William of Wallingford - Wallingford's Qualities

Wallingford's Qualities

From the golden opinions of his immediate successor in the abbacy, Thomas Ramridge, no less than from the simple entries in Wallingford's own register, it is clear that he was efficient and thoroughgoing, an excellent administrator, and a diligent defender of his abbey. He voluntarily paid 1,830 pounds of debts left by his predecessor. He built a noble altar-screen, long considered the finest piece of architecture in the abbey. Upon this he spent eleven hundred marks, and another thousand marks in finishing the chapter house. He built also, at the cost of 100 pounds, a small chantry near the altar on the south side, in which he built his tomb, with his effigy in marble. His tomb bears the inscription:

"Gulielmus quartus, opus hoc laudabile cuius Extitit, hic pausat: Christus sibi præmia reddat".

Two fine windows, a precious mitre, and two rich pastoral staves were other gifts the abbey owed to his munificence. When he died in or about 1488 he left the abbey entirely freed from debt.