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This document contains a transcription and commentary on the Syon Abbey Dissolution Inventory (November 1539), TNA LR 2/112, with TNA E 117/11/58 and Oxford University Bodleian MS Add. E. 3
We are fortunate in possessing three official documents which cast light on the dissolution of Syon Abbey on 28 November 1539. One is a contemporaneous inventory which gives details of the total value of Syon, its possessions, and their sale. However, as the inventory was never finalised, a ‘total value’ is missing. This is TNA LR2/112. A second inventory, TNA E117/11/58, is dated by the National Archives in Kew as being between 1547 to 1558. This inventory contains summarised values for Syon, along with St Albans and St Mary Spital, rather than a complete listing of Syon’s goods. Finally, a third document was compiled in 1551, and details the gold and silver plate taken from Syon and other religious houses. It is now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford (BODLEIAN MS Add. E. 3 (R)).
These three documents form the main basis of our knowledge of the possessions of Syon at its dissolution.
Account Roll of John Pickarell, Cofferer to Edward Duke of Somerset May 1553 (British Library Egerton MS 2815)
Transcribed by Stuart Forbes
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Account Roll of John Pickarell, Cofferer to Edward Duke of Somerset May 1553 (British Library Egerton MS 2815)
John Pickarell was Cofferer, or Treasurer, to the Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset. The account roll covers the period 1st April 1548 – 7th October 1551. Thus it ends nine days before Somerset was sent to the Tower of London for the second time. He was not released again and was eventually executed on 22nd January 1552.
The account roll was commissioned on 5th August 1552 by Sir Richard Sackeville, Chancellor and Sir Walter Mildmaye, a Surveyor, both of the Court of Augmentation. It was completed and sworn before them by John Pickarell on 28th May 1553. The roll contains the account of the Duke’s household and building expenditure, including Syon House, over that three and a half year period.
The Syon Abbey Society 