A Day in the life of Richard Prynce a lawyer (morning)

Portrait of Richard Prynce (image) [+]
Lawyer. (Image courtesy of J.Bryan)

This great building is much reduced to ruin, and the days of the monks are long gone. At least the people of the Foregate have a place to worship. I played my part in saving what remained of the Abbey church. William Langley, the tailor, who bought the abbey grounds and who now lives like a lord in the abbot’s old house, would have stripped the whole roof of lead if I and others had not prevented it. Not that I am against the sale of all abbey property. After all I have built my house on Abbey land out of Abbey stone. My neighbours Hatton and Rocke once found out that I was to buy the abbey manor from the crown and forced me to share it with them - curse them!.
(Image courtesy of Shrewsbury Museums Service and www.darwincountry.org)

Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury (image) [+]
The abbey church almost as Richard Prynce would have known it. The tower would have been higher in his day. (Image courtesy of Shrewsbury Museums Service and www.darwincountry.org)

How true is "Days in the life..."?

These dramatised accounts have been created by the Discovering Shropshire's History team. We used information taken from biographies of these individuals as researched by Bill Champion, author of "Everyday Life in Tudor Shrewsbury". These biographies, with the sources he used, can be seen in full by clicking on the "in depth" buttons on each page.