we do not get the expenses of the feast, but he is known to have been a joval soul, well to do, with two palaces in the country, and three in London, constantly moving about, taking care to carry about with him his brass pots, earthen jugs, and other domestic utensils for his retainers, who were littered down in the great halls of the manors, at each stage of the journey. He had numerous manor houses of his own, a farm at each, stables for many horses, kennels for his hounds, and mews for his hawks. His kitchens reeked with every kind of food; his cellars were filled with wine, and his spiceries with foreign luxuries. Take a glance at the bishop’s feast after a fast at his residence on the Teme. On Sunday, October the second, at the bishop’s generous board, the consumption was, three quarters of beef, three sheep, half a pig, eight geese, ten fowls, twelve pigeons, nine partridges, and larks too numerous to mention, the whole accompanied with a due proportion of wine.
Madeley not being a “fat living,” there was great shuffling on the part of the incumbents, none of them caring to hold it very long. One, master Odo de Horbosio, who was instituted March 14, 1299, on presentation of the Convent and Prior of Much Wenlock; and again, June 4th, 1300, has license to study, and to attend to business of himself and friends. August 2nd, 1300; William de Fonehope, who was presented by the Bishop of Hereford, (by lapse,) on March 18th, 1318, we find exchanging in 1322, with Sir William Hoynet, rector of Westbury; the said William the fifth of August, the same year, exchanged with James de Tifford, who exchanged with another, John Aron, who resigned it in November, 1319.
The oftener these changes occurred the better for the priors, who held the right of presentation to the bishop, and exacted fealty and fees. In Madeley, being lords of the manor, they nominated and presented the vicars: and in Badger, Beckbury, and elsewhere, where there were lay lords who nominated, they held the right of presenting such as were nominated to the bishop, and of exacting fees for their mediate offices between the nominators and the bishop.
As the land came to be cultivated, and the population engaged in agricultural and other pursuits increased in number, the living, we imagine, improved in value, and the advowson in importance. We have shown from the commissioners’ description in Domesday what was the state of Madeley just subsequent to the Norman conquest, and Madeley being still within the limits of the forest of the Wrekin, which surrounded it on three sides, little progress was made in the way of cultivation. From the “Survey of Shropshire Forests” in 1235, it appears that the following woods, besides those of Madeley, were subject to its jurisdiction:—Leegomery, Wrockwardine Wood, Eyton-on-the-Weald Moors, Lilleshall, Sheriffhales, the Lizard, Stirchley, and Great Dawley. Forest laws were rigorously enforced, and encroachments, either by cultivation or building without royal license to do so, were severely punished.
Prior Imbert was fined for three such trespasses, in 1250, in the heavy sum of £126 13s. 4d., chiefly in connection with Madeley. In 1390 the park and meadows the prior had been permitted to enclose with those at Madeley, Oxenbold, and other manors, were estimated as barely capable of maintaining the livestock of the priory.
A perambulation of forests in the reign of Edward I. shows the village of Madeley, with its bosc and two plains, to be disforested, as well as Coalbrookdale, one half of Sutton Maddock, and some other places. Coming down, however, to a much later period,—to the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Henry VIII., when he sold the Madeley manor,—cultivation had made considerable progress, and the property of the priory had very much increased in value. The last of the Wenlock priors, Sir John Bailey, alias Cressage, gave up possession on the morrow of the Conversion of St. Paul, 1539, with his own free will and consent, according to the deed, together with that of the sub-prior, and eleven monks. Take
“The fourth part of the Close Rolls of the 31st King Hen. VIII. 26th January, 31st Hen. VIII. Deed of Surrender to the Crown of the Monastery of Wenlock.
“To all faithful christians to whom the present writing shall come, we, John Cressegge, Prior of the monastery of St. Milburgh the Virgin, of Wenlock, in the county of Salop, and the Convent of the same place, greeting in the Lord everlasting, know ye that we the aforesaid Prior and Convent, with our unanimous assent and consent, and with our deliberate purpose, certain knowledge and mere motion for certain just and reasonable causes, as our mind and consciences specially moving, have freely and spontaneously given and granted, and by these presents do give, grant, and yield up, and deliver and confirm to our most illustrious and invincible prince and lord Henry the Eighth, by the grace of God of England and France king, defender of the faith, lord of Ireland and on earth of the church of England supreme head, all that our said monastery, and also all the scite, ground, circuit, and precinct, and church of the same monastery, with all our movable debts, chattels, and goods to us or our said monastery belonging or appertaining, as well those which we at present possess, as those which by bond or any other cause whatsoever to us and our said monastery are due in any manner; and also all and singular our manors, lordships, messuages, gardens, curtilages, tofts, lands, and tenements, meadows, feedings, pastures, woods, and underwoods, rents, reversions, and services, mills, passages, knights’ fees, wards, marriages, bondmen, villains, with their sequels, commons, liberties, franchises, privileges, jurisdictions, offices, courts leet, hundred courts, views of frankpledge, fairs, markets, parks, warrens, vivaries, waters, fisheries, ways, paths, wharfs, void grounds, advowsons, nominations, presentations, and donations of churches, vicarages, chapels, chanteries, hospitals, and other ecclesiastical benefices whatsoever, rectories, vicarages, chanteries, pensions, portions, annuities, tithes, oblations, and all and singular other our emoluments, profits, possessions, hereditaments, and rights whatsoever, as well within the said county of Salop, and in the liberties’ of London, Sussex, Chester, and Stafford, as elsewhere in the kingdom of England and Wales, and the marches of the same, to our same monastery aforesaid, in any manner belonging, appertaining, appended, or incumbent, and all and all manner of our charters, evidences, obligations, writings, and muniments whatsoever to us or our said monastery, lands, or tenements, or other the premises with their appurtenances, or to any part thereof in any manner belonging or appertaining, to have, hold, and enjoy our said monastery and the aforesaid scite, ground, circuit, and precinct, and our church aforesaid, with all our debts, goods, and chattels, and also all and singular manors, lordships, messuages, lands, and tenements, rectories, pensions, and other premises whatsoever, with all and singular their appurtenances, to our aforesaid most invincible prince and king aforesaid, his heirs, successors, and assigns for ever; and in this behalf, to all effects of law, which shall or can result therefrom, we subject and submit ourselves and our said monastery, with all and singular the premises, and all rights to us in any wise howsoever acquired (as is fitting), giving and granting, and by these presents we do give and grant, yield up, deliver, and confirm to the same king’s majesty, his heirs, successors, and assigns, all and all manner of full and free faculty, authority and power to dispose of us and our said monastery, together with all and singular manors, lands, and tenements, rents, reversions, and services, and every of the premises, with all their rights and appurtenances whatsoever, and according to his free and royal will and pleasure to be alienated, given, exchanged, or transferred to any uses whatsoever agreeable to his majesty, and we ratify such dispositions, alienations, donations, conversions, and appropriations by his aforesaid majesty henceforth in any wise however to be made, promising, moreover by these presents that we will hold firm and valid all and singular the premises for ever; and that moreover all and singular the premises may have due effect we publicly, openly, and expressly, and of our certain knowledge and spontaneously will, renounce and withdraw all elections from us and our successors, and also all plaints, challenges appeals, actions, suits, and other processes whatsoever, rights, remedies, and benefits, to us and our successors in that behalf by pretext of the disposition, alienation, donation, conversion, and translation aforesaid, and other the premises in any wise howsoever competent and to be competent, and laying aside and altogether putting away all objections, exceptions, and allegations of deceit, error, fear, ignorance, or of any other matter or disposition, whatsoever as by these presents we have renounced and withdrawn and from the same do recede by these presents: and we the aforesaid prior and convent, our successors, our said monastery, and also all the scite, ground, circuit, precinct, mansion, and our church aforesaid, and all and singular our manors, lordships, messuages, gardens, curtilages, tofts, lands, and tenements, meadows, feedings, pastures, woods, and underwoods, rents, reversions, and services, and all and singular other the premises, with all their rights and appurtenances, to our aforesaid lord the king, his heirs, successors and assigns, to the use aforesaid, against all men will warrant and for ever defend by these presents. In testimony aforesaid, we the aforesaid prior and convent to this our present writing have subscribed our names and put our common seal. Given at our chapter house the twenty-sixth day of the month of January, in the thirty-first year of the reign of our aforesaid most invincible prince and lord Henry the Eighth.”