the meanest of the People to Shop-keepers Taverners Taylors Tradesmen Burghers Brewers Grasiers and it may be supposed that as Constantine the Great seeing the inconvenience of the multitude of Comites of his time distinguished them as Eusebius reporteth into three degrees making the latter far inferior to the former so may it one day come to pass among these of our times and it shall not want some precedent of our own to the like purpose Vide Glossarium in voc Comes pag. 109. IV. What hath happened to the Crown it self It now remaineth to shew how the Lands themselves thus pulled from the Church have thriven with the Crown and in the Hands of the King his Heirs and Successors truly no otherwise than the Archbishop I spake of so long since foretold For they have melted and dropt away from the Crown like Snow yet herein that Snow leaves moisture to enrich the Ground but those nothing save dry and fruitless Coffers for now they are all gone in a manner and little to speak of remaining for them to the Treasury for my own part I think the Crown the happier that they are gone but very unhappy in their manner of going for as Sampson going out of Gaza carried with him the Gates the Bars and Posts of the City leaving it thereby exposed to Enemies weak and undefenced so those Lands going from the Crown have carried away with them the very Crown-Lands themselves which were in former times the glorious Gates of Regal Magnificence the present and ready Bars of Security at all Necessities and like immoveable Posts or Hercules Pillars in all the transmigrations of Crown and Kingdom had to our Time 1000 Years and upward remained fixed and amor ... to the Scepter These I say are in effect all gone since the Dissolution the new Piece hath rent away the old Garment and the Title of terra Regis within Dooms-day Book was generally the Targett in every County is now a Blank I fear in most of them But his Majesty hath a great Fee-farm reserved out of the greatest part of both of them 40000 l. a Year they say out of the Crown Lands and 60000 l. out of the Church Lands I confess it makes a goodly sound yet is it but froth in respect of the solid Land which is deemed to be more than ten times if not twenty times as much and this being but succus redditus a sick and languishing Rent will grow daily as our Rents of Assess have already done to be of lesser worth as the price of Lands and Commodities increase and rise higher but I hear there is ... thousand pounds a Year of the Crown-lands gone without any Reservation at all and above ... thousand likewise of the Church Lands and to tell the truth which my self do well know a great proportion of the Fee-farm Rents themselves are likewise aliened already but mihi Cynthius aurem vellit I must launch no further V. What happened to the whole Kingdom generally What the whole Body of the Kingdom hath suffered since these Acts of Confiscation of the Monasteries and their Churches is very remarkable let the Monks and Friers shift as they deserv'd the good if you will and the bad together my purpose is not to defend their Iniquities the thing I lament is that the Wheat perish'd with the Darnel things of good and pious Institution with those that abused and perverted them by reason whereof the Service of God was not only grievously wounded and bleedeth at this day but infinite Works of Charity whereby the Poor were universally reliev'd thro' the Kingdon were utterly cut off and extinguish'd many thousand masterless Servants turn'd loose into the World and many thousand of poor People which were constantly fed clad and nourished by the Monasteries now like young Ravens seek their Meat at God Every Monastery according to their Ability had an Ambery greater or little for the daily relief of the Poor about them Every principal Monastery an Hospital commonly for Travellers and an Infirmary which we now call a Spittle for the sick and diseased Persons with Officers and Attendants to take care of them Gentlmen and others having Children without means of Maintenance had them here brought up and provided for which course in some Countries and namely in Pomerland as I hear is still observed tho' Monks and Friers be abandoned These and such other Miseries falling upon the meaner sort of People drove them into so many Rebellions as we spake of and rung such loud peals in the King's Ears that on his Death-bed he gave back the Spittle of St. Bartholomew's in Smithfield lately valued saith Stow at 308 l. 6 s. 7 d. and the Church of the Gray-Friers valued at 32 l. 19 s. 7 d. with other Churches and 500 Marks a Year added to it to be united and called Christ Church founded by King Henry 8. and to be Hospitals for relieving the Poor the Bishop of Rochester declaring his Bounty at Paul's Cross on the 3d of Jan. and on the 28th day following the King died viz the 28 Jan. This touching the Poor VI. What happened to private Owners of the Monasteries particularly I turn now to the richer sort and shall not need to speak of the Clergy whose irreparable