raising Hugh Bellot to the station he might himself have occupied; but we may also suppose, that the Deanery of Westminster was a more eligible preferment, than a remote Welsh Diocese, in those ruder times. Mr. Yorke, in his Royal Tribes, says, that Bishop Bellot was employed by Elizabeth as one of the Translators of the English Bible, but on what authority he does not mention. His name is not given in Strype's Parker, and we may therefore suppose, that the aid he afforded to the Welsh translation of Morgan, may have led to the mistake, if it be one.

In mentioning this last particular to the honour of our Dean, we have overstepped the chronological order of events, because what remains will best conclude this Memoir.

In the year 1590, having obtained the necessary grant of mortmain from the Crown, which is in the Warden's possession, he extended his well exercised and unwearied benevolence to his native place, and founded the Wardenship of Ruthin as it now exists, endowing it with the Tithes of Ruthin and the adjoining Parish of Llanrhydd, which he redeemed, with a large sum of money from the Layhands, into which they had passed on the dissolution of the former Collegiate Church, in the reign of Edward VI., to which other small possessions have since been added by different pious and charitable persons. From the accounts we have of the former Establishment here, we are justified in the expression, that he re-founded, or restored in a great measure, the Collegiate Church, with such alteration as he deemed more consistent with the new order of things at the Reformation. In order to fortify this assertion, we shall give a brief account of this more antient College, which had been dissolved in the youthful days of its restorer. And for the information of those who may take an interest in the antiquities of Ruthin, a further digression may be acceptable.*

It must be observed then, that, antecedent to the erection of this small Collegiate or Conventual Church by John Lord Grey, Lord of the Cantref of Dyffryn Clwyd, on the ides of April, 1310, we find there had been an Establishment here, the Head

* For the following intelligence, the Author is greatly indebted to the Rev. JOHN JONES, Rector of Llanllyfni, who is so well acquainted with the Antiquities of his native Country.

of which was called the Prior. For, in Pope Nicholas's Taxation, in 1292, a document lately printed out of the Tower Records, by an order of the House of Commons, a MS. Copy of which is among the Bishop's Papers at Bangor, it appears that this Church was then very considerable, as the following extracts will testify:

This Priory must have been considerable in value, for the Abbot of Strata Florida, (Ystrâd Flûr), at the same period was only twenty-two Marks. The office of Dean of Dyffryn Clwyd throws light upon the History of this Rural Deanery, which is not to this day included in any of the Arch-deaconries of the Diocese, but is quite independent of any jurisdiction, save that of the Diocesan. We here learn the reason of this, viz: that it was originally superintended by an Ecclesiastical Dignitary under the Bishop, called the Dean, being the same as Arch-deacon, having his Official under him. Had his jurisdiction extended over more than one Deanery, he would have been called Arch-deacon, or rather Arch-decan, of which the former is probably a misnomer. The Prior and the Church of St. Peter mentioned above, are, probably, the White Friars alluded to by Bishop Tanner, and to this fraternity we must refer the name of a part of the Town adjoining Ruthin Church, called Prior Street, and that of a piece of Ground in the same vicinity, formerly called the Prior's Fish Pond, as appears by a document belonging to the Wardenship. These names cannot be connected with Lord Grey's College and Parochial Church which succeeded, the Head of which was not so denominated, as will shortly appear.

Reginald de Grey, the first Lord Grey de Ruthyn, came here about the year 1282, the first grant to him bearing that date. This grant must have somewhat interfered with the rights of the Bishop of Bangor, and Lord Grey being disposed to do the Church a service, by founding a new College of Secular Clergy, the Bishop of Bangor, Anian, was induced to enter into an amicable "Composition" with the temporal Lord. This Composition is preserved among the Archives at the Palace at Bangor,

and is said to have been formerly lodged in Ruthin Church, and enrolled in a Book of

great antiquity, called the swearing Bowke of the Town of Ruthin. The most material feature in this Composition is, that the Bishop stipulates not to ordain any of Lord Grey's Vassals without his permission, as that act would emancipate them, and to have the liberty of enjoying without molestation the goods of deceased Nuns, the administration of the temporal goods of the Ladies of Gwytheriac Nunnery, being, as it appears, a bone of contention between the temporal and spiritual Lords. Reginald de Grey, the first pojector of this new Collegiate Church, died before its completion, as appears by an inquisition after his death, taken by the King's Escheator, in 1307, which shews that he died possessed of the Castle of Ruthin, the Cantred of Dyffryn Clwyd, and three Villas in that of Englefield, viz: Penbedue, Maysmonan, and Blowite, all of which he held in capite, per servitium trium fœderum militum. His Son John obtained the Charter of the College in 1310. Dugdale and Tanner give short accounts of this Foundation, which are materially the same. The former says, that John de Grey obtained the previous consent of Sir Hugh, Rector of Llanrhydd, to whom he allows Ruthin Church to have been subordinate by custom as well as right. As Dugdale also says that the Founder obtained a grant of the Rectory of Llanrhydd, this, Sir Hugh must have consented on being made the first Principal of the College. The circumstance of the concurrence of the Rector of Llanrhydd determines a question which is still sometimes debated, as to whether Ruthin and Llanrhydd are distinct Parishes or not. They are considered distinct at present, though there are some customs in being which seem to bespeak their original identity. And it must be observed, also, that the Tithes of Ruthin followed the grant of the Rectory of Llanrhydd, and, therefore, must have been a part of it.

