The payment of £9 to Kenilworth Abbey appears as £9 11s. 4d. in the _Valor_ of that Abbey, but there is no entry of the 2s. paid by the Priory of St. Thomas, Stafford (_V.E._, p. 111), or of the £2 3s. paid from the churches of Berkswich, Bushbury, and Weston (_V.E._, p. 129). In the valuation after the Dissolution (_Monasticon_, vi, 233), Coppenhall and Darlaston are omitted, but Myford, 3s.; Fulford, 8s.; Tittensor (tithes), £2 13s. 4d., and Burston (tithes), 10s. 4d., are added; also a fulling-mill at Stone worth £1 6s. 8d., and Madeley Rectory, £9 6s. 8d. Decreases are the demesne at Stone (to £5 0s. 4d.), rents in Stafford (3s. 4d.), Stone Rectory (£39 10s.), Tyso Rectory (£22), Milwich Rectory, £4. The rents at Stone had increased to £49 8s. 10d., at Stallington to £23 6s. 8d., at Walton to £6 0s. 4d., at Stoke (with Aston, Darlaston, and Burston) from £3 16s. to £7 11s. 6½d., at Shebridge to £2, at Walton to £8 0s. 5d., and at Hilderstone to 5s. The Court perquisites at Stone Manor had also risen to £1 6s. 8d.; this with the decrease in the value of the demesne and the enormous increase in rents shows that a considerable part of the demesne had been let. The total valuation is £199 19s. 1½d. TRENTHAM PRIORY The Priory of Trentham had always been an aristocratic house, intimately connected in its early days with the Earls of Chester and later with the Earls of Lancaster, their successors. It had, of course, been involved in the struggles of its patrons. In the early days of Stephen, during one of the periods when Earl Ralf was on Matilda’s side, he allowed her (1139) to nominate the Prior of his house at Trentham. The Prior was declared to be appointed _tam largitione quam presentacione venerabilis Domine nostre Matilde_.[111] During the rebellion of Thomas of Lancaster Prior Richard de Lavynden died (1321). Lancaster promptly asserted his claim to the presentation, forcibly entered the house against the wish of the Canons--or so they subsequently asserted when Lancaster fell--and insisted on the election of Richard de Dulverne. Dulverne petitioned the King, immediately after Lancaster’s execution, to allow his election. Edward II assented, on receiving a fine of forty marks, but asserted that the right of preservation had “always” belonged to the Crown.[112] Edward II also enforced his claim to nominate to corrodies at Trentham with vigour and harshness, and _Valor Ecclesiasticus_ shows that the claim was still maintained in the reign of Henry VIII. But the royal patronage of Trentham did not avail to protect the Priory in times of disorder. In 1428 Prior Thomas had his goods plundered by Richard Twigg of Ashbourn, who also laid in wait to kill him, so that he had to keep a bodyguard of defenders.