Misery Piers Ploughman foresaw so many Ages before saying That a King should come that should give the Abbat of Abingdon such a blow as incurable should be the Wound thereof Their Misery and Wrack is so notorious as it needs no Pen to decypher it nor will I speak of the loss that the Lay-men our Grandfathers had by this means in their right of Founders and Patronage Meantenures Rents-services Pensions Corrodies and many other Duties and Privileges whereof some were saved by the Statutes yet by little and little all in effect worn out and gone Those I say I speak not of for that they are Wounds grown up and forgotten but of one instead of all that immortal and incurable Wound which every day bleedeth more than other given to us and our Posterity by the infinite number of Tenures by Knights service in capite either newly created upon granting out of these Monasteries and Lands or daily raised by double Ignoramus in every Town almost of the Kingdom For as the Abbies had Lands commonly scattered abroad in every of them in some greater or lesser quantity according to the Ability of their Benefactors so the Leprosie of this Tenure comes thereby as generally to be scatter'd thro' the Kingdom And whereas before that time very few did hold on that manner besides the Nobility and principal Gentlemen that were owners of great Lordships and Possessions which from time to time descended intirely to their Heirs and were not broken out into small parcels amongst inferiour Tenents and mean Purchasers Now by reason that those Abby Lands are minced into such infinite numbers of little Quillets and thereby privily sown like the Tares in the Parable almost in every
project of the Speakers his lineal Heir Sir Tho. Cheiney Lord Warden of the Cinque Port did then behold and shortly felt the wrathfull Hand of God upon his Family whether for this or any other Sin I dare not judge But being reputed to be the greatest Man of Possessions in the whole Kingdom in so much as Queen Elizabeth on a time said merrily unto him that they two meaning her self and him were the two best Marriages in England which afterward appeared to be true in that his Heir was said to sue his Livery at 3100 never done by any other Yet was this huge Estate all wasted on a suddain Yet when the Commons did desire to have the Lands of the Clergy they did not design or wish that they should be otherwise employ'd than for publick Benefit of the whole Kingdom and that all Men should be freed thereby from payment of Subsidies or Taxes to maintain Soldiers for the Defence of the Kingdom For they suggested that the value of the Lands would be sufficient Maintenance for a standing Army and all great Officers and Commanders to conduct and manage the same for the safety of the Publick as that they would maintain 150 Lords 1500 Knights 6000 Esquires and an 100 Hospitals for maimed Soldiers Thus they projected many good uses to be performed not to enrich private Men or to sell them for small Summs of Money which would quickly be wasted but to be a perpetual standing Maintenance for an Army and all publick Necessities Priories Alien not being Conventual with their Possessions except the College of Foderinghay were by the Parliament given to King Henry V. and his Heirs he suppressed them to the Number of 190 and more Stow p. 563. But gave some of them to the College of Foderinghay p. 551. King Henry VI. gave them afterward to the two Colleges of the Kings in Cambridge and that of Eaton yet Henry V. died young his Son Henry VI. after many Passions of Fortune was twice deprived of his Kingdom and at last cruelly murthered and Prince Edward his Grandchild Son of Henry VI. cruelly also slain by the Servants of King Edward IV. Stow p. 704 705. Cardinal Wolsey intending to build a Colledge at Oxford and another at Ipswich obtained licence of Pope Clement the 7th to suppress about 40 Monasteries In execution whereof he used principally five Persons whereof one was slain by another of these his Companions that other was hanged for it a third drowned himself in a Well The fourth being well known to be worth 200 l. in those days became in three Years time so poor that he begged to his Death Dr. Allen the 5th being made a Bishop in Ireland was there cruelly maimed The Cardinal that obtained the licence fell most grievously into the King's displeasure lost all he had was fain to be relieved by his Followers and died miserably not without the suspicion of poysoning himself The Pope that granted the licence was beaten out of his City of Rome saw it sacked by the Duke of Bourbon's Army and himself then besieged in the Castle of St. Angelo whither he fled escaping narrowly with his life Stow p. 880. taken Prisoner scorned ransomed and at last poysoned as some reported But these five were not the only Actors of this business For Mr. Fox saith That the doing hereof was committed to the Charge of Thomas Cromwell in the execution whereof he shewed himself very forward and industrious In such sort that in handling thereof