After Thomas Cromwell's fall and execution, Whitchurch and Grafton were sent to prison on 8 April 1543 but they were released on 3 May. On 28 January 1543-4, together Grafton and Whitchurch received an exclusive patent for printing church service books and on 28 May 1546 they were also granted an exclusive right to print primers in Latin and English.[4]
Merton Abbey was closed by Henry VIII as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries[6] and the estate sold. Edward Whitchurch and Lionel Dutchet purchased it, but left for Europe when Queen Mary came to the throne. The site then came into the ownership of the Garth family.[7]
After the accession of Mary, he left England, possibly to Germany, and later married Margaret, widow of Archbishop Cranmer in 1556.[8]
^Vermigli, Pietro Martire (1550). A discourse or traictise of Petur Martyr Vermilla Flore[n]tine, the publyque reader of diuinitee in the Vniuersitee of Oxford wherein he openly declared his whole and determinate iudgemente concernynge the sacrament of the Lordes supper in the sayde Vniuersitee. ProQuest2248507609.