A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE Leighton Buzzard, one from Biggleswade and two from Caddington. 1 The total value given was : spiritualities, £1,204 14/. ; temporalities, £81 1 11s. As the list of churches is not complete, 2 the valuation cannot be quite accurate. The poorest endowments were those of Ampthill, Chicksand, Goldington and Wellington, which were only £2 1 3^. d. each ; the richest — those over £20 — were Leighton Buzzard, £96 13.C d. ; 3 Luton, £66 y. d.; Biggleswade, £46 13J. d. ; Shillington, £40; and Felmersham, £26 13^. d. The rest of the benefices vary from £4 to £5, with a few at £10, £12 or £20. £4 to £5 was evidently considered a sufficient maintenance. Many of these churches were already held in plurality, though not to the same extent as in the next century. In 1294 the prebendary of Leighton Buzzard had four other churches ; in the same year the rector of Shillington had thirteen others. 4 Master Walter of Wootton, pre- sented to Marston Moretaine in 1282, received a canonry of Lincoln and two prebends in 1292 ; and in 1295, when he became archdeacon of Huntingdon, the chronicler of Dunstable, though looking upon him as a real friend to the monastery, notes with a little touch of disapproval that he resigned none of his former benefices. 5 There is abundant evidence that until the time of the Great Pestilence the generosity and devotion of the English laity to the Church was the same as it had always been. The number of religious houses already built was amply sufficient for the needs of the country ; fresh endow- ments and direct benefactions were discouraged by the Statute of Mortmain; but there were other ways open. The rebuilding of parochial and conventual churches at the beginning of the fourteenth century, in Bedfordshire and elsewhere, shows how ready men still were to give to objects of this kind. A few chapels were still built for districts not well served ; as at Upper Gravenhurst before 1369, 6 and at Stanbridge before 1 344/ The bridge chapel at Biddenham was built in 1296, 8 and that of St. Thomas the Martyr at Bedford not long after ; 9 these were in- tended for the convenience of travellers, to provide them with an early mass, and sometimes even with a place of refuge from thieves. 10 But the 1 These two were and still are attached to St. Paul's, London. 2 Eleven are missing : St. John's, St. Cuthbert's and St. Peter's at Bedford, with the parish churches of Tillsworth, Arlesey, Langford, Chellington, Harrold, Stevington, Tingrith, Gravenhurst ; and of nine churches only the pension is mentioned which they paid to some religious house, and not the whole income. A few churches have the value of the vicarage set down as well as the rectory, but by no means all. The total valuation is therefore lower than the real value. 3 As complaints were so often made of the small stipends allowed to the vicars of appropriate churches, it is worth noting that the vicar of Leighton Buzzard only received from the wealthy preben- dary £^ 6s. %d. a year ; while the vicar of Luton received £16 from St. Alban's. 4 Both these are found in the Cal. of Pat. Rolls, 22 Edward I. 6 Ann. Mon. (Rolls Series), iii. 401. 6 Line. Epis. Reg., Memo. Gynwell, 84, 87. Licensed for masses to the inhabitants of the vill of Shillington. 7 Ibid. Memo. Bek. 74d. Annexed then to the prebend of Leighton Buzzard. 8 Ibid. Memo. Sutton, ii. 162. Licence to grant lands in mortmain. Pat. 28 Edw. I. m. 12. 8 Line. Epis. Reg., Memo. Burghersh, 107 (1323); mentioned as lately built with sumptuous work, and since damaged by the water. In Pat. 13 Rich. II. pt. 2, m. 2, it is called ' the king's free chapel.' 10 Stated in the licence to the chapel of Biddenham Bridge. 324