The Deed of John Lord Grey declares, that his Town of Ruthin having become populous, he had thought fit to assign to the Divine Worship the place and Ground where the Chapel (an appendage of the White Friars Church of St. Peter) had before been built, and to make the same a Collegiate Church, which should also be Parochial, in which there should be seven Priests to attend the Divine Praises, and to live in community on its revenues, under the direction of one, to be presented by the Patron, and approved by the Diocesan, and the said Rector of Llanrhydd (it must be sup

posed now, made the Head of the new Church) to find a Priest to say Mass, daily, in the Chapel of the Castle of Ruthin. Besides the Tithes of the Parish, he granted two hundred and five Acres of Land in his Towns of Rosmergan and Rue, to which, others distinguished by the names of the Tenants, were afterwards added, and most likely this addition was made in the year 1315, when the first confirmation of Privileges was made by Letters Patent, 8vo. Edward II. Where these Towns of Rosmergan and Rue were, cannot be ascertained precisely, but they must have been in the Vale of Clwyd, or Englefield, as the power of the Lords Grey extended no further. This Establishment seems to have undergone some transformations in the course of its existence, both as to the nature of some of its Members, as also in the Title of its Superior. Perhaps we are to understand that expression of Leland's which was quoted near the beginning of this Memoir, of a "Celle of Bonhommes being translated into the Parish Church," as implying that a body with this name was at one time annexed to it. As to the Title of its Principal, the earliest incumbent on record is Nicholas de Blechley, who is one of the attesting witnesses, in the year 1353, to a confirmation by inspeximus of the Composition before mentioned, and signs himself Rector de Ruthnet. The Title of Prior seems to have been laid aside after the year 1310, and the Rector of Llanrhydd being made the Head of the new Foundation, to have continued his Title. February 30th, 1512, John Greysley was instituted to the Church of St. Peter's, Ruthin, on the presentation of Edward Ferys, Esq.; 1535, November 11th, John Stryngar, M. A. was made Provost of the College, or Parochial Church of Ruthin, at the presentation of Henry Duke of Richmond. March 10th, 1541, Hugo ap Evan, Presbyter, was instituted Warden, or Rector of the Collegiate or Parochial Church of St. Peter's, at Ruthin, at the presentation of the King. The foregoing are Extracts from the Bishop's Register of Institutions, by which it appears, that at the time of the dissolution of this Church, the Head of it was denominated the Warden as at present. That this was the case a considerable time before, we have a proof, in the words of a Grant of Immunities to the Inhabitants of the Vale of Clwyd, by Henry VII., in which the Warden of Ruthin is mentioned.

In the interval between the dissolution of this College and its restoration by Dean Goodman, the Churches of Ruthin, Llanrhydd, and the Garrison Chapel at the

Castle, must have been served by Curates, paid by the new Impropriators of the Tithes. These Curates are continued by the statutes of the present Hospital or College, and are appointed by the Warden, under whose inspection they have the spiritual charge of the Parishes of Ruthin and Llanrhydd. There is a similarity, then, between the present and the former College, not only in the Title of its Principal, which Dean Goodman seems intentionally to have revived, but also in the Members having the same spiritual charge, for it appears the seven Priests of the former Establishment were a useful body of Secular Clergy doing Parochial Duty.* The present Wardenship of Doctor Goodman's revival is a Corporation, having a College and common Seal, and consisting of the President, who is the Diocesan and the Warden. The President has the power of apportioning the Stipends of both Warden and the twelve Poor of the Hospital, ten men and two women, who, from a coincidence in the name of their pious Founder, may be called the Bonhommes, or Goodman Pensioners of the modern Foundation. As to the Stipends of the Curates, though nothing is settled by the Founder, the regulation vests in the President in his character of Diocesan, but at the same time, it must be supposed, he is restricted within such limits, as shall keep entire the means for satisfying the statutable claims of the Warden and Hospital. A body of statutes for the government of the Hospital were drawn by the Founder, and are still maintained. The Dean and Chapter of Westminster appoint the Warden, and in default of exercising their patronage within six months, the Dean and Chapter of Bangor appoint for that time, and the Bishop of Bangor admits. The Founder's statutes direct, that the Warden shall be a Minister, or Priest, and a Preacher, (the latter being an office to which it is well known all Ministers were not admitted in the earlier years of the Reformation, or, indeed, necessarily at present, as the words of the Ordination Service shew), and shall behave himself according to the dignity of his function, to be a man of sound judgment in religion, and at least by degree a Master of Arts, of honest life and good fame, such a one, as

* The interior of Ruthin Church bears no resemblance at present to the usual arrangement of a Collegiate Church, though it possessed more of this some years ago, and, in appearance, cannot be distinguished from a mere Parish Church, yet it still retains that name, and is called in the Letters Patent, or Brief for its repair a Century ago, "The Collegiate and Parochial Church of Ruthin."