year 1242.⁶
   Not much more is known of Abel, ‘parson of the church of Esse’, who appears to have been Master Gregory’s next recorded successor, and what little is known is not greatly to his credit.
   In or about the year 1266, Abel and his brother Thomas, who was the parson of Frindsbury, were amongst the numerous guests at a dinner party given by Scoland, the rector of ‘Stanes’, otherwise Stone. They had taken with them to Stone two grooms and the grooms, when left to their own devices, chose to enliven the time of waiting by setting upon the parish clerk, whom they encountered in the village street. Escaping from their clutches, the unfortunate man fled for fear to the house of Andrew, the vicar of Stone, who was evidently not one of the rector’s guests.
   Upon learning what had happened, Andrew armed himself with a falchion and with this weapon, a kind of

broad sword, ready drawn, went after the grooms. 
   One of them he hit with it on the side of the head and the other on his hand, nearly cutting off the thumb. Feeling, no doubt, that justice had been done he then went home. That, as things turned out, was for the last time.
   When news that their men had been wounded reached Thomas and Abel, they left Scoland’s party and, on arriving at the vicar’s house, entered and launched an assault upon its occupant. At the time, there was present with Andrew a man, also a groom, who had apparently armed himself against eventualities with a pickaxe. Thomas seized the pickaxe from the man’s hands and brought it down on Andrew's head. The blow penetrated the vicar’s brain and so killed him. 
   Even in an age of violence, the affair must have caused a great furore. One Gilbert de Preston was ordered to hold