he procur'd to himself much grudge with divers of the superstitious sort and some also of noble Calling about the King c. in Henry VIII p. 1150. col b. Well as he had his part in the one let him take it also in the other for he lost all he had and his Head to boot as after shall appear in the Progress of these his Actions Annotations upon this Chapter Whereas it is said that the Knight's Fees in Edward Ist. Time were found to be 67000 and that 28000 of them were in the hands of the Clergy it is to be consider'd that if the Account be rightly made there could not be above a third part for there is as much Land in base Tenures that were never within the Fees besides all Crown-lands and Eleemosynary-lands Copy-holds Gavel-kind Burrough-English c. Whereas it is said That when the Commons did desire to have the Lands of the Clergy taken away they did not design or wish that they should be otherwise employ'd than for the publick Benefit and that all Men should be freed from Subsidies and Taxes and they suggested also that the Lands of the Clergy would maintain a great Army to be always ready and for the Conduct thereof many Lords Knights and Esquires should be maintain'd out of the Lands and also many Hospitals provided for such Soldiers as should happen to be maim'd in the Wars And to this purpose it is fit to set down here the Words of my Lord Coke 4 Institut pag. 44. Advice concerning new and plausible Projects and Offers in Parliament When any plausible Project is made in Parliament to draw the Lords or Commons to assent to any Act especially in matters of weight and importance if both Houses do give upon the matter projected and premised their consent it shall be most necessary they being trusted for the Common-wealth to have the matter projected and premised which moved the Houses to consent to be establish'd in the same Act least the Benefit of the Act be taken and the matter projected and premised never perform'd and so the Houses of Parliament perform not the Trust repos'd in them As it fell out taking one Example for many in the Reign of Henry VIII On the King's behalf the Members of both Houses were inform'd in Parliament that no King or Kingdom was safe but where the King had three Abilities First To live of his own and able to defend his Kingdom upon any sudden Invasion or Insurrection Secondly To aid his Confederates otherwise they would never assist him Thirdly To reward his well deserving Servants And the Project was if the Parliament would give unto him all the Abbeys Priories Friaries Nunneries and other Monasteries that for ever in time to come he would take order that the same should not be converted to private Use. But First That his Exchequer for the purposes aforesaid should be enrich'd Secondly The Kingdom strengthen'd by a continual Maintenance of 40000 well-train'd Soldiers with skilfull Captains and Commanders Thirdly For the benefit and ease of the Subject when-ever afterwards as was projected in any time to come should be charg'd with Subsidies Fifteenths Loans or Common-aids Fourthly Least the Honour of the Realm should receive any diminution of Honour by the dissolution of the said Monasteries there being 29 Lords of Parliament of the Abbots and Priors that held of the King per Baroniam whereof more in the next leaf that the King would creat a Number of Nobles
Barkenham a Miller who sold it to Mr. John Rivett now living The Augustine Friars came from Eyer to one Shavington a Bastard who died without Issue and by his Will gave it to one Waters other than the former and to the Heirs of his Body This Waters died without Issue whereupon the Augustine Friars was to revert to his Heir but having none because he was a Bastard great Suit ensued about it But John Ditefield being then in Possession of it left it by Descent as it seemeth to his Son John Ditefield who gave it in Marriage with Thomasin his sister to Christopher Pickering brother of the then Lord Keeper and he then recovered it in Chancery and sold it to John Lease John Lease pulling down the Buildings selleth first the Stones and then dividing the Ground into divers Garden-rooms sold the same to divers Persons The Cell of Priests was near the Guild-hall and the Prior's House was somewhat remote from it by St. Margaret's Church The College was sometime Mr. Houghton's after Parker's then Ball 's lately Sendall's and now Hargott's all of them save Hargott are extinct and gone and Mr. Hargott is on the declining Hand the Site of the Prior's House was lately consecrated and annexed to St. Margaret's Church-yard for a Burying-place Shouldham-Abbey Sir Francis Gaudy of the Justices of the King's Bench was owner of it he married the Daughter and Heir of Christopher Cunningsby Lord of the Manour of Wallington and having this Manour and other Lands in right of his Wife induced her to acknowledge a Fine thereof which done she became a distracted Woman and continued so to the day of her Death and was to him for many Years a perpetual affliction He had by her his only Daughter and Heir Eliz. married to Sir William Hatton who died without Issue-Male leaving also a Daughter and Heir who being brought up with her Grandfather the Judge was secretly married against his Will to Sir Robert Rich now Earl of Warwick The Judge shortly after being made chief Justice of the Common-pleas at a dear Rate as was reported was suddenly stricken with an Apoplexy or double Palsie and so to his great loss died without Issue-Male e'er he had continued in his Place one whole Michaelmas Term and having made his appropriate Parish-Church a Hay-house or a Dog-kennel his dead Corps being brought from London unto Walling could for many days find no Place of Burial but in the mean time growing very offensive by the Contagious and ill Savours that issued through the Chinks of Lead not well soder'd he was at last carry'd to a poor Church of a little Village there by called Runcto and buried there without any Ceremony lieth yet uncovered if the Visitors have not reformed it with so small a Matter as a few paving Stones Sir Robert Rich now Earl of Warwick succeeded in the Inheritance by his Wife of this Abby with the Impropriation and his great Possessions amounting by Estimation to 5000 l. a Year and hath already sold the greatest part of them together with this Abbey and Impropriation unto the Family of Mr. Nich. Hare the Judge's Neighbour and chiefest Adversary For among divers other goodly Manours that Sir John Hare hath purchased of him or his Feoffees he hath also bought this Abbey of Shouldham and the Impropriation there with the Manour belonging to the Abbey valued together at 600 l. yearly Rent Binham-Priory Binham Priory a Cell of St. Albans was granted by King Henry 8. to Sir Thomas Paston he left it to Mr. Edward Paston his Son and Heir who living above 80 Years continued the Possession of it till Caroli R. and having buried ... his Son and Heir apparent left it then unto his Grandchild Mr. Paston the third Owner of it and thereby now in the Wardship to the King Mr. Edward Paston many Years since was desirous to build a Mansion-house upon or near the Priory and attempting for that purpose to clear some of that Ground a Piece of Wall fell upon a Workman and slew him perplexed with this Accident in the beginning of this Business he gave it wholly over and would by no means all his Life after be perswaded to re-attempt it but built his Mansion-house a very fair one at Appleton Castle-Acre-Abbey Sir Tho. Cecil Earl of Exeter was owner of it and of the impropriate Personage here he had Issue Sir William Cecil Earl Exeter who married Eliz. the Daughter and Heir of Edw. Earl of Rutland and had Issue by her dying as I take it in Child-bed his only Son William Lord Rosse This William Lord Rosse married Anne the Daughter of Sir Tho. Lake and they living together in extreme Discord many infamous Actions issued thereupon and finally a great Suit in the Star-Chamber to the high Dishonour of themselves and their Parents In this Affliction the Lord Rosse dyeth without Issue and the Eldest Male-line of his Grandfather's House is extinguished Sir Richard Cecil was second Son of Sir Thomas Cecil Earl of Exeter and had Issue David who married Eliz. the Daughter of John Earl of Bridgewater and is now in expectation to be Earl of Exeter His third Son was Sir Edw. Cecil Knight his 4th and 5th Tho. Cecil and Christopher drowned in Germany Sir Tho. the Grandfather Earl of Exeter made a Lease of this Monastery and Impropriation to one Paine as I take it by whose Widow the same came in Marriage to Mr. Humfrey Guibon Sheriff of Norfolk Anno 38. Eliz. whose Grand-child and Heir Tho. Guibon consumed his whole Inheritance and lying long in the Fleet either died there a Prisoner or shortly after Sir Edw. Coke Lord Chief Justice married for his second Wife the Lady Eliz. Hatton one of the Daughters of the said Earl Tho. and afterwards bought the Castle of Acre with this Monastery and Impropriation of his Brother-in-Law Earl William Son of Earl Thomas since which time he hath felt abundantly the Change of Fortune as we have partly touched in Flitcham-Abbey West-Acre-Abbey This also belonged to Sir Tho. Cecil of whom we have now spoken he sold both it and the Impropriation of West Acre to Sir Horatio Palvicini an Italian that before his coming into England had dipt his Fingers very deep in the Treasure of the Church Being in his Youth in the Low-countries as his Son Edward affirmed to me he there secretly married a very mean Woman and by her had Issue him this Edward but durst never discover it to his Father as long as they lived together his Father being dead he came into England and here married a second Wife by whom he had Issue his Son Toby and for his Wive's sake disinherited him his eldest Son Edward and conferred all his Lands with the Abbey and Impropriation of West Acre to Toby and his Heirs Edward after the Death of his Father grows into contention with his Brother Toby and in a Petition to King James accuseth both his Father and his Brother for