e courts. So
uniformly successful was he and so wisely did he act as coadjutor of
Richard when he became very old and infirm, that he was elected to the
abbacy on the death of Richard of London in 1295.

=William of Woodford= (1295-1299) only lived four years after he became
abbot. After him came =Godfrey of Crowland= (1299-1321), the celerarius
of the monastery. He is very highly praised in the chronicles for the
various services he rendered to the abbey. More than once he was at the
heavy charge of entertaining the king and his court, and he contributed
largely to the expenses of the war with Scotland.

[Illustration: Iron Railings, 1721.]

=Adam of Boothby= (1321-1338), one of the monks, was a man of great
"innocence and simplicity" His revenues were much employed in
contributions to the king's expenses and in royal entertainments; and
his energies devoted to divers legal difficulties connected with manors,
wardships, repairs of bridges, rights of hunting, and the like. Of the
last eleven abbots, whose rule extended over a period of 124 years, all
but one had been monks of the place.

=Henry of Morcot= (1338-1353) in all probability was also one of the
monks, but this is not so recorded. And the same may be said of all the
remaining abbots, but the historians do not say so until the time of
William in 1471. At the same time it is never said that any of them came
from elsewhere.

=Robert of Ramsey= (1353-1361) ruled for eight years, and nothing else
is known about him.

=Henry of Overton= (1361-1391) was abbot during the commotions in King
Richard II.'s reign. The tenants with others rose up against the abbey,
intending to destroy it. The Bishop of Norwich "coming to the assistance
of the monastery with a strong power, forced the villains to desist from
their enterprise: nay, dispersed them, and took some of them, and killed
others; the rest, taking the church for sanctuary, which they intended
to have destroyed, were there run through with lances and swords; some
of them hard by the altar, others by the walls of the church, both
within and without."

=Nicholas= (1391-1396), =William Genge= (1396-1408) the first mitred
abbot, =John Deeping= (1408-1438) in turn succeeded. Nothing remarkable
is told of them. The name of the last and the names of the next two are
really the names of places; but the prefix "de" seems now to have been
discontinued, and the place-name to have become a surname. Abbot John
resigned h