Pensions awarded to members of the Fountains community at the dissolution of the abbey in 1539
The thirty monks who gathered with their abbot and prior in the
chapter-house at Fountains for the last time on 26 November, 1539,
signed the deed surrendering their abbey and its belongings to
the royal commissioners. In so doing they terminated monastic life
at Fountains. In return for their compliance, the monks each received
a pension, relative to their standing and position within the monastery.
All the monks of Fountains at this time were priests, and the size
of their pension must have depended on the how long they had been
a Cistercian monk, and whether they had held an important monastic
office. Interestingly, the monks accused of offences by Doctors
Layton and Legh do not seem to have been penalised and appear on
the pension list. The pensions awarded to the Fountains community
were comparatively high, and Marmaduke
Bradley, the former abbot
of Fountains, did particularly well. He was able to maintain an
affluent lifestyle, enjoying the high living that he had grown
accustomed to as abbot of Fountains.
The following information is taken from Vickers and Cross, Monks,
Friars and Nuns in Sixteenth-century Yorkshire, pp. 115-128.
