Monastic Wales.








Event detail for site: Ruthin

1535: Dissolution

Ruthin was dissolved in 1535 with the lesser religious houses.

At this time the house was under the patronage of the earl of Kent.
Houses of secular clergy were suppressed several years later which indicates that in 1535 Ruthin accommodated a regular community. Moreover, when the antiquary John Leland visited the area c. 1535 he was told that the house of Bonhommes Canons there had recently been converted into a parish chapel.
In 1553 there were still four former religious of Ruthin College receiving pensions which, as Knowles and Hadcock argue [Medieval Religious Houses], suggests that there may have been about seven canons at Ruthin at the time of its suppression.

Bibliographical sources

Printed sources

Medieval Religious Houses, England and Wales, ed. R. Neville Hadcock and David Knowles (Harlow, 1971) p. 204

Stöber, Karen, Late Medieval Monasteries and their Patrons: England and Wales, c.1300-1540, Studies in the History of Medieval Religion, 29 (Woodbridge, 2007) pp. 50-51

Other events in the history of this site

1310: Foundation - The foundation of the house is attributed to John de Grey (d. 1323), son of Reginald, the first lord Grey of Ruthin.  [1 sources]
c.1375: Building work - A south aisle was added in the latter half of the fourteenth century.
 [1 sources]
1478: Papal petition - A monk of the Cistercian abbey of Dundrennan, Scotland, sought papal permission to transfer to Ruthin. [1 sources]
c.1479: Dispersal - It seems that by 1478 Ruthin had failed and the community had dispersed. [3 sources]
1485x1508: Construction work - The construction of the roof of the north aisle is thought to have been undertaken at this time, on account of the heraldry here. [1 sources]
1535: Dissolution - Ruthin was dissolved in 1535 with the lesser religious houses. [2 sources]
 
Graphic.