scapulary 
of the same, and, under that robe, a tunic of white, or undyed wool. 
When they went to the choir, they had over all a black cowl, like that of 
the monks. 

The Priory was dissolved amongst the lesser monasteries, which had 
not above two hundred pounds a year, by the Act of the twenty-seventh 
of Henry the Eighth, 1536. At the dissolution, Johanna Williams was 
the Prioress, and there were fifteen nuns, whose revenue amounted in the 
gross, according to Speed, to c£l02. 6s. 7\d. or in the clear, according to 
Dugdale, to ,£ 84. 4s. 4f/. d Johanna Williams surrendered the Convent, 
and had a pension of =£16. 6s. $d. assigned to her, which she enjoyed in 

' For this seal I am indebted to Henry Ellis, Esq. of the British Museum, whose atten- 
tion and politeness render all researches in that extraordinary collection easy and pleasant. 
1 Dugdale's Monasticon. Tanner's Notitia Monastica. 



chap. ii. HISTORY OF STUDLEY PRIORY. 435 

1553, in which year there remained in charge, I suppose upon the Court 
of Augmentations, £3. 6s. 8d. in annuities, and in pensions to the nuns, 
to Katherine Copcote, £3. 6s. Sd. to Alice Yemans, £l. 13s. id. to 
Elizabeth Boulde, £l. 13s. id. to Susan Denton, and Margaret Wigball, 
£ 1. 6s. 8d. each 6 . 

It has been justly observed, that the dissolution of the monasteries was 
an act not of the Church, but of the State ; prior to the Reformation, and 
effected by a King and Parliament of the Roman Catholic communion. 
The strictest members of that persuasion, and the most respectable cha- 
racters of the times, among whom the Duke of Norfolk may be mentioned, 
accepted grants of the Conventual estates. Even the clergy thought it no 
sacrilege to share in these acquisitions. Bishop Gardiner commended the 
King for suppressing them, and Queen Mary made large grants of Abbey 
lands. Undoubtedly the suppression of the Convents facilitated the ad- 
mission of Protestantism ; but it was evidently undertaken on other 
principles'. 

In the thirty -first year of Henry the Eighth, 1539, the Priory, with all 
the possessions belonging to it, were purchased by John Croke, for the 
sum of one thousand, one hundred, and eighty-seven pounds, seven shil- 
lings, and eleven pence, and a grant was made of it by letters patent from 
the King, on the 26th day of February in that year E . The premises are 
described as the house and site of the Monastery, with the Church, the 
manor of Studley in the counties of Oxford and Buckingham, the manor 
of Crawcombe Studley, in the county of Somerset, the manor of Long 
Compton in Warwickshire, six pounds of rent in Crawcombe Bere in 
Somersetshire, the Rectory and Church of Beckley, the Rectory and 
Church of Hilmere, otherwise Ilmere, in Buckinghamshire, the Chapel of 
Senekeworth, or Sakeworth, in Berkshire, the advovvson of the Church of 
Crawcombe Studley, the advowson of the Vicarage of Beckley, the ad- 
vowson of the Vicarage of Hilmere, or Ilmere ; all their possessions in 
Steple Barton, Steple Aston, Astvvykes, Worton, Wighthill, Wightley, 
Benbroke, Bekbroke, Takeley, Weveley, Forstyll, Ellesford, Ellesfeld, 



e Willis's Mitred Abbeys, vol. ii. p. 186. ' Burn's Eccles. Law, vol. ii. p. 545. 

Warton's Life of Sir T. Pope, page 39. E Sept. pars Patent, de anno R. Hen. Octavi 

tricesimo primo. In the Rolls' Chapel. 

3 K 2 



4.36 HISTORY OF STUDLEY PRIORY. book iv. 

Overhayford, Tetyndon, Tyvyton, Bekeley Parke, and Staunton, in 
Oxfordshire ; and in Horton, Marlake, Okeley, Wornehall, Thomley, 
Wynchyndon, Kymbell, Hilmere, Umere, Est Claydon, Botcl Claydon, 
Wighthill, and Wightley, in Buckinghamshire ; and in Belgravein Leices- 
tershire, in Westcot Fairford in Gloucestershire, in Senekeworth, and 
Sakworth, in Berkshire, in Langeporte or Lamport in Northamptonshire, 
in Long Compton in Warwickshire, and in Crawcombe Studley, and 
Crawcombe Bere, in Somersetshire, and elsewhere : excepting the 
Prioress's wood, and all lands in Wroxton, Ardeley, Chesterton, and 
Wendlebury, in Oxfordshire. The whole was to be held of the King, in 
capite, by the service of the twentieth part of a knight's fee, and rendering 
six pounds fourteen shillings and two pence annually. 

