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Detail from auditor’s report

Document 6: Part of the particulars for the sale of the manor of Bulmershe, near Reading in Berkshire, dated 17 June 1554.

(Catalogue reference: E 318/11/507)

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About this document

This document, dated 17 June 1554, forms part of the particulars for the sale of the manor of Bulmershe, near Reading in Berkshire.

Particulars for the sale of property which came to the Crown at the Dissolution of the Monasteries were produced by the auditors of the Court of Augmentations of the King's Revenue, created in 1536.

The particulars would be produced in response to a warrant from the commissioners for the sale of Crown lands. A prospective purchaser of Crown land would return with the auditor's signed particular and have it rated by the commissioners. The details of the rated particular would form the basis for the warrant authorising the purchase. Particulars were usually prepared for the actual purchaser of the land. They described the nature of the land, its value, the purchase price and any restrictions on the sale.

In 1544 William Grey made a request for the purchase of the farm of the manor of Bulmershe in Berkshire, which had formerly belonged to Reading Abbey and was now in the hands of Henry VIII. He also applied to purchase all the monastery's former lands in Sonning, Berkshire. This document is the auditor's report on the farm of the manor of Bulmershe.

This document is written in a legal hand, one of the variants used in the Exchequer.