WILLIAM STUMPE. A typical "business tycoon" and one of the greatest of his time. After the Dissolution, the Abbey and all its surrounding lands, outbuildings, and immediate holdings, were handed to a Sir Henry Baynton who had been appointed Steward by Henry VIII. He afterwards sold all to William Stumpe, a rich clothier for the odd sum of £1,516-15-2 1/2d.
He turned the Nave into a large workshop and some of the marks on the pillars there still show where his looms were. He employed workers again and the cloth trade flourished. No less than 3,000 "cloths" per year were made and were famous throughout Europe for their excellence of manufacture. Some of the still named streets in the old town show the importance of the cloth trade. We still have Blanchards Green where the cloth was "fulled" and Katifer Lane, where the "Chat de Fer, or Iron Cat," (the name of the large irons) used to iron the cloth.
Stumpe was an incredible man. He married Baynton's daughter, and their daughter married the Earl of Suffolk and Berkshire, whose descendants still live at Charlton Park nearby. He already owned Wynards Mill at the bottom of the town (still extant, but modern and no longer a mill) and one at Milbourne, about two miles from the town. He made a fortune out of cheap labour after the Dissolution and made a "take-over" bid for Olsney Abbey in Oxfordshire and actually offered to find work for 2,000 people from Oxford and to build houses for them.
The deal fell through however, so he confined his acumen to Malmesbury. Many stories could be told of Stumpe, but the one I like best and shows him for what he was, was the occasion when Henry VIII let it be known at short notice that he would be hunting in the neighbourhood and would expect hospitality. Stumpe hurriedly arranged this at the old Town Banqueting Hall in what is now Dr. Pym's house in Oxford Street. He told his employees that it would be good for their souls if "they fasted for twenty four hours, without pay" to the glory of the King. There are no recorded comments on the part of his wretched employees but Henry's own comment was that "the entertainment was good, but the food lacking in variety."
Stumpe had represented Malmesbury as one of their two Members of Parliament in 1529-36 and became a Protestant after the Reformation, he did so again, and in the reign of Edward VI he helped to draft the first English Prayer Book, in use until recently.
During this period something terrible must have happened. Either a great trade slump or one of those medical disasters of those days. It might even have been a disease such as influenza. At one time there were only 301 adults living within the town walls of whom only 58 were "able men, archers and billmen." However Stumpe rose to the occasion and managed to carry on. In 1541, probably owing to the fact that the mills were no longer paying, he gave the old Nave of the Abbey back to the townsfolk as their Parish Church.
To prove that this statement is not cynical, he really had trouble with the King to do so, and even put up the money himself for a special licence for the purpose, and paid for many repairs including new lead which had been gradually stolen from the roofs of the outbuildings during the "depression." His sons also assisted him financially, and they combined to preserve what was left of the Abbey for us, as we know it now. So the Stumpe family did a lot of good for the Town and Abbey. As was usual at that time, his descendants are connected with many of the landed gentry of those days and even now.
