Introduction

Summary

This volume, and the following one, contain transcripts of the first accounts made by ministers of the Court of Augmentations for revenues arising from the properties of religious houses in Bedfordshire. In the case of houses with their principal property in Bedfordshire all property whether in Bedfordshire or not has been transcribed, but in the case of those houses situated outside Bedfordshire, only the Bedfordshire property has been included. The volumes also contain a transcript of the first ministers’ accounts for the Honour of Ampthill, a royal estate created partly from former religious lands and partly from lands purchased or exchanged by the Crown. Two desmesne valors have also been included.

By the 1530’s, Henry VIII was in great need of further revenue in order to replenish his depleted treasury. Amongst those sources to which he turned were the monastic estates. The monasteries were assessed for the new royal tax of the Tenth in 1535, and the Valor Ecclesiasticus is the record of the survey made for this tax assessment. As a result of this assessment it was known that there were about 400 small monasteries throughout the country, some of which were already in financial difficulties. It was therefore an acceptable step to enact a statute [27 Henry VIII, c. 28] during the Parliament prorogued on 4 February 1536, by which all such religious houses of monks, canons and nuns “which may not dispend Manors, Lands, Tenements and Hereditaments above the clear yearly value of £200” were dissolved and their property transferred to the Crown. The occupants of these houses, except for the abbots and priors who received pensions, were given the choice of entering one of the larger houses or of receiving a capacity or licence “to live honestly and virtuously abroad” whilst acting as secular priests. Nuns could only move to one of the larger houses. Any persons who had professed under age were released from their vows. However in 1537 the Abbess of Furness only surrendered her house on condition that all the nuns received pensions and this gradually became the rule. The smaller religious houses in Bedfordshire which were dissolved under this statute were Markyate Priory, Caldwell Priory, Bushmead Priory and Harrold Priory and their first ministers’ accounts, transcribed in this volume, date from Michaelmas 27 Henry VIII to Michaelmas 28 Henry VIII [1536/7].