Rocester Abbey

With the advent of the Reformation and the attendant religious conflict raging throughout Europe, in September 1538, Henry VIII sealed his irrevocable rejection of Rome by an outrageous but hugely popular act of plunder on a scale hitherto unimaginable in English history - the dissolution of the monasteries. The vast wealth that accrued from declaring all former monastic estates to be crown land served Henry VIII well in a number of ways. Not only did it replenish the royal coffers, it allowed Henry to distribute a great deal of patronage in the form of leasehold grants to vast estates throughout his Kingdom. And it was not just the noble Earls and principal courtiers who prospered in this way - such patronage was an important factor in cementing the loyalty of the Shire Knights who administered the English counties at the direction of the Privy Council.

Described in many independent sources as a ‘favourite’ of Henry VIII, it was not long before Richard Trentham’s loyalty was rewarded with the granting of the lease of Rocester Abbey. Actually, it first came to one Edward Draycott - one of Thomas Cromwell’s men, in March 1540, and is recorded thus in the published Parish Register of Rocester:

“The king grants a lease to Edward Draycott Gent for 21 years of the House or Site of the late Monastery and lands in Rocester at the yearly rent of £36 8s 10d with reversion to Richard Trentham, to be held in capite by Knight Service rendering £3 18s yearly.”

The following year, the reversion to Richard Trentham was confirmed and Rocester Abbey became the principal family seat of the Trenthams until their extinction over a hundred years later.

At the time of the Dissolution itself in September 1538, the Abbey was perhaps the smallest of all the Augustinian Abbeys in England. It has often been noted that in most respects Rocester resembled more a Priory than an Abbey – yet Abbey it was, with nine canons under the Abbot, William Grafton, and a valuation taken in 1535 as £100 2s 10d comprising £46 13s 10d in spiritual income and £64 17s 9d income arising from estate lands. In March 1539, by Letters Patent, as Rocester Abbey was valued at less than £200, it was allowed to remain. Then in August 1539 the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, writes to the King’s principal secretary, Thomas Cromwell, urging commissioners to suppress the Staffordshire abbeys of Rocester, Tutbury and Croxden (see photo). The estate at this time comprised the Manor of Rocester, land and rents in Combridge, Quixhill, Ellastone, Stanton, Denstone, Swinscoe, Kingstone, Clownholme, Hognaston (Derby), Sedsall (Doveridge, Derby) and Scropton plus various churches, tithes and market rights.

The earliest known eyewitness description of Rocester Abbey was written by Staffordshire’s most notable early historian, Sampson Erdeswick, in his ‘A View of Staffordshire’ which he began about 1593, but which was not published until 1717. The Staffordshire Record Office contains two beautifully preserved original handwritten copies and his section on Rocester reads (see photo):

“The seat of the house [ of ‘Rowcester’] with demesnes, being both pleasant and very profitable, for that it stands between Dove and Churnett, a good pretty water, where it enters the Dove, is now the seat of Francis, the son of Thomas Trentham [III] which Thomas, his father [Richard], being in King Henry the Eighth’s time, a favourite, obtained it of the King. The Trenthams derive themselves from a house of the Trenthams, in Shropshire, which, in Henry the Sixth’s time, were of good account, but now quite decayed or gone, for I know none of the house remaining, this of Rowcester excepted which it pleaseth God to advance in good sort.”

Sadly for Richard Trentham, he only had a few years to establish himself at Rocester and when he died, in 1547, his only son and heir, Thomas Trentham III (1538-1587) was just nine years old. Interestingly, it was Sir Philip Draycott, the son of Edward Draycott who had first been granted the lease to Rocester Abbey, who was granted the young heir’s wardship. Sir Philip is credited with managing the Rocester estate so well that when Thomas came of age during the first year of Queen Elizabeth’s long reign the Manorship of Rocester Abbey was very profitable.

Copyright 2006 Jeremy Crick.