In the 1530s the diocese faced low compensation for the confiscation of its accumulated wealth and monastic feudal dues and lands in the Dissolution of the Monasteries such as, principally, the pensioning of abbots and friars and in some cases granting of the rectories to the incumbent priests. Later the diocese found it difficult to prevent unlawful, nefarious subletting of some of its buildings, for morally dubious purposes such as connected with the numerous British Empire wharves involved in the slave trade often due to the distance, physically and legally from the perpetrators in ownership/operating structure of diocesan clergy and administrators as chief landlords. In the early 19th century office holders lobbied hard with other bishops to bring to an end the trade in the House of Lords, through its missionaries, and in the messages preached across the diocese itself.