Welsh Journals

Miles Jeffys, vicar of Eardisland (Herefs.) ;65 William Cowpeland, vicar of St. Sepulchre's without Newgate, London ;66 William Wilson, rector of Hillington (Norfolk)67 and William ap Rice, vicar of Swansea.68 In none of these cases was Worcester the patron of the living. The patron of the Swansea vicarage was the warden of the hospital of St. David there, who may have appointed William ap Rice in order to oblige Worcester as marcher lord, but the relationship of the earl with the patrons of the other livings is obscure. Some of the priests concerned may indeed have entered Worcester's service at some date after securing their benefices. The chaplains already mentioned do not necessarily provide a full list of those in Worcester's service in the late 1530s. There may have been others, not necessarily beneficed.69 The duties which these chaplains performed can only be conjectured. Mass was no doubt said daily in Worcester's household, but in view of Nelson's involvement in estate administration and his occasional absence on Worcester's business,70 other chaplains may have been mainly responsible for officiating at services. They probably also undertook other duties, such as assisting in the education of Worcester's children. Beneficed chaplains regularly resident in the household would usually have been absentees from their benefices, as Nelson was from his rectories of Llanfihangel Cwmdu and Llangattock. In such cases they would have been required to make 44 Jeffys (or Geffeys) was instituted to the vicarage of Eardisland on 15 February 1524. The patron of the living was the prior and convent of Sheen (A. T. Bannister (ed.), Registrum Caroli Bothe (London, 1921), p. 336). He was appointed vicar of Leominster on 26 September 1537, the abbot and convent of Reading being the patron (ibid., p. 378). William Cowpeland (or Copland), Ll.B., was instituted as vicar of St. Sepulchre's on 18 December 1532. Thomas Cromwell was patron of the living (R. Newcourt, Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense (London, 1708-10), I, 534). He was instituted as rector of Allhallows, Bread Street, on 31 October 1537, the archbishop of Canterbury being patron (ibid., p. 246). 97 William Wilson was instituted as rector of Hillington in 1506. The patron was John, earl of Oxford (d. 1513) (F. Blomefield and C. Parkin, An Essay towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk (London, 1805-10), VIII, 467). The patron of the vicarage was the warden of the hospital of St. David at Swansea (W. R. B. Robinson, 'The Church in Gower before the Reformation', Morgannwg, XII, (1968), 13). There are later references to two other priests described as chaplains of Worcester. In 1546 he presented his chaplain William Wellinton to the church of Lancaut, of which he was patron ('Lands', Part 3, p. 470, n. 3). In 1553 William Jones, formerly chaplain of Henry, earl of Worcester, notary public and vicar of Marshfield (near Newport), made a deposition in proceedings in the consistory court of Gloucester concerning the testament of William Gough, who had died (about Easter 1550) in the household of Elizabeth, dowager-countess of Worcester (d. 1565) at Tintern (Gloucester City Library, Gloucester Diocesan Records, vol. i, pp. 246-47). Jones referred to himself as chaplain to the dowager-countess when he drew up Gough's will shortly before the latter's death. Jones is described in his deposition as being 39 years old and as having been at Marshfield for 18 years, evidently having become vicar c. 1534. He appears as vicar there in 1535 (Valor Ecclesiasticus, IV, 364), and received a dispensation to practise as a notary on 1 May 1548 (Faculty Office Registers, 1534-1549, p. 310). '° Nelson may have kept his own household in the house which he held at Chepstow.