Adam Sedbar, Abbot of Jervaulx

Adam Sedbar had been elected abbot of the Cistercian abbey of Jervaulx in 1533 when Henry VIII introduced his plans for the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

He was persuaded in 1536, somewhat reluctantly, to join in a Pilgrimage of Grace, together with other local abbots from Fountains, Bridlington and Guisborough Abbeys, in order to protest about the king's policies.

After a number of Yorkshire towns were attacked by the insurgents the King eventually decided, after some negotiation with their spokesman, to round up the ringleaders and charge them with treason [citation needed].

When the King's Commissioners followed him there, Lord Scrope fled for his own safety and Sedbar hid out for several days on Witton Fell[1] but was captured on 12 May 1537 and taken with others to be tried in London.

[2] He was charged that "he did conspire to deprive the King of his title of Supreme Head of the English Church, and to compel him to hold a certain Parliament and convocation of the clergy of the realm, and did commit divers insurrections..." and "tried" or examined on both 25 April and 24 May.