William Kingsmill was professed to the Rule of Saint Benedict at St. Swithun's Priory (Winchester Cathedral) in 1513.
[4] Over the next three years, Basyng participated in four public disputations on theology, and received his licence to preach in January 1529.
As a lesser clergyman, Basyng's selection to the Convocation singled him out for future promotion, such as then Archdeacons Stephen Gardiner and Thomas Cranmer.
[7] Over the next six years, Basing rose within the ranks of the Priory to the position of "Hordarius et Coquinarius" meaning in charge of the kitchens, and over the non-sacred property of the monastery.
[8] When Henry VIII commissioned an evaluation of all the property held by the monastery in 1535, Basyng controlled the largest amount of wealth, second only to the Prior.
[9] Though Basyng was not the subprior, he was still controlled enough respect at the monastery, and enough political power outside St. Swithun's to be a viable candidate for the next prior.
Broke had served with little to no complaint during his tenure, but with the legal and religious changes of the 1530s, his conservative position on church doctrine made him a target for reformers.
[10] Sometime after the valuation of St. Swithun's, a scholar and monk named Richard Mylls brought Prior Broke to the attention of Thomas Cromwell.
Cromwell was battling the Bishop of Winchester, Stephen Gardiner for political power in the diocese, while also trying to place proponents of the Royal Supremacy and further reforms against Catholic traditions, such as the removal of relics.
[14] The cathedral registers do not provided an account of Basyng's installation as Prior but on 27 March he "compounded an agreement" to pay the Crown the tax known as the First Fruits (a substantial portion of his annual income).
A few months after his appointment as Prior Basyng received orders from the Lord Privy Seal (Cromwell) to send 50 men to Ampthill in Bedfordshire to support the King against the Northern Rebellion in Lincolnshire.
[17] Five days later the orders were countermanded and the force was to "return home and to keep watch and apprehend seditious persons and strong vagabonds who may be scattered abroad by the defeat of the rebels"[18] Cromwell's evaluation of the wealth of the Church was corrected and amended in 1536.
Pollard, only two weeks previously, had destroyed the shrine of Thomas à Becket at Canterbury cathedral and seized huge amounts of gold, jewels and silver.
The mayor with eight or nine of his bretheren, the bishop's chancellor ... assisted and praised the king therefor ..."[22] There is no reference to the bones of St. Swithun but Pollard and Wriothesely advise that they intend to move on to Hyde Abbey and to St. Mary's Abbey (Nunnaminster) to "sweep away all the rotten bones that be called relics ... lest it be thought we came more for the treasure than for avoiding the abomination that be called idolatry.
[25] On 22 March 1541 the "late monastery of St. Swithin, Winchester" was reconstituted by means of a charter as a Cathedral with one Dean ("Will.
His executors drew up an inventory of his personal possessions which were held in the Priory, at the Tabard Inn in Southwark and at private lodgings elsewhere.