1509. 26th May. John Pate, groom of the wardrobe of bedchamber, to be porter at Chirk Castle, in the Marches of Wales, as held by Edward Whittington. Greenwich, 19th May, 1st Henry VIII.

1509. 26th May. Launcelot Lother to be receiver of the lordships of Bromfield, Chirk, and Chirkland in the Marches of Wales. Greenwich, 18th May, 1st Henry VIII; Del. Croydon, 26th May.

1509. 13th October. William Aylmer, yeoman of the crown, to be keeper of Merseley Park, in the lordship of Bromfield, in the king's hands by the rebellion of Sir William Stanley, dec. Richmond, 2nd October, 1st Henry VIII.; Del. West., 13th October.

1509. 22nd November. Edward Guldeford to be chief steward, during pleasure, of the lordships of Lyon (Holt), Bromfield, and Iâl, lately held by Sir John Langford, deceased. Greenwich, 18th November; Del. West.

On the same day by letters patent, for Edward Guldeford, of Halden, in Kent, esquire of the body. Pardon and release as son and heir and administrator of Sir Richard Guldeford, master of the king's armoury, and bailiff of Winchelsea, farmer of Higham, alias Iham, in Co. Sussex. Greenwich, 10th November; Del. West.

1510. 24th January. Grant of the free chapel in the castle of Lyon, alias Holt, in the lordship of Bromfield and Yale, to Sir Anthony Byrne, clerk, in the same manner as William Alom formerly held it. West., 20th January; Del. West., 24th January.

of the lands of Edward ab Howel, in Bromneld, Flintshire, of which the reversion was forfeited by Sir William sian hot come unuer une cogize any umel, Dut viat

1 Amobragium, in Welsh Amobr or Amobrwy, which was a customary fee paid by a vassal to his lord on the marriage of his daughter.

2 Arddeler. "In legibus Sc. Wallicis ponitur pro vindiciis vel testimoniis, exceptionibus, vel defensionibus quibuslibet, quibus in causis probandis actor vel rens uti possit vel velit."-Wotton.

1511. 29th March. William Aylmer, yeoman of the Crown, to be bailiff, during pleasure, of the townships of Burton and Alynton, in the lordship of Bromfield. Greenwich, 27th March.

1511. 24th May. Del. West. Launcelot Lother. 1 Archæologia Cambrensis, vol. ii, p. 292 (see pp. 314, 316.)

sirs

nd new mill of Wrexham, in the Marches of Wales, nas, 2 Henry VIII, at the gether with a pasture, the d lordship, at the rent of VIII. Greenwich, 22nd

st. Edward Guldeford, ard of the castle of Lyon, rkland, and of Cynllaith d Marches, and constable ichaelmas, 1 Henry VIII, 0th June, 3 Henry VIII. st. Sir Charles Brandon, eiver, during pleasure, of te, the manors of Lyon, of Chirk, and the manor ynllaith Owain, in Chirk9th April, 4th Henry VIII. st. Sir Charles Brandon e. Greenwich, 19th April,

squire of the Body, was cipality of North Wales, William Griffith, and Sir 12th November, 1 Henry ember. 1610. 6th FebBench, as held by Sir e Body, deceased.

r William Smyth. Grant owel, in Bromfield, Flintis forfeited by Sir William

1517. 9th March, 8th Henry VIII. Del. West. For Edward ab Howel ab Maurice Goch, Pardon, as of Nantkenyn, or of Llancylarn, in the lordship of Chirk.

In 1522, an annual grant was ordered to be made by the Spiritualities, for the king's personal expenses in France, for the recovery of the Crown of the same.

Amongst other religious houses, I find that the abbots of the following monasteries had to pay as follows:

The other Welsh abbeys are not mentioned in the document in the Calendar of State Papers, Henry VIII (1552). This document is in a very bad and imperfect state, and the names of the other abbeys may have been lost.

1523. 24th July. Commission for Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, as Chief Justice of North Wales, steward of the lordships of the Holte, Bromfield, and Iâl, in Chirkland, and steward of divers lands of spiritual and temporal persons within the realm, to assemble the king's tenants and others in co. Anglesey, Carnarvon, and Merioned, North Wales, in the said lordship, in the borough of Southwark, Surrey, and in all the lordships of which he is steward, and muster them for war. West.

Del.

1526. Charles, Duke of Suffolk, seneschal and receiver of Bromfield, Yale, and Chirk, and chief justice of North Wales. £81 13s. 4d.

William Edwards,' constable of Chirk Castle, £10. John and Thomas Wrenne, auditors of Bromfield and Yale, Chirk and Dyffryn Clwyd cum Rhuthin, £19.

William Edwards, constable of Chirk Castle, and keeper of Black park, £13 0s. 8d.

In 1534, Henry VIII bestowed the lordships of Bromfield, Chirk, and Ïâl on his natural son, Henry Fitz-Roy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset, who had the possession of them given to him at Holt Castle, by the Duke of Norfolk and others; but he enjoyed these honours but a short time, as he died at the age of seventeen, in 1536, and the lordships and castles again reverted to the Crown.

1 Of Plâs Newydd, Esq. (see pp. 314, 316).

The arms of Henry Fitz-Roy (who was created Duke of Richmond and Somerset in 1525), as they appeared in the east window of Holt Church, were France and England, a border quarterly, ermine, and compony, argent and azure, a baton sinister of the second. An escutcheon, quarterly gules, and vaire or and vert, a lion rampant argent, on a chief azure, a castle between two buck's heads, caboched argent. In 1535, the monastery of Valle Crucis was suppressed, John Herne being then abbot. In 1538, 29th Henry VIII, the king granted Thomas Byrde, clerk, the free chapel or chantry in Holt Castle.1

1539. Henry VIII appointed Galfrid Bromfield, one of the Grooms of his chamber, to be keeper of the Little Park, at the king's castle of Chirk. (See Bryn y Wiwer, in the manor and parish of Rhiwabon.)

1539. 30th Henry VIII. The king gave the monastery of Valle Crucis, in the lordship of Iâl, and its dependencies in Bromfield and Chirk, to Sir William Pickering, of Oswald Kirke, in Yorkshire, knight. This grant is to be seen in the Exchequer Minister's Accounts, 29-30 Hen. VIII, No. 131, m. 7. In 1586, the abbey was wholly decayed, according to Camden. (See Iâl.)

Say, ivied Valle Crucis, time decayed,

Dim on the brink of Deva's wandering floods,
Your ivied arch glittering through the tangled shade;
Your grey hills towering o'er your night of woods,
Deep in the vale's recesses, as you stand,

And desolately great the rising sigh command."

Miss Seward's Vale of Llangollen.

1 Calendar of Patent Rolls, vol. 84.

2 Patent Rolls, 30 Henry VIII, part 7, m. 2 (30).

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