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| The Last Monks of Kirkstall Abbey |
| King Henry VIII took his boldest step against the power of the church when, in 1536, he commenced the Dissolution of the Monasteries. |
| To avoid a general outcry he initially selected the smaller, less powerful, religious houses, confiscated their assets, and damaged the buildings making them unfit for habitation and then moved against the larger houses. |
| The monasteries were very wealthy and many of the clerics agreed that some change was long overdue. Their thoughts that the wealth should go to charitable causes were in the minority. The king was in urgent need of cash, Parliament needed to raise money and a further tax would have been unpopular, the local landowners saw a chance to expand their estates and some merchants saw the opportunity to become a member of the 'landed gentry'. Charity was surrounded on all sides by greed. |
| The (literally) 'knock-down' sale benefited many even the poor local inhabitants who suddenly had a cheap source of building materials. |
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Those who suffered included the areas to which
pilgrims were drawn. With the loss of the local monastery, there
was no source of income for those on the pilgrim routes. History
suffered in that the many priceless manuscripts held at the monasteries
were simply destroyed with no thought to their cultural value. Artefacts of precious metals and stones were broken up and sold for their base values. The many thousands of servants who were attached to the monasteries were simply out of a job. |
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The monks at the monasteries seemed to have
been treated quite well with many of them receiving a pension
commensurate with their length of service. For future prospects, many of the monks received a 'capacity' that allowed them to accept a living as a secular priest. |
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On 22nd November 1538, Kirkstall Abbey and
its possessions were surrendered to the Commissioners of Henry
VIII. On the same day, pensions were granted to the Abbot (or
Prior), the sub-prior, and twenty-nine monks. A list of those monks still survives and some of them have been traced in their subsequent careers. Some of the others may well be traced but cannot be placed with certainty as the men entered the community with a surname, usually denoting their place of origin, and then changed their names whilst at the monastery and then reverted back to their 'place-name' when leaving. |
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[1] John Browne (Ripley) Prior The last abbot of Kirkstall Abbey. In December 1536, he attended a meeting at Pontefract at which the 'Pilgrimage of Grace' was discussed. Henceforth he seems not to have involved himself and further in that particular exercise. He was given a pension of 100 marks (£66.13s.8d). In October 1540, he was left a gold noble (a gold coin valued at 6s/8d). It is said that he lived on in the gatehouse to Kirkstall until his death. |
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[2] Leonard Wyndresse (York) Sub-Prior He was given a pension of £8. In May of 1548, he appeared as 'Sir Leonard Windrithe' when he witnessed the will of John Pepper of Bramley whose son was Thomas Pepper [25] and in March 1553 he was mentioned in the will of Thomas Pepper. |
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[3] Thomas Bertlett, Priest A pension of £6.13s.4d. He was a Leeds man whose parents were buried at the Parish Church there. He was also the uncle of Thomas Jeffrayson, the last priest of the Chantry of St. Mary Magdalene in Leeds. After leaving the abbey he lived at Allerton Grange and died around May 1542. He left his vestments to the chapel at Chapeltown. |
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[4] Anthony Jackson (Abett ?) Priest In 1554 he had a servant called Elizabeth Fletcher who was related to Richard Fletcher (otherwise named Jeffrayson) the Curate of Leeds. In December 1550 Sir Richard Elles [18] of Leeds, a priest, left him, '…my best gown and the best tacke (clasp) save one, and a stag which is with William Askwith, and one vestment, one altar cloth and two or three corporaxes (vestment).' At that time, he was described as, ' of Horsforth'. In March 1553, he was mentioned in the will of Thomas Pepper [25]. As 'clerk of Otley', and finally, in July 1558, he was described as, 'Curate of Horsforth Hall, Guiseley'. |
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[5] Edward Heptonstall (Pomfret (Pontefract)),
Priest Pension of £6.13s.4d. His will of August 1558 left the Leeds Parish Church a book called' Sermones Discipuli' and a vestment of silver and damask velvet, and to his nephew who, 'now learneth at the school…', '…all those books which stand and be in one chest being at my bed's feet, and all other books in my custody which were of the abbey books, I will that they be safely kept to be redelivered by my said executors to Kirkstall Abbey if it go up in their times.' |
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[6] Gabriel Lofthouse, Priest Pension of £6. In April 1550 he was a chaplain in Richmond. In His will, of 4th august 1552, he left his bedding to his brother and disposed of other items including a long gown, a wooden spoon tipped with silver and a little over a guinea in cash. He was buried in the porch of the chapel of St John in the parish church of Richmond. |
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[7] William Northives, Priest Pension of £6. He was the vicar of Adel 1541-1551 |
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[8] William Lupton, Priest Pension of £6. In March 1553 he was mentioned in the will of Thomas Pepper [25] and in September 1553 in the will of George Hall of Allerton Grange. A William Lupton was the curate of Huddersfield in 1545. |
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[9] Robert Hemsworth, Priest Pension of £5.6s.8d. In his will, of March 1552, he described himself as 'Robert Hemsworth of Preston in the parish of Kippax, clerk', and he left to his sister his, ' half-year's pension', which indicates that the pensions were paid half-yearly. |
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[10] Edward Sandall, Priest Pension of £6. In 1573 Sandall was listed as being the ex-chantry priest of St. Thomas, St Dennis on Ouse Bridge at York. Here he was drawing another pension of £4.16s.4d. He supported himself by teaching a few boys privately, without licence and served a curacy at Tadcaster, again without licence. He appears to have been very 'outspoken'. He berated his fellow priests for swinging with every wind of the new protestant doctrines. He was suspended, convicted of sodomy, (a common tactic to get rid of a disagreeable priest) and sent to York Castle. He was released after taking the Oath of Supremacy and vanishes from the records. |
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The full list of those monks…………. [1] John Browne (Ripley) |
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