In the premises belonging to the Red Bull, No. 83, nearly opposite, have been discovered human bones, which has caused some to suppose it the place of interment for the religious, belonging to the priory, which I rather doubt.

At the dissolution of the abbies, in 1536, the King’s visitors valued the annual income at the trifling sum of 8_l_. 8s. 9d.

The patronage continued chiefly in the head of the Birmingham family.  Dugdale gives us a list of some of the Priors, who held dominion in this little common wealth, from 1326, ’till the total annihilation, being 210 years.

     Robert Marmion,
     Robert Cappe,
     Thomas Edmunds,
     John Frothward,
     Robert Browne,
     John Port,
     William Priestwood,
     Henry Drayton,
     John Cheyne,
     Henry Bradley,
     Thomas Salpin,
     Sir Edward Toste,
          AND
     Henry Hody.

Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, a man of much honour, more capacity, and yet more spirit, was the instrument with which Henry the Eighth destroyed the abbies; but Henry, like a true politician of the house of Tudor, wisely threw the blame upon the instrument, held it forth to the public in an odious light, and then sacrificed it to appease an angry people.

This destructive measure against the religious houses, originated from royal letchery, and was replete with consequence.

It opened the fountains of learning, at that day confined to the monastry, and the streams diffused themselves through various ranks of men.  The revival of letters and of science made a rapid progress:  It soon appeared, that the stagnate knowledge of the priest, was abundantly mixed with error; but now, running through the laity, who had no private interest to serve, it became more pure.

It removed great numbers of men, who lay as a dead weight upon the community, and they became useful members of society:  When younger sons could no longer find an asylum within the gloomy walls of a convent, they sought a livelihood in trade.  Commerce, therefore, was taught to crowd her sails, cross the western ocean, fill the country with riches, and change an idle spirit into that of industry.

By the destruction of religious houses, architecture sustained a temporary wound:  They were by far the most magnificent and expensive buildings in the kingdoms, far surpassing those of the nobility; some of these structures are yet habitable, though the major part are gone to decay.  But modern architecture hath since out-done the former splendor of the abbey, in use and elegance and sometimes with the profits arising from the abbey lands.

It also shut the door of charity against the impostor, the helpless, and the idle, who had found here their chief supply; and gave rise to one of the best laws ever invented by human wisdom that of each parish supporting its own poor.

By the annihilation of abbots, the church lost its weight in Parliament, and the vote was thrown into the hands of the temporal Lords.