_Thomas Capenhurst_, 12th abbot, succeeded in 1249. He was of the family of the mesne lords of Capenhurst, and had to struggle with a series of powerful enemies of the convent. The first was Roger de Montalt, justiciary of Chester, who endeavoured by means of the additional power which he enjoyed by his office, to wrest from the abbey restitution of the manors of Lawton, and Goosetrey, and the churches of Bruera, Neston, and Coddington, which had been given by his ancestors to the abbey. A portion of these possessions was occupied by an armed force, and the business was only compromised by severe sacrifices on the part of the monks. The resignation of Bretton manor is the only one noticed in the chronicle of the abbey, but the chartulary mentions several other losses, to which may certainly be added, that of Lea, in Broxton hundred, of which the Montalts had afterwards possession. The chronicle does not fail to notice the judgments of heaven on Roger de Montalt, that his eldest son died within fifteen days after the compromise, and that Roger himself died of want, his burial place remaining unknown unto the common people. A similar attempt to recover Astbury, was made by Roger Venables in 1259, and according to the Chronicle, was attended with an equal interposition of Providence, the Baron of Kinderton dying the year after. In 1263, another contest arose between the abbot and William la Zuche, justiciary, who occupied the abbey with an armed force, and proceeded to extremities of insult, which occasioned all the churches in Chester to be laid under an interdict. In the next year the gardens and buildings of the abbey in “Baggelon” were destroyed to facilitate the strengthening of Chester against a siege, which was apprehended from the barons and the Welshmen. Capenhurst survived this last grievance only one year, and dying 4 cal. May, 1265, was buried at the head of his predecessor, on the right hand of the entrance into the chapter-house. It is observable that however violent the measures were, to which the laity resorted at this period, for the purpose of wresting back from the church the possessions which the liberality of their ancestors had bestowed on it, the regular clergy themselves were little more scrupulous; witness the circumstances noticed in the contest between the abbots of Basingwerk and Chester, for the rectory of West Kirby, in which Ralph de Montalt, presented by this abbot, is positively stated to have been put into possession of his rectory in war time, by absolute force of arms.