conventual church for the soul of Hugh de Sandford, in whose family the patronage of the house had been for some years. [1] It was probably soon after this that the second Wil- liam of Missenden became a benefactor of the abbey.
The abbots of the fourteenth century were generally of families well known in the county : two of the Marshalls of Missenden held this office, and in 1340 a brother of Thomas De la Mare, afterwards Abbot of St. Albans, ruled the abbey of Missenden for a short time. In 1361 Ralf Marshall earned for his house a most undesirable notoriety : he was convicted of falsifying the coinage of the realm in his manor at Lee, and condemned to be drawn, hanged and quartered. He was afterwards pardoned, [2] and the sentence commuted to a term of imprisonment, first in the castle of Nottingham, and afterwards in the monastery of Bourne. [3] About 1369 however he re- turned again to Missenden, [4] which had been ruled by the prior in the meanwhile, [5] and died in his London house in 1374. There was another abbot, Robert Ris- borough, who brought much discredit and trouble upon the house during the reign of Edward IV. His name occurs in connection with leases and other transactions of a formal character as early as 1448 [6]; but at the be- ginning of the new reign, in June 1462, he appealed to the king for protection against the prior and canons of his monastery, who were summoned to appear in Chancery and give sureties that they would not injure him or set fire to his house.[7] It is evident how- ever that this order was given hastily and with- out sufficient inquiry, for in July of the same year Robert Risborough was deprived of his office by the vote of the whole convent for simony and other crimes of which he had been convicted, and Henry Honor of Missenden was elected in his place.[8] The process of deprivation and election was duly and for- mally reported by the prior to the Bishop of Lincoln, and both were confirmed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, [9] so for a while Henry Honor was able to maintain his position quietly. But about the year 1469 Robert appealed to Thomas Rotherham, then Bishop of Rochester and Chancellor of the kingdom, and managed so to present his case that the Chancellor, though he had really no jurisdic- tion in the matter, reinstated him and im- prisoned Henry Honor for three years in the Fleet. In 1471, when Rotherham became Bishop of Lincoln, and seemed likely to go into the matter more carefully, Robert thought it wiser to resign, on condition that the canons would allow him the manor and church of Great Kimble for his maintenance. So Henry Honor again became abbot : but after five years Robert made another attempt to regain his old place. He complained to the king that he had been wrongfully deposed by George Neville, late Archbishop of York, for no other cause than sympathy with the Lan- castrian party, and a writ was issued to the sheriff for his restoration. But in a very short time the king, probably through Rotherham, who had now become Archbishop of York, found out the true facts of the case and or- dered Henry to be confirmed in his office and protected him from further molestation.[10] Mandates were issued to the Bishop of Lin- coln and the rector of Ashridge to see this final sentence carried into effect. [11]
Henry Honor was abbot from this time almost until the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII. During the last few years be- fore the dissolution the number of canons diminished, and the monastic buildings were allowed to fall out of repair. [12] In 1530 besides the abbot there was a prior, a vicar, a chanter and sub-chanter, a kitchener, a refectorian, and a sacrist, besides another canon and five novices. [13] The Acknowledgment of Suprem- acy was signed by John Fox and thirteen
- ↑ Close 4 Edw. I. m. 8d.
- ↑ Pat. 35 Edw. III. pt. 2.
- ↑ Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynwell, 116.
- ↑ Ibid. Memo. Bokyngham, 90.
- ↑ Ibid. Memo. Gynwell, 99d. In 1361 the abbot and convent of Missenden petitioned to the pope for permission to appropriate the churches of Glatton and Missenden, as their revenues were diminished by pestilence and other causes : the matter was entrusted to the Bishop of London for further investigation. Cal. of Pet. to the Pope, i. 364-5.
- ↑ Sloane MS. 747, f. 4d.
- ↑ Pat. 2 Edw. IV. pt. i, m. 14d.
- ↑ Sloane MS. 747, if. 15-18.
- ↑ Sloane MS. 747, ff. 15-18 ; and also f. 57d.
- ↑ Ibid. ff. 57d-58.
- ↑ Ibid. 59d. The various stages of this affair can only be approximately dated. It is summed up, mentioning Henry Honor's three years in prison and five years of subsequent peace, in the royal writ on f. 57d, which refers to Rotherham as Archbishop of York and cannot be earlier than 1480. The mandate to the rector of Ashridge is dated 1482. There are two points an order to the Bishop of Lincoln to let Henry remain in possession till Robert prove a better title (f. 56d) ; and an order for the arrest of Robert in Pat. 1 1 Edw. IV. which are not easy to fit into their proper place in the story.
- ↑ Visitations of Longland (Lincoln),
- ↑ Ibid.
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