mediocriter gaudentes) to the Pope having recently abolished all the jurisdiction, visitation, and supremacy exercised by the French Abbey of Premonstre over the English convents of the order, and having transferred such powers to the abbey of Welbeck. The king accordingly confirmed this, appointed the abbot one of his chaplains, and gave him authority to apprehend such monks as had thrown off their frocks, as apostates and fugitives (pro captione apostatarum et fugitivorum), wherever they might be found.63

The fate of Dureford was now approaching, and was not averted by the removal of the nominal supremacy of Premonstre. A few gifts still dropped in from pious friends. In 1519-20, John Cooper, of Harting, bequeathed 40s. to the convent; but probably the last gift it was destined to receive was from John Goring, who, in 1521, bequeathed 40s. to the Prior of Dureford.64

When ROBERT YORKE died is unknown; and the name of the next abbot which occurs is that of JOHN SYMPSON, destined to be the last of the series. Under him the abbey came to the end common to all the houses of its order in England. Abbot JOHN SYMPSON was invited to give his opinion on the dangerous question of the king's divorce, then in agitation, and his vote was given by the proxy of the Abbot of Tichfield, at the meeting of bishops and abbots, which took place in the chapter of St. Paul's, April 5, 1533.65

After a survey by the King's Commissioners, who valued its income at £108. 138. 9d., the site of the abbey was granted to Sir William Fitzwilliam in 1357. The fraudulent abstraction of the conventual property, which occasioned, in 1541, a judicial inquiry into the conduct of the late abbot, has been already detailed on a former occasion.66 Four of the last canons of Dureford appeared as witnesscs-William Sympson, the abbot's brother; John Wakelyn, petty canon of St. Paul's; John Heepe of Steep, near Petersfield, and Henry Dente of Priorsdene. The Commissioner, Sir Edward Mervyn, reported that many sheep and some church vestments of crimson velvet had been privately misappropriated

63 Rymer's Foed., vi, part 1, f. 35. 64 Collins's Peerage, ii, 439. Dallaway's Rape of Arundel, p. 281.

65 Fiddes's Wolsey, p. 201.
Sussex Arch. Collections, VI, 224.

by the abbot. JOHN SYMPSON had dealt with the conventual property on its forcible seizure by the crown in a manner probably sanctioned both by his brethren, and by the general opinion and practice of other convents in similar circumstances. With this discreditable scene of peculation the curtain finally fell all the monastic actors of Dureford Abbey, except upon that in 1553 there yet survived one of the former occupants, William Burton, who had been incumbent of a chantry here, and was then enjoying a state pension of £6. 13s. 4d. a year.67

A grant of the site in fee farm was in 1544-5 given to Sir Edward Mervyn, Knight,68 and in the beginning of Philip and Mary's reign, his heir, " Henry Marvyn, holding the late site of the monastery of Dureford and of others in Sussex,' was called upon to show by what title he held them.69 There may at that time have been some intention of its restoration, but of this there is no further evidence.

A similar inquiry as to title took place in 1616-7, when Bishop Thomas Bilson was called upon to defend it from seizure by the crown, and the descendants of his heirs have continued to hold land in this neighbourhood.70

On the dissolution of the conventual establishment, its civil possessors soon deprived the site of all the distinctive marks of its former purpose. The principal buildings, including the church, were effectually destroyed. No one can now, with any probability, trace where the "miches and black loafs" were baked, or the conventual beer brewed. The chapter-house, where so many profitable corrodies were signed, and so many anxious elections for abbots decided, is utterly gone, unless the broken tiles occasionally found may mark its whereabouts nor need we look for the chambers and the hall where a king once lodged and banqueted, and the Father Abbot was wont to arrive at "supper time." The annual "white gloves," or "gold shoes," or "rose in June," are no longer required; while, on the other hand, the significant restriction of Alan de St. George, disabling the canons "from receiving more from himself or his heirs," has been fulfilled beyond his meaning. Cattle and swine may now roam over the spots where so many

67 Willis's Hist. Abbeys, ii, 237. 68 Add. MSS. 5706, f. 213, from Regist. Crown Grants.

69 Pasch. Record., 1 and 2 Philip and Mary, rot. 47.

70 Trin. Record, 14 Jas. I, rot. 8.

generations of pious worshippers knelt before the altars of "the Holy Cross," "St. Mary," or "St. Catherine;" and the many lamps and candles which the donors intended to burn "night and day for ever" before them, are all put out. Two old rusty keys, a few foundations near a barn, some scattered stones of carved mouldings, some of which are incrusted in modern walls, have been found, and there is a tradition that the east window of Rogate church was taken from the ruins. of the abbey.

The

Of all the great and good, who may have been here buried, one monumental stone alone, probably of the thirteenth century, remains, placed upright in a modern wall. From this all name and date are effaced, though, as if in mockery, the words "vir pie memorie" still remain legible on it. formula of inviting the prayers of the pious for the repose of the soul of this now forgotten Christian, imperfectly traceable, seems to have run thus:-ic sepultus est vir pie memorie anima ejus per misericordiam Dei requiescat in pace, Amen. (See woodcut, p. 96.)

Some part of the ancient structure seems to have been converted into a dwelling-house, and of this drawings, now in the British Museum, were taken in 1782, by S. H. Grimm.71 From copies of these the accompanying woodcuts have been made; but no remains of such a building now exist, and it must have been wholly demolished by the proprietor, Lord Stawell, two years after the views were taken by Grimm, to make way for the modern farm-house which now occupies the site, and on the east front of which is inscribed, "L" S. 1784." No impression of any seal of Dureford Abbey has been found.

The following Abbots of Dureford have been noticed in these pages; but the series, though much fuller than any previously collected, is probably yet incomplete.

Aildric, Prior of Dureford, time Henry II.

Robert, Abbot of Dureford 1173-80, 1204, 1229.

William, 1236-37, 1242, 1244.

Valentine, 1248, 1252.

John, 1263, 1267, 1270, 1271, 1279, 1281, 1286.

Osbert, 1310.

John, 1321.

Thomas, 1323, 1327.

John atte Re, 1364.

71 Add. MSS. 5675, p. 28, forming part of the Burrell Collection.

John Ultinge, 1404.

Nicholas Baldeking, 1411.

John Ultyng, 1418.
Walter, 1465.

Robert Kyppyng, resigned 1501.
Robert Yorke, 1501.

John Sympson, surrendered 1534.

NOTE. Since the description of the tile No 4, at p. 61, was printed, an entire tile has been found at the Society of Antiquaries, from Warblington, by which it appears that the fourth or missing coat of arms is that of Despenser.