The poverty of the nunneries was manifested in many ways. One of these was the extreme prevalence of debt. On the occasion of Bishop Alnwick's visitations, to which reference has been made above, no less than eleven houses were found to be in debt[445]. At Ankerwyke the debts amounted to L40, at Langley to L50, at Stixwould to 80 marks, at Harrold to 20 marks, at Rothwell to 6 marks. Markyate was "indebted to divers creditors for a great sum." Heynings was in debt owing to costly repairs and to several bad harvests, and about the same time a petition from the nuns stated that they had "mortgaged for no short time their possessions and rents and thus remain irrecoverably pledged, have incurred various very heavy debts and are much depressed and brought to great and manifest poverty"[446]. In some cases the prioresses claimed to have reduced an initial debt; the Prioress of St Michael's, Stamford, said that on her installation twelve years previously the debts stood at L20 and that they were now only 20 marks; the Prioress of Gracedieu said that she had reduced debts from L48 to L38; the Prioress of Legbourne said that the debts were now only L14 instead of L63[447]. But from the miserable poverty of some of these houses (for instance Gokewell, where the income in rents was said to be L10 yearly and Langley, where it was L20, less than half the amount of the debts) it may be inferred that the struggle to repay creditors out of an already insufficient income was a hopeless one; and the effort to do so out of capital was often more disastrous still. Nothing is more striking than the lists of debts which figure in the account rolls of medieval nunneries. In thirteen out of seventeen account rolls belonging to St Michael's Stamford[448] and ranging between 1304 and 1410, the nuns end the year with a deficit; and in fourteen cases there is a schedule of debts added to the account. Sometimes the amount owed is small, but occasionally it is very large. In the first roll which has survived (1304-5) the deficit on the account is some L5 odd; the debts are entered as L23. 1_s._ 11_d._ on the present year (which were apparently afterwards paid, because the items were marked "vacat pour ceo ke le deners sount paye") and fifteen items amounting to L52. 3_s._ 8_d._ and described as "nos auncienes dettes estre cest aan"; in fact the debts amount to considerably more than the income entered in the roll[449]. Similarly in 1346-47 the debts amount to L51 odd and in 1376-77 to L53 odd, and in other years to smaller sums. In some cases a list of debts due to the convent is also entered in the account, but in only four of these does the money owed to the house exceed the amount owing by it; and "argent aprompte" or "money borrowed" is a regular item in the credit account. Similarly the treasuresses' accounts of Gracedieu end with long schedules of debts due by the house[450]. Nor was it only the small houses which got into debt.