In 1528 it was the Abbot of Whitby, John Hexham, who had to defend himself in the Star Chamber. He was accused of being in league with William and John Loder, two French pirates, who on 10 July 1528 seized a Dantzig vessel, the “Jesus,” Hans Ganth master, while she lay in the Humber, took her to Whitby, and there sold her to the Abbot, John Conyers, Gregory Conyers, John Ledam and John Pecock, who bought her “perfectly knowing the same ship and goods to be the proper goods of your suppliant,” and who refused to give her up when claimed by her rightful owners[184]. The Abbot’s defence is lost, and he may have been able to clear himself, but the circumstances look awkward. Gregory Conyers, of whom more will be heard, was the servant and close ally of the Abbot. It is uncertain how he was related to the great family of Conyers to which Sir Francis Bigod’s wife belonged, but there is no doubt about the deadly feud which he waged with Sir Francis until he hunted his enemy to death. In 1536 the Abbot of Whitby accused Sir Francis of a great riot committed against the convent of Whitby, and in revenge Bigod and his servants quarrelled with Gregory Conyers and other servants of the Abbot at Whitby Fair on 25 August, St Hilda’s Day, and would have killed him had not some of the other gentlemen interfered[185]. The Abbot begged that Conyers and Bigod might be reconciled, but naturally no formal reconciliation had any effect. As in the matter of the piracy we do not know the Abbot’s defence, so in this case we do not know Bigod’s, but it is certain that Sir Francis was in debt to the Abbot, which would probably aggravate the young knight still further, whatever the original rights and wrongs may have been. In 1535 Sir Francis Bigod by persuasion or threats induced Abbot Hexham to resign his office to his young kinsman, William Newton, a monk of Whitby. This did not at all suit Gregory Conyers or the other monks, and they insisted that he must withdraw his resignation. Both sides appealed to Cromwell, to whom Bigod wrote on 7 January 1535–6 that “the monks watch him (the Abbot) like crows about a carrion, and will not suffer the monk (Newton) or me to speak with him alone.”[186] Cromwell, as usual, was ready to settle the matter in favour of the highest bidder, who in this case seems to have been the Abbot[187]. Sir Francis was examined in Hilary term and warned to trouble the monks no more. Nevertheless on 19 June 1536 the Abbot wrote to Cromwell to ask that Bigod might not occupy the office of under-steward, or, if he must surrender it to him, that the condition might be made “that he make no use of it to revenge himself on us, as we hear he intends.... If Sir Francis occupy that office, and James Conyers the bailiwick, the two being so maliciously bent against us, we shall be brought into continual trouble. The bailly is a very uncharitable and angry man, and so aged that he is almost past reason.”[188]