THE VICTORIA HISTORY OF THE COUNTIES OF ENGLAND HAMPSHIRE AND THE ISLE OF WIGHT WESTMINSTER ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LIMITED This History is issued to Subscribers only By Archibald Constable & Company Limited and printed by Butler & Tanner of Frame and London INSCRIBED TO THE MEMORY OF HER LATE MAJESTY QUEEN VICTORIA WHO GRACIOUSLY GAVE THE TITLE TO AND ACCEPTED THE DEDICATION OF THIS HISTORY A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE AND THE ISLE OF WIGHT VOLUME TWO WESTMINSTER 2 WHITEHALL GARDENS 1903 DA 670 H2HS CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO PACE Dedication ............... v Contents ............... ix List of Illustrations .............. xi Preface xiii List of Abbreviations ............. xv Ecclesiastical History ... By Rev. J. C. Cox, LL.D., F.S.A. I Religious Houses .... „ „ „ „ Introduction .............. 104 Priory of St. Swithun, Winchester . . . . . . . . . .108 New Minster, or the Abbey of Hyde . . . . . . . . .116 Nunnaminster, or the Abbey of St. Mary, Winchester . . . . . .122 Abbey of Romsey . . . . . . . . . . . . .126 „ „ Wherwell 132 „ „ Quarr . .137 „ „ Beaulieu ........ .140 „ „ Netley . .146 Priory of Wintney ....... ..... 149 „ „ Christchurch Twyneham .... .... 1 5 2 „ „ St. Denis, Southampton ..... . . 160 „ „ Southwick ........ .... 164 „ „ Breamore . . . . . . . . . . . . .168 „ „ Mottisfont . . . . . . . . . . . .172 „ „ Selborne . .175 Oratory of Barton 180 Abbey of Titchfield 1 8 1 Preceptory of Baddesley or Godsfield . . . . . . . . .187 Dominicans of Winchester . . . . . . . . . . .189 Franciscans „ „ ........... 191 Austin Friars „ „ ........... 192 Carmelites „ „ 193 Franciscans of Southampton . . . . . . . . . . 193 Hospital of St. Cross, near Winchester . . . . . . . . -'93 „ „ St. Mary Magdalene, Winchester . . . . . . . .197 „ „ St. John Baptist „ ........ 200 „ „ St. Julian or God's House, Southampton ...... 202 „ „ St. Mary Magdalene „ ...... 205 God's House, Portsmouth ........... 206 II ix b CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO Religious Houses (conttnueJ) PACE Hospital of St. John Baptist, Basingstoke . . . 208 „ „ Fordingbridge • • .211 College of Marwell ... .211 „ „ St. Elizabeth, Winchester . 212 Chapel and Gild of the Holy Ghost, Basingstoke . .214 Priory of St. Helen . . . 215 „ „ Hayling ... . .... 216 „ „ Hamble ..... ....... 221 „ „ Andwell ...... ....... 223 „ „ St. Cross, I. of Wight .......... 225 „ „ Monk Sherborne ........... 226 „ „ Ellingham . ........ 229 „ „ Carisbrooke ... ........ 230 „ „ Applcdurcombe . . . . . . . . . . .231 Early Christian Art and Inscriptions. By J. ROMILLY ALLEN, F.S.A. .... 233 History of Schools . . . . By A. F. LEACH, M.A., F.S.A ..... 250 Forestry and the New Forest . . By J. NISBET, D.OEC. and The Hon. GERALD W. LASCELLES ....... 409 Topography : Alton Hundred. Compiled by W. J. HARDY, F.S.A. Alton Hundred . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 1 Alton . . Architectural description of Church, by W. H. ST. JOHN Horn, M.A. 473 Binsted .. » „ ,, „ „ „ 483 Bramshott „ „ „ „ „ C. R. PEERS, M.A., F.S.A. . 491 Chawton . „ „ „ „ „ W. H. ST. JOHN HOPE, M.A. 496 » „ „ „ Manor House, by C. R. PEERS, M.A., F.S.A. 496 Froyle „ „ „ Church, by W. H. ST. JOHN HOPE, M.A. 501 Greatham „ „ „ „ C. R. PEERS, M.A., F.S.A. . 506 Hartley Mauditt „ „ „ „ „ W. H. ST. JOHN HOPE, M.A. 508 Holybourne and Neatham ,, „ „ „ „ C. R. PEERS, M.A., F.S.A. . 511 Kingsley • „ „ „ „ „ W. H. ST. JOHN HOPE, M.A. 515 East Worldham „ „ „ „ „ „ n 5,8 » » » » »> » » ,, 521 Indei of Parishes in Topographical Maps . . . . . . . . .524 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Winchester. By WILLIAM HYDE Cardinal Beaufort . Bishop Waynflete Marprelate Tract Episcopal Seals Seals of Religious Houses PACE . frontispiece full-page plate facing 46 » » 48 » » 80 two full-page plates „ 102 . full-page plate „ 140 >»,>„• ... „ „ „ 1 60 Font, South Hayling Church 1 Saxon Rood, Romsey Abbey J Font, Winchester Cathedral ........ „ „ „ 240 „ Winchester Cathedral ........ „ „ „ 242 „ St. Mary Bourne Church ...... two full-page pLites „ 244 „ St. Michael's Church full-page plate „ 246 „ Porchester Church ") 0 l ........ „ „ „ 248 „ East Meon Church J William of Wykeham ......... „ „ „ 261 Archbishop Chicheley . „ „ „ 262 Winchester College Statutes Title-page ...... „ „ „ 264 John Kent .... . „ „ „ 274 Winchester College in 1460 ........ „ „ „ 290 Eminent Wykehamists ......... „ „ „ 292 Prince Arthur with Catherine of Aragon ...... „ „ „ 294 Archbishop Warham ......... „ „ „ 296 Bishop Ken . . . „ „ „ 338 Joseph Warton „ „ „ 348 Sydney Smith. „ „ „ 352 Dr. Goddard . „ „ 354 Lord Chancellor Hatherley . . . . . . . . „ „ „ 356 Archbishop Howley. ......... „ „ „ 358 Chief Justice Erie .......... „ „ „ 360 Lord Chancellor Cranworth ........ „ „ „ 360 Viscount Cardwell .......... „ „ „ 362 Roundell Palmer, Earl of Selborne . . . . . . . „ „ „ 362 Robert Lowe, Viscount Sherbrooke ....... „ „ „ 364 James Edwards Sewell ......... „ „ „ 366 General View of Alton ............. 473 Corner of the Market-Place, Alton . . . . . . . . . -473 Plan of Alton Church full-page plate facing 480 Arches of the Old Central Tower, Alton Church . . . . . . . .481 Interior of Alton Church looking West 1 , „ full-page plate facing 482 Interior of Alton Church looking East J Binsted Wyck ..... ........ 484 xi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Binsted Church from the South-East . • • . • • 487 Interior of Church . ... . ... 488 Monument of Richard de Westcote \ fall-page plate facing 488 Arches in Binsted Church Glass in Lancet Window of the Baptistery at Binsted • 489 Bramshott Place . . • • ' 49 • Royal Anchor Hotel, Liphook . -493 Chancel of Bramshott Church from South Transept . . . 494 Chawton House (from an old picture) . • 497 Chawton House . . • • 499 „ „ Entrance Doorway to Stables ... . • 5°° Church of St. Nicholas of Chawton .... . . .501 An Old Timbered Cottage at Froyle . ... 502 Coldrey House . • 5°3 Church and Manor House at Froyle . • . • • • • • 5°4 Window in Froyle Church . . . full-page plate facing 504 Ruins of the Old Church, Greatham .... S°7 South Doorway of Hartley Mauditt Church full-page plate facing 508 The Round House, Hartley Mauditt 5°9 Bell Turret on Hartley Mauditt Church full-page plate facing 510 Holybourne Village . . . . . . . . . . . . • -511 Source of the Holybourne . . . . . . . . . . • • 5 ' z The Mill, Neatham 513 Lode Farm, Kingsley ... . . ..517 Old Church of St. Nicholas of Kingsley 517 Chancel of Church, East Worldham . . . 520 Doorway in East Worldham Church ...... full-page plate facing 520 Hammond's Farm, West Worldham . . . . . . . . . . .522 St. Nicholas' Church, West Worldham 522 LIST OF MAPS Ecclesiastical Map of Hampshire ......... facing 101 Index Map to the Hundreds of Hampshire ....... ,,471 Index Map to the Hundred of Alton .......... 472 Index Map to Sections of the Topographical Map . . . . . . . 527 Topographical Map of Hampshire in six sections at end of volume [The Shields of Arms have been drawn by Mr. J. Forbes Nixon, under the direction of Mr. Oswald Barren, F.S./t.] xn PREFACE IN placing the second volume of the History of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight before their readers the editors feel that an apology is due from them for the long interval which has been allowed to elapse since the publication of the first volume. As the history of this county was the first in the series of which it forms a part the scheme for the whole undertaking has had to be devel- oped in the course of the preparation of the present volume. The small amount of original research which has hitherto been made for Hamp- shire was in itself a serious obstacle to rapid progress ; but in the course of the work it was found necessary to revise very largely the system of dealing with original research for the Victoria History Series as a whole. Experience proved that many classes of records would have to be ex- hausted for all the counties in order to obtain the information needed for the compilation of the articles contained herein. Further difficulties have arisen owing to changes in editorship. With the exception of a few local investigations the present volume does not contain any contributions by the Rev. G. H. Gotley, who was originally appointed joint topographical editor with Mr. W. J. Hardy. Mr. Gotley's connection with the Victoria History was severed before any portion of the topography of Alton Hundred was completed. In the course of a work which deals on a great scale with English armory, and more particularly with its ancient forms, the difficulty must be met at the outset of reconciling the conflicting methods of blazonry offered by the many handbooks of modern armorial writers. The editors have therefore decided to adopt throughout the work the simple and easily understood blazon used in mediaeval times, following as far as is possible the neglected and historic English form of phrases. The succeeding volumes will continue, until it be completed, the topographical and municipal history of the county, and thereafter will follow articles on maritime, political, social and economic history, sport and biographies. For permission to reