Monarchy

The truth about the deaths of Abbot Richard Whitng and his two monks Dom Roger James and Dom John Thorne on the summit of Glastonbury Tor, 15th November 1539, is a complex issue. Most of the information about Whitings arrest, trial, and crime are 'missing'. Below is an extract from my published research - as you can see, pointing the finger at one person or group is almost impossible. In addition to the people detailed below, others 'involved' are Vicar General Thomas Cromwell, Dr. Richard Layton, The Seymour family, and (of course) King Henry VIII:

From Remember Richard Whiting by Jon Cousins 2007 (Glastonbury Documents No. 1)

In November 1539, after being released from the Tower of London, "Whiting journeyed back to Somerset in the company of Richard Pollard (one of the commissioners who had originally arrested him), "although Abbot Whiting had evidently been left in ignorance of the fact that there was now no Glastonbury Abbey for him to return to." (from Dom Francis Aidan Gasquet OSB, The Last Abbot Of Glastonbury And Other Essays - first published as a "small book for a special occasion" in 1895; being later published in a collection of essays 1908 - p 63). While Whiting was imprisoned in the Tower, the commissioners at Glastonbury had dismissed the Abbey's servants, evicted the monks; and the physical destruction of the building had already begun.

A trial in Wells had been arranged by John, Lord Russell, "His business had been to get together a jury which he could trust to do, or perhaps in this case tacitly countenance, the King's will." (Gasquet, p 64). In a letter to Cromwell after the execution, Russell encloses a list of the names of the jury. Oddly, the letter still exists, but the list of jurors has vanished! The mysterious disappearances continue with any official records of the trial, which took place on Friday 14th November, as soon as Whiting arrived in Wells. Even Pollard's letter to Cromwell, written on the day of the execution "is wanting in the vast mass of Crumwell's papers."(p 65). There are, however, two letters that do survive, "both were written on the Sunday (16th), the day following the execution," one is also by Pollard, the other is that of Lord Russell's, with its missing jurors list.

According to Geoffrey Ashe's King Arthur's Avalon, the trial took place in the Bishop's Palace (p 333). Interestingly, Gasquet relates that Pollard's letter does mention some of the jury by name: Paulet (referred to as "my brother"), John Sydenham, Thomas Horner (of 'Little Jack' fame), and Nicholas FitzJames - distinguishing himself to history as a scoundrel of the first degree, for in 1535 the same Nicholas FitzJames, as friend of the Abbot (!), had written to Cromwell supporting Richard Whiting and petitioning against the Vicar General's impracticable injunctions upon Glastonbury …

In Lord Russell's letter we are informed that Whiting was tried with two other Glastonbury monks - John Thorne (aka John Arthur), and Roger James (aka Roger Wilfrid) - for the "robbing of Glastonbury Church." (p 60). "Of any verdict or of any condemnation of the abbot and his two monks nothing is said by Russell or Pollard, but they proceed at once to the execution." (p 66 ff).

Gasquet does not go into detail about the executions, "there is here no need to dwell on the butchery which followed." (p 71). He does however quote from Pollard's letter: "They took their deaths very patiently whose souls God pardon." (p 71). In King Arthur's Avalon, Geoffrey Ashe is not so coy. "A horse dragged him through the town, past the desolate Abbey, and up the Tor. On the summit beside the tower of St. Michael the gallows were set up." (p 333 ff). After the hanging the "executioners cut Whiting's body down, struck the head off, and placed it over the Abbey gate. Then they hacked the rest of the corpse into four pieces. One was exhibited at Wells, one at Bath, one at Ilchester, and one at Bridgwater." (p 334).

Rev. A. D. Crake's 1883 historical fiction, The Last Abbot Of Glastonbury, is part of a series of "original tales illustrating Church History to the public" (preface p i). Although a fiction based around the Dissolution of the Monasteries, there are numerous historically accurate details about the last days of the Abbey, Richard Whiting, and a dramatic, chilling description of the preparation for the executions on the Tor:

"Upon the summit of the hill men are working all through the storms of the night, erecting a huge gibbet, from the cross beam of which three ropes are now dependent; beneath is a huge block, like a butcher's block, and a ghastly cleaver and saw rest upon it; hard by stands a caldron of pitch, which but awaits the kindling match to boil and bubble." (p 68 ff).

Crake also reproduces part of Lord Russell's letter of 16th November: "My Lorde - thies shal be to asserteyne that on Thursday the xiii. daye of this present moneth [?], the Abbot was arrayned, and the next daye putt to execution, with ii. other of his monkes, for the robbyng of Glastonburye Churche ; on the Torre Hill, the seyde Abbottes body beyng devyded in fower partes, and his heedd stryken off, whereof oone quarter stondyth at Welles, another at Bathe, and at Ylchester and Brigewater the rest, and his hedd upon the abbey gate at Glaston." (p 72)."