Abbot number four:  Hugh de Lincoln
Abbot Hugh ruled for 14 and three quarter years from August 1253 to May 1267 or 1268. In 1260 he bailed out Ralph de Halum who owed 12 marks to the Jews, and three years later the abbey received yet another gift of oaks from Sherwood Forest from the king. In 1261 Matilda de Salicosa Mara gave the abbey the second moiety of the mill at Alvaston upon her widowhood, plus the remainder of her lands in Alvaston.

It seems the abbey required protection at this time: in 1263 Robert de Ferrars issued a charter taking the Abbey under his protection, and the following year the king also granted his simple protection for a limited period. Some records are puzzling: why, for instance, should St Mary’s Abbey have paid a rent of ten shillings to the Abbot of Croxton Abbey in Leicestershire?

By this date the abbey held lands in Stanton, Winfield and Pilsley.

Abbot number five:  Simon
Abbot Simon ruled for five years and 11 days from May 1268 to June 1273, and was suffering from an infirmity in 1269. However, his was a busy reign: between 1268 and 1269/70 he built no fewer than nine mills at Borrowash. In 1269/70 Sir Thomas Bardulf claimed the mills, but he eventually surrendered his claim and gave the abbey land in Ockbrook above the site of the nine mills. Also in 1269 Abbot Simon defended at Derby Assizes the abbey’s rights to land in Sandiacre, Normanton and Ockbrook. The dispute was settled out of court, the abbot paying 40 marks for the ownership of Ockbrook Mill.

In 1270 Abbot Simon appears as party to a covenant made on the feast of St Benedict. The abbey often received gifts of land: also in 1270, Geoffrey de Dethek granted lands in Stanton. In 1272 or 72, canon John de Baucwelle was commissioned by Richard de Edensor of Tissington to make a covenant with Thomas Foljambe, bailiff of the Peak, concerning rents at Longston.

Abbot Simon died probably on 27th September 1273.

Abbot number six:  Lawrence
Abbot Lawrence ruled for 16 and a quarter years from June 1273 to September 1289. His name was originally Laurence Teuren or Tewren. He was keen on litigation, which may have led to his resignation, although according to some sources he resigned of his own free will; his reign certainly seems to have been far from dull, apart from routine details like the fact that he was named in a deed in the Chartulary in 1275.