Of the reservations, Prioresses wood was granted by Queen Elizabeth, 
in her fourteenth year, to Christopher Hatton, Esquire, of whom it was 
purchased in the same year by Sir John Croke of Chilton 1 '. And the fee 
farm rent of 4 J 6. 14s. 2f/. and of three shillings for Marlake, were sold 
under the statute of the twenty-second of Charles the Second, chapter the 
sixth, to William Gape, and were by him conveyed to William Croke, 
Esquire, of Chilton, in the twenty-fifth of Charles the Second, 1672, for 
the sum of il23. 9s.' The adjoining manor of Marlake, we have before 
seen, was purchased by Maister John Croke in 1541. 

Of the very extensive possessions belonging to the Priory of Studley, 
thus purchased by Master John Croke, it appears that he sold off all the 
distant property, and retained only the house, the manor of Studley, the 
appropriation of Beckley, and other rights in that parish. The manor of 
Crawcombe Studley was transferred to the Kingsmill family, in which it 
still continues k . To whom the other estates were conveyed has not been 
traced. Out of the appropriation of Beckley, his son, Sir John Croke, 
conveyed to William Shillingford, otherwise Izod, by a deed dated the 
tenth of Elizabeth, loGS, the Rectory of Beckley, and some messuages 
and lands in the town of Beckley, reserving all rights and tithes in Studley, 
Horton, Ashe, Merlake, and Otmoor, except the tithes of beasts upon Ot- 
moor belonging to the towns of Beckley, Noke, and Oddington 1 . 



11 Grant, and Bargain and Sale. In Studley Chartulary, fol. 12,13. ' Deeds, penes me. 
Collinson's Somersetshire. ' Deed. 







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chap. ii. HISTORY OF STUDLEY PRIORY. 437 

From many fragments which have been found of pillars, friezes, and 
capitals, of the Saxon and Gothic styles of architecture, admirably ex- 
ecuted ; and of very large windows, with a great quantity of flowered 
paving bricks, of what are usually called Norman tiles, the Priory must 
have been a handsome building ; and there was a large Conventual 
Church™. How soon after the grant it was adapted to the purposes of 
domestic convenience, is not related. I apprehend that the principal part 
of the walls of the present house were those of the Priory, and, in par- 
ticular, the kitchen, the offices adjoining, and the eastern wing ; but it 
must have been much altered, and the windows all made new". As 
Master Croke, the purchaser, had built his principal seat at Chilton, it is 
probable that he did little to Studley, or even his son Sir John Croke, who 
resided at Chilton. I imagine that it was fitted up as a dwelling-house 
by Sir John Croke the Judge, the grandson of Master Croke. The old 
withdrawing room, the present dining room, had his arms inlaid over the 
chimney, being Croke with a label, impaled with Blount . This proves 
that that room, at least, was finished by him, after his marriage, and in the 
life-time of his father. As his father did not die till Judge Croke was 
fifty-five years of age, he must have lived at Studley from his marriage till 
that event took place. The Chapel was built long after, by Sir George 
Croke, and the stables have the date of 1666, and the initials of Alexander 
CrokeP. 

™ See the etching of them. I use the terms Saxon and Norman according to 
their usual acceptation, but the question of the origin of Gothic architecture has been 
very satisfactorily cleared up by late surveys of Normandy. It is certain, 1. that what we 
improperly style Saxon architecture, was a clumsy imitation of the Roman Orders, common 
all through Europe, and by the Normans introduced here: 2. that the intersection of the 
arches, and the erection of groined ceilings, gradually suggested the pointed arch : 
.5. that the pointed arch naturally lead to all the other peculiarities of the Gothic style. 

" The present appearance agrees in this with the information received by Hearne in his 
AValk to Studley. See Appendix, No. XXXIII. 

° 1 have preserved it. 

p Studley, or as it was formerly written, Estodeley, was probably derived from €rr. 
East, Pobe a wood, and Ley, uncultivated land, or I ege, a place. It would therefore 
signify, a woody place to the east, which is a proper description, being in the