[6] The manor of Weverham...in the which Stephen, abbot of Vale Royal, holds his court every fortnight, and he has there such liberty and jurisdiction, that if any trespass against the peace is committed within the said manor, as well by the tenants dwelling therein as by others, he can both arrest the trespassers (or offenders) found within that manor, and inquire in his court aforesaid as to such trespass...[7] He seems, though, to have more-than-occasionally been on the other side of the law: Soon after his election as Abbot, in 1375, he was involved in violent fighting with the Bulkeley family of Cheadle, and in 1394, he gave sanctuary to a man already convicted of the murder of member of the Bostock family.
One particularly notorious incident occurred that same year when Vale Royal was expecting a visitation from the Abbots of Oxford, Croxden, and Dieulacres.
They were attacked by a mob composed not only of vengeful members of the Bostock family, but also, two of Vale Royal's own monks.
He was a collector of the parliamentary subsidy of 1401 for King Henry IV;[1] there appear to have been concerns of irregularities surrounding his activities on that occasion, as, fourteen years later, he received a royal pardon from Henry V.[note 1] Abbot Stephen was involved in much litigation, having, for example, two cases on hand simultaneously regarding the manor of Kirkham, Lancashire, in 1401.
[note 2] He seems, a recent study concluded, "to have been incapable of managing the finances of the house or of maintaining internal discipline.