york00orns

276 YORK.
£,2 more. An epistoler and gospeller had each
^6. T3S. 4d. An annual stipend of the same amount
was L;ivcn to each of the six singing men, and
^3. 6s. 8d. to each of the children of the choir, with
a salary of ^10 a year to their master. A schoolmaster
" to tech gramer " was to be attached to the
foundation with a stipend of £,20. Provision was
made for servants' wages and for four almsmen belonging
to the churcli. The sum of £20 was to
be distributed yearly amongst poor householders,
and a like sum to be expended in the making of
highway.s.i
But the l)etter instincts which jjrompted the king
to ai)propiiate the possessions of Fountains to an
object so much in accordance with a religious foundation
were overmastered by the love of money and
the exigencies of the royal exchequer. A purchaser
offered himself in the person of a London merchant.
Sir Ricliard Gresham, and he received a grant of the
site of the monastery, the domain adjoining, and a
considerable portion of the estates, bringing in altogether
a rental of £1^'^ annum, for which he
was to pay at the rate of twenty years' purchase, viz.,
^7,000. The particulars are given in a letter from
Sir Richard to Cromwell. ^ The grant was made, and
the scheme for the bishopric was heard of no more.
The year 1538, which witnessed the suppression or
surrender of most of the greater monasteries, is the
same which dates the issue of an injunction by the
vicar-general for the keeping of registers in all parish
" Cf. " Memorials of Fountains Abbey," pp. 304, 305.
5 Ibid., p. 306.