Richard Whiting

Richard Whiting was born in about 1460. He studied at the University of Cambridge and graduated in 1483. He was ordained deacon in 1500 and priest in 1501, and held for some years the office of chamberlain of Glastonbury Abbey. In February, 1525, he was selected by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey as the new abbot after the death of Richard Bere. (1)

According to his biographer, Nicholas Doggett: "Whiting appears to have lived the typical life of a late medieval abbot of a great house (Glastonbury had the highest net income of any English monastery in 1535). He was fond of hunting, entertained on a grand scale, attended parliament, and presented Christmas gifts to the king. He continued the intensive building work begun under Bere, including the completion of St Edgar's Chapel at the east end of the abbey church.... He also maintained the tradition of hospitality to all, with the abbey feeding the poor of the neighbourhood twice weekly. His abbacy coincided with a period of general decline for the Benedictines, yet at Glastonbury the number of monks rose from forty-six to fifty-four." (2)

Richard Whiting & Thomas Cromwell

In January 1535, Thomas Cromwell was appointed as Vicar-General. This made him the King's deputy as Supreme Head of the Church. In September he suspended the authority of every bishop in the country so that the six canon lawyers he had appointed as his agents could complete their surveys of the monasteries. (3)

Cromwell provided his agents with eighty-six questions. This included: "Whether the divine service was kept up, day and night, in the right hours?"; "Whether they (monks) kept company with women, within or without the monastery?"; "Whether they had any boys lying by them?; "Whether any of the brethren were incorrigible?" "Whether you do wear your religious habit continually, and never leave it off but when you go to bed?"

Dissolution of the Monasteries

A Parliament was called in February 1536 to discuss these reports. Cromwell's agents found nothing wrong at Glastonbury Abbey but some of the reports were very damaging. It was claimed that William Thirsk, the abbott of Fountains Abbey was guilty of "theft and sacrilege, stealing and selling the valuables of the abbey and wasting the wood, cattle, etc of the estates". He was also claimed that he kept "six whores". The canons of Leicester Abbey were accused of homosexuality. The prior of Crutched Friars was found in bed with a woman at eleven o'clock on a Friday morning. The abbot of West Langdon Abbey was described as the "drunkenest knave living." (4)

When the issue was discussed in the House of Lords, the Lutherians, led by Hugh Latimer, recently appointed as the Bishop of Worcester, supported the measure to close the smaller monasteries. Latimer later recalled that when "when their enormities were first read in the parliament house, they were so great and abominable that there was nothing but down with them". The Act for the Dissolution of Monasteries was passed and received royal assent on 14th April. This stated that all religious houses with an annual income of less than £200 were to be "suppressed". (5)

In 1538 Cromwell's agents visited Glastonbury Abbey again. This time they were more critical of Richard Wilding's leadership. They identified divisions among the monks, especially between the older and younger ones, and that the abbot had his favourites in the community. Whiting was also also accused of spending too much away from the monastery and living at his manors of Sturminster Newton in Dorset and Ashbury in Berkshire. (6)

Execution of Richard Whiting

On 19th September 1539, Richard Layton, Thomas Moyle, and Richard Pollard arrived at the abbey without warning. (7) They were not convinced about Whiting's answers and he was sent to the Tower of London. They discovered a book condemning Henry VIII's divorce from Catherine of Aragon. They also discovered evidence that Whiting hid a number of precious objects from Cromwell's agents. (8)

The commissioners wrote to Thomas Cromwell claiming that they had now come to the knowledge of "divers (many) and sundry treasons committed by the Abbot of Glastonbury". Whiting was sent back to Somerset in the care of Richard Pollard and reached Wells on 14 November. "Here some sort of trial apparently took place, and next day, Saturday, 15th November, he was taken to Glastonbury with two of his monks, Dom John Thorne and Dom Roger James, where all three were fastened upon hurdles and dragged by horses to the top of Toe Hill which overlooks the town. Here they were hanged, drawn and quartered, Abbot Whiting's head being fastened over the gate of the now deserted abbey and his limbs exposed at Wells, Bath, Ilchester and Bridgewater." (9)

Primary Sources

(1) Nicholas Doggett, Richard Whiting : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

Whiting appears to have lived the typical life of a late medieval abbot of a great house (Glastonbury had the highest net income of any English monastery in 1535). He was fond of hunting, entertained on a grand scale, attended parliament, and presented Christmas gifts to the king. He continued the intensive building work begun under Bere, including the completion of St Edgar's Chapel at the east end of the abbey church. As late as 1539 he was concerning himself with having his own arms set up on new buildings at Glastonbury. He also maintained the tradition of hospitality to all, with the abbey feeding the poor of the neighbourhood twice weekly. His abbacy coincided with a period of general decline for the Benedictines, yet at Glastonbury the number of monks rose from forty-six to fifty-four. During the 1530s, moreover, there was an increase in the number of monks who went from Glastonbury to Gloucester College at Oxford, even though Whiting himself seems to have been more interested in music than scholarship, making arrangements in 1534 for the instruction of the choirboys. A visitation in 1538 suggests that there were divisions among the monks, especially between the older and younger ones, and that the abbot had his favourites in the community.

(2) Gilbert Huddleston, The Catholic Encyclopedia (1912)

Whatever the charge, however, Whiting was sent back to Somerset in the care of Pollard and reached Wells on 14 November. Here some sort of trial apparently took place, and next day, Saturday, 15 November, he was taken to Glastonbury with two of his monks, Dom John Thorne and Dom Roger James, where all three were fastened upon hurdles and dragged by horses to the top of Toe Hill which overlooks the town. Here they were hanged, drawn and quartered, Abbot Whiting's head being fastened over the gate of the now deserted abbey and his limbs exposed at Wells, Bath, Ilchester and Bridgewater. Richard Whiting was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in his decree of 13 May, 1895.