| 1540 | March 30. Death of ex-Abbot Reeve; buried in the chancel of St. Mary’s Church. | |
| 1550 | The first of the thirty grammar schools founded by Edward VI established at Bury. | |
| 1560 | Feb. 14. Site of Monastery sold by Queen Elizabeth for £412 19s. 4d. to John Eyer; by him transferred to Thomas Badby. | |
| 1578 | Aug. 7. Queen Elizabeth at Bury. | |
| 1599 | Over a hundred books from Bury Abbey in the hands of William Smart, a “Postman” of Ipswich. Given by him to Pembroke College, Cambridge. | |
| 1606 | Apl. 3. Bury made a Borough by Charter of James I. (Borough Motto: Sacrarium Regis, Cunabula Legis). | |
| 1634 | Condition of the site of the Abbey described by William Hawkins of Hadleigh in his “Corolla Varia.” | |
| 1644 | Publication at Toulouse of Caseneuve’s “Vie de St. Edmond,” alleging that the body of the saint was at the basilica of St. Sernin there, and had been brought over by Louis in 1216. Caseneuve describes, misquoting Matthew Paris (II. 663) the alleged pillage by Louis of “Toutes les églises du comté de Suffolk,” refers to the fact that in those days “les Chrétiens faisaient gloire d’enlever par un devot larcin les reliques des saints,” and says “Il est croyable que les Francais en firent autant de celles de St. Edmond” (cf. 1216, 1256, 1901). | |
| 1745 | Publication at Oxford by Rev. Dr. Oliver Battely of Antiquitates S. Edmundi Burgi ad annum MCCLXXII perductæ, written by his uncle, Dr. John Battely (died 1708). | |
| 1761 | Ancient gates of town pulled down by order of Corporation. | |
| 1772 | Some excavations on site of Church, made by Mr. King, and reported in vol. III. of Archaeologia. | |
| 1805 | Publication of An Illustration of the Monastic History and Antiquities of the Town and Abbey of St. Edmund’s Bury, by Richard Yates, D.D., F.R.S. (1769-1834). | |
| 1806 | Site of Abbey comes into the hands of the Hervey family, the present possessors. | |
| 1840 | Rokewode’s Edition of Latin text of Chronicle of Jocelin of Brakelond, published by Camden Soc. | |
| 1843 | Carlyle’s Past and Present published. | |
| 1843 | Publication of second edition—including fragment of Part II projected in 1805—of Yates’ History of Bury (Remainder of Yates’ materials amongst Egerton MSS. in British Museum). | |
| 1844 | T. E. Tomlins’ English translation of Jocelin’s Chronicle. | |
| 1850 | S. Tymms’ Bury Wills (Camd. Soc.). | |
| 1865 | Papers by Mr. Gordon M. Hills on antiquities of Bury St. Edmunds in Journal British Archæological Association, vol. xxi. pp. 32-56 and 104-140. | |
| 1869 | July 20. British Archæological Association at Bury: paper on Abbey read by Mr. Alfred W. Morant. | |
| 1890 | Publication of J. R. Thompson’s Records of St. Edmund [mostly based on Battely and the legendary chronicles]. | |
| 1890 | Publication of vol. I. of Memorials of St. Edmund’s Abbey (Rolls series), edited by T. Arnold (vol. II. published 1892, vol. III. 1896). | |
| 1893 | Publication of St. Edmund King and Martyr, by Rev. Father Mackinlay, O.S.B. [picturesque and interesting, but uncritical]. | |
| 1895 | Publication of Dr. Montague R. James’ two papers on (1) the Library (2) the Church of “The Abbey of St. Edmund at Bury” (Camb. Antiq. Soc., 8vo. Publications No. xxviii.). | |
| 1901 | Publication of Nova Legenda Anglie (Ox. Univ. Press), containing in vol. II. the full “Vita et passio cum miraculis sancti Edmundi,” compiled at Bury in the 14th Century (Bodl. MS. 240). | |
| 1901 | July 25. Landing at Newhaven, for the new Roman Catholic Cathedral of Westminster, of bones from Toulouse said to be those of St. Edmund (cf. 1216, 1256, 1644.). | |
| 1901 | Sept. 5. Letter in The Times showing cause against these bones being those of St. Edmund. | |
| 1901 | Sept. 9. Cardinal Vaughan admits at Newcastle-on-Tyne that, in view of facts stated, “the relics are not genuine.” | |
| 1902 | Publication of Lord Francis Hervey’s Suffolk in the XVIIth Century, containing in Appendix a critical study of the legends about St. Edmund’s life and martyrdom. | |
| 1902-3 | (Winter). Excavations on site of chapter-house. | |
| 1903 | Jan. 1. Discovery on the site of the chapter-house of five stone coffins with skeletons, in the positions assigned in a Bury MS. of circa 1425 (now at Douai) to the burial places of Abbots Ording (1146-56), SAMSON (1182-1211), Richard of Insula (1229-34), Henry of Rushbrook (1234-46), and Edmund of Walpole (1248-56). A sixth skeleton (uncoffined) also found in a line with these coffins to the west—doubtless that of Abbot Hugh I (1156-80). | pp. 225, 247. |