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Monasticism and Society in the Diocese of York 1520–1540*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Extract

ON TRIAL for his life in the spring of 1537 for his part in the Pilgrimage of Grace Robert Aske from the Tower supplied a retrospective explanation of northen resentment at the dissolution of the monasteries, at that stage still very much in progress and nowhere near completion. Of all the recent changes in religion, he in particular grudged against the statute of suppressions, and so did all the country, because the abbeys in the north gave great alms to poor men and laudably served God: in which parts of late days they had small comfort by ghostly teaching. And by the said suppression the service of God is much minished, great number of masses unsaid and consecration of the sacrament now not used in those parts, to the decrease of the faith and spiritual comfort to man's soul, the temple of God ruffed and pulled down, the ornaments and relics of the church irreverently used, tombs of honourable and noble men pulled down and sold, no hospitality now kept in those parts…

Also the abbeys was one of the beauties of this realm to all men and strangers passing through the same; also all gentlemen much succoured in their needs with money, their younger sons there succoured and in nunneries their daughters brought up in virtue, and also their evidences and money left to the uses of infants in abbeys' hands, always sure there…

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1988

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References

1 Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, xii, pt. I no. 901 (2).

2 The archiepiscopal Probate Registers 9, 10 and 11 in the Borthwick Institute contain the great majority of the wills, that is 4,529 lay wills and 76 clergy wills: there are a further 30 lay wills and 2 clerical wills in the peculiar jurisdictions, most of these printed in Wills and Administrations from Knaresborough Court Rolls, i, ed. Collins, F. (Surtees Society civ, 1902)Google Scholar, and 124 more clergy wills in Archbishop's Registers 27 and 28 and in the Dean and Chapter Probate Register 2 in the York Minster Library. The Dean and Chapter Probate Register 2 and the St Leonard's Hospital Probate Register, also in the Minster Library, provide an additional 84 lay wills made between 1520 and 1540, while the Archdeaconry of Richmond Probate Register (Leeds Archive Office RD/RP 3) has 156 lay wills and 7 clergy wills. The Prerogative Court of Canterbury Registers for the same period (, P.R.O.Prob. 11 vols 1928Google Scholar) yield only a further 7 lay wills and 5 clergy wills of testators primarily resident in the diocese. This gives atotal of 5,020 wills.

3 Borthwick Institute Prob. Reg. 9 fo. I76r (Sparke); Prob. Reg. 11 pt. I fo. 105r–v (Whitfeld).

4 B I Prob. Reg. 9 fo. 115r–v (Hardy), fo. 272r–273r (Thurscross), fo. 214v–215r (Pudsey).

5 B I Prob. Reg. 9 fo. 187v (Arkesay), fo. 264r (Cure), fo. 154r (Robinson).

6 B I Prob. Reg. 9 fo. 343v–344r (Strangwayes), fo. 329r (Atkinson), fo. 391r (Cokett); Prob. Reg. 11 pt. I fo. 39v (Emerson), fo. 84v (Shortos); Prob. Reg. 9 fo. 440r–v (Swift), fo. 453v (Hudson).

7 B I Prob. Reg. 9 fo. 257v (Herynton), fo. 192v (More), fo. 394r–v (Constance).

8 B I Prob. Reg. 11 pt. I fo. 181r–182v (Roclyf), printed (with omissions) in Testamenta Eboracensia, v, ed. Raine, J. (Surtees Society, lxxix, 1884), 319323Google Scholar.

9 B I Prob. Reg. 9 fo. 356v (Wardrop), fo. 169v (Esheton).

10 B I Prob. Reg. 9 fo. 145v (Symonson), fo. 201r (Spendley), fo. 289v (Lepyngton); Prob. Reg. 11 pt. I fo. 39v (Emerson).

11 B I Prob. Reg. 9 fo. 329v–330r (Proctor), fo. 214r (Dicson), fo. 368v (Lorde).

12 B I Prob. Reg. 11 pt. I fo. 37r–v (Speghte); Prob. Reg. 9 fo. 133v (Normavale), fo. 400r (Richardson), fo. 402v (Kellet); Prob. Reg. 11 pt. I fo. 69r (Crawe); Prob. Reg. 9 fo. 389v (Walker), fo. 216r (Paiteson), fo. 144r (Passymyer), fo. 170r (Roclyf).

13 B I Prob. Reg. 9 fo. 106v–107r (Marshall), fo. 250v (Cristalawe); Prob. Reg. 11 pt. I fo. 16v (Leyng); Prob. Reg. 9 fo. 329r (Atkinson), fo. 158v (Williamson).

14 B I Prob. Reg. 9 fo. 385r (Lawkeland), fo. 400v (Gamyll), fo. 480v (Danby).

15 B I Prob. Reg. 10 fo. 80v–81v (Aunger); Prob. Reg. 11 pt. I fo. 45r–v (Hopton).

16 B I Prob. Reg. 10 fo. 52v–56r (Chapman); Minster Lib. D & C Prob. Reg. 2 fo. 170v–172r (Sheffeld).

17 B I Archbp. Reg. 28 fo. 175r–v (Richardson); Prob. Reg. 11 pt. I fo. 225r–v (Coca); Archbp. Reg. 27 fo. 160r–161v (Hedworth); Archbp. Reg. 28 fo. 177r–v (Wodewarde).

18 Minister Lib. D & C Prob. Reg. 2 fo. 145v–146r (Dogeson); B I Archbp. Reg. 27 fo. 164v–165r (Threpeland); Archbp. Reg. 28 fo. 158r–159r (Welburn).

19 B I Prob. Reg. 9 fo. 220v (Wallas), and see Swanson, R. N., ‘Titles to Orders in Medieval English Episcopal Registers’ in Studies in Medieval History presented to R. H. C. Davis, ed. Mayr-Harting, H. and Moore, R. I. (1985), 233245Google Scholar; B I Archbp. Reg. 28 fo. 178v (Logan); Archbp. Reg. 27 fo. 161r (Johnson); Archbp. Reg. 28 fo. 168r–16gr (Olyver).

20 B I Archbp. Reg. 27 fo. 163v (Hall); Prob. Reg. 10 fo. 841–v (Marshall); Victoria County History, The County of York, III (1913), 119122Google Scholar; B I Prob. Reg. 11 pt. I fo. 229r–v (Watte); Yorkshire Monasteries, Suppression papers, ed. Clay, J. W. (Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Record Series xlviii, 1912), 166167Google Scholar.

21 B I Archbp. Reg. 27 fo. 162r–v (Mylde); Archbp. Reg. 28 fo. 158r–159r (Welburne), fo. 164r–v (Drymer), fo. 174r–v (Gurnell).

22 P R O PCC Prob. 11/20 fo. 25 (Stanley).

23 Woodward, G. W. O., The Dissolution of the Monasteries (1966), 144Google Scholar; B I Prob. Reg. 9 fo. 168r (Hardcastle).

24 Dugdale, W., Monasticon Anglicanum, v (1846) 280Google Scholar.

25 B I Prob. Reg. 11 pt. I fo. 324r–v (Lamley); Minster Lib. D & C Prob. Reg. 2 fo. 188v–190r (Water); B I Prob. Reg. 11 pt. I fo. 363v (Norman).