Henry VIII (1535): "Penc' annuati' solut' Thurstano Gawkethorp capello ppet' apud Calthorne p. annum £4 13s. 4d."
This original pre-Reformation endowment of £4 13s. 4d, it took eighty years from the time of that valuation of 1535 to raise to an income of £20.
At the dissolution of religious houses, the emoluments of St. John of Pontefract from Silkstone, Cawthorne, &c., fell to the Crown. Leases of the tithes, &c., were granted to different people till 12 Aug., Elizabeth (1592), subject to the yearly payment of £13 6s. 8d. to the Vicar of Silkstone, £5 to the Curate of Barnsley, £4 13s. 4d. to the Curate of Cawthorne. In this way the tithes of the several townships which composed the original Parish of Silkstone passed into various hands, and eventually the tithes of Cawthorne came by purchase into the hands of the several landowners.
In the Deed of Transfer of certain tithes in Cawthorne from William Greene to Francis Oley, dated Nov. 2, 1615, there is given an account of how the tithes, &c., of Cawthorne, being parcel of the Rectory of Silkstone, were successively held by laymen on lease from the Crown. Queen Elizabeth leased them in the 30th year of her reign to Edmund Downing and Miles Dodding of London, having previously leased them for 21 years to William Brammall and William Green. They were then in the hands of William Fisher and Robert Leake, and afterwards of Edmund Downing and Roger Rant: Downing and Rant conveyed them in 33 Elizabeth to Willm. Fisher, and Wm. Fisher, by deed dated 7 Nov. 40 Eliz., to Thomas Cutler of Stainborough, gent., Thomas Cutler, 1 James I., sold them to William Greene, who conveyed the tithes of the Rowlees to Francis Oley, "being his inheritance," subject to the payment of such yearly sum as the Decree of the Court of Exchequer bearing date the 11th day of May last past hath appointed to be paid (the "Vicar's Pension" decree).
Downing and Rant were quite strangers to this neighbourhood, and merely leased the tithes from the Crown to make a profit by subletting them.
