delyveryd yt to us the sayd Balys to kepe to the kynge’s use, till the kynges plesur was further known. Thys wyttenes we the sayd balys with other. per me Thomam Halle. per me Randull Rowdes.” (_Wright’s History of Ludlow, p. 342._) [40] This was a Chapel, built on the piers of the Bridge, dedicated to St Osyth, wife of the king of East Anglia, afterwards Abbess of a Monastic Church in Essex. According to tradition she suffered martyrdom, A.D. 870.—_See Butler, Vol. 2, p. 661._ An incidental proof of the state of penury to which these poor Friars of Bridgnorth were reduced, may be gathered from a note kept among the records of the town of Shrewsbury, of the expenses which were incurred by Roger Thomas, their senior Bailiff, and Thomas Bromley, afterwards Lord Chancellor, in a journey which they made from Shrewsbury to Bewdley on important business. On their return they stopped at Bridgnorth, and had their dinner at the principal inn, and this is the note of their expenses:—“Dener at Bruggenorth 3s. 4d.; to Shepay the frere 1d.” This Shepay was no doubt a member of the Grey Friars, who waited upon the travellers at their inn, to beg alms for his house. (_History of Shrewsbury, p. 302._) It might have been expected that when Queen Mary came to the throne she would have restored all the religious houses in England to their original use; but on the contrary, pressed by strong political motives, she confirmed by her own acts the confiscation, which had been made in the reign of Henry VIII., of the property belonging to them; and thus under a Popish sovereign it became irrecoverably alienated from the Church.[41] [41] Appendix E. The Hospital of St. James, Bridgnorth, affords a striking example of this. In the year 1566, the Queen, in conjunction with her husband Philip, made over to Sir J. Parrott, in consideration of £184 15s., and for his faithful services, all the property belonging to this Hospital.[42] In the year following, Sir J. Parrott transferred the same to Mr. R. Smith of Morville. In the following reign of Elizabeth, it was transferred to William Tupper and Robert Dawes; and the property, after passing through the various families of Smith, Dovy, Kinnersly, Nevitt, Tyner, and Bach, came into the family of _Stanier_, and now, by another turn in the wheel of time, the name of _Smith_ is again connected with the property. There was an order in Council at one time, that this estate should pay to Bridgnorth Church a yearly sum of twenty nobles—equal to £6 13s. 4d. This order was lost out of the town chest, and afterwards recovered; but in one of the wars it was burnt, after which the property rendered nothing but a pound of frankincense every Easter, to be burnt in the Church of the High Town: but this last customary payment has long been discontinued. [42] Dukes’ Antiquities, Appendix IX.