In 1522 Henry VIII demanded an annual grant of £66.13s.4d.The abbot had also to collect the money from the entire archdeaconry of Derby, which seems like a major imposition. In 1524 Abbot John took the oath of allegiance of the new abbot of Darley Abbey, the previous one having lasted just six years. In the following year he was involved in an inquiry, and in 1529 he was summoned to a convocation of the province of Canterbury. This made Henry VIII a grant of £100,000 for protection against Lutherans; this was a totally colossal sum of money.

By the end of the abbey’s life, it also held lands called Sheperlande and Granland in Dale.

In 1530 Abbot John was again involved in an inquiry; in 1535 it is on record that St Mary’s Abbey had the profit from a chapelry in Ockbrook, and the following year, that an endowment was made by one Gervase Kyngeston, armiger; on 7th April 1538 Abbot John leased a close in Stanton to John Dilke for 41 years. That may well have been his last legal arrangement as abbot, because on 24th October 1538 Abbot John signed the Deed of Surrender of and for St Mary’s Abbey (see Chapter 15). For this dubious privilege he was rewarded with £6.13.4d, and pensioned off with £26 13s. 4d. per annum. John Bebe died at Stanley Grange on 12th March 1540 or 1541.