| AdminBiogHistory | Under his will, dated 30 December 1546, Henry VIII had ordained masses and obits to be celebrated, a weekly sermon to be preached, and alms to be given to the poor and the Poor Knights (known from 1833 as the Military Knights). In order to support this, the Dean and Canons of Windsor ( D & C ) were to be given manors, lands, tenements and spiritualities to the annual value of £600, in exchange for certain properties conveyed by the Dean and Canons to Henry VIII in 1546. These included the manor and rectory of Iver, Buckinghamshire, and Damary Court manor, Dorset.
After Henry VIII's death on 28 January 1547, following the terms of Henry's will, Edward VI made an extensive grant of properties to the D & C, known collectively as the New Dotation. The original conveyance, dated 4 August 1547, is held in The National Archives [E 305/15/F43]. On 7 October 1547 formal seisin of these lands was effected by letters patent. However, the purposes to which the income should be put were supposed to be specified by the King's executors in another document which was never drafted.
From thenceforth, all pre-1547 grants became known as the Old Dotation.
In the King's Book, the lands of the New Dotation were reckoned to be worth £661 6s 8d, but by 1547, owing to improved rents, they were worth £812 2s 9d. |