for a whole month, and the abbess was ordered to see
the sentence carried out.

Clemence Malyn was deposed from her office of sub-prioress and sextoness
on account of the careless manner in which she had performed the duties
of these offices, and she also, in answer to questions asked by the
vicar-general, acknowledged that she had frequently hidden a key of the
abbey church in a hole so that a certain Richard Johans might find it and
enter the church, and might drink in the sacristy wine with which she
provided him, though she denied having ever drunk with him or otherwise
misconducted herself. Margaret Doumar confessed that she had been guilty
of incontinence with Thomas Hordes, and she was severely punished: she was
to be imprisoned for a year, to hold no conversation with any sister save
her gaoler, she was to eat no food except bread and water every third and
sixth day of the week, and to receive chastisement on those days in the
Chapter House.

The nunnery was suppressed in 1539, and the fact that no pensions were
given to the abbess or sisters seems to point to the fact that the abbess
did not voluntarily surrender. Where this was done the monks or nuns were
generously treated by the King's commissioners, but when they refused to
surrender they were expelled without any provision being made for them.
What became of the majority of these expelled monks and nuns we do not
know, possibly any of those who were in priest's orders found work in
parish churches, but the case of the nuns was harder. We hear nothing of
the after life of any of the Romsey nuns save Jane Wadham, who married one
John Forster, who had been the collector of the abbey rents. She declared
that she had been forced to take the veil against her will, and he said he
had been similarly forced to enter the priesthood.

After the suppression the domestic buildings of the abbey disappeared--but
the church was sold to the people of Romsey by Henry VIII for the small
sum of L100. The deed of sale may still be seen in the clergy vestry at
Romsey. Queen Mary, at the beginning of her reign, restored some of the
church plate.

And so the history of the religious house at Romsey ends. In one respect
it was more fortunate than the neighbouring nunneries at Shaftesbury,
Wilton, and Amesbury. The abbey church remains until this day, and enables
us to form an idea of the arrangements in force in the churches of
Benedictine sisterhoods. Many monastic churches r