At any rate the prior, sub-prior, and eleven monks retired upon a pension of £100, which was divided between them thus:—
Sir John, the last of the long list of Wenlock priors,—many of them noble and distinguished men,—retired upon his life-pension of £30 to the old Court House, Madeley, where he resided till his death, which took place in 1552. Mr. Eyton says he died on Christmas-day, at the Madeley manor-house, and was buried next day in Madeley church. The Wenlock register, at Wynnstay, contains the following entry by Sir Thomas Butler, the then vicar:—
“1549. 25 Decr departed and dyed in the manor place of Madeley about IX of the clock in the nyght Sir John Baily Clercke the last Prior of Moncks that was in the Monastre of Moch Wenlock prior ther at the tyme of the Surrender thereof, whose bodie was buryed on the morrow, vz fest of St. Stephan in the parish churche of Madeley aforesaid.”
The same authority, Sir Thomas Butler, who seems to have been a most painstaking recorder of events, under date of February 20, 1539, has the following entry a little higher up:
“Edwd Browne Servant to my Lord Prior was married in Madeley and the Certf. entered in the book of the parish Church of Madeley.”
Unfortunately that register has been lost, if it existed. It may be that it did not, as many existing churches were then chapels, that is affiliations without a baptistery or a cemetery.
Madeley was subject to the mother-church of Wenlock, and we know how zealously the vicars of that church guarded their privileges. Broseley was in the same position, and in our “Tourists’ Guide to Wenlock” we quoted a memorandum made in the Wenlock register, in which the vicar says:—
“1542. Feb. 3rd Mem. at the same time in this Chancel of the Holy Trinity that I went to bury the Corpse of the sd John, Sir Edmund Mychell Parson of Browardesley aforsaid, in the presence of Rowland Wilcocks of the same Browardesley, willed me to give my consent that they of Browardesley might have their chapel there dedicate for the Burial there so to be had unto whom I answered (if the law would so bear me) I would not consent to the dedicating of that their Chapel of Browardesley nor of none other annexed and depending unto this the mother Church of the Holy Trinity of Moch Wenlock.”
These privileges were not strictly regarded, we believe, but as a rule the dead had to be carried to Wenlock to be buried, excepting in the case of persons of distinction, like lords of the manor or wealthy tenants of the prior, who were buried in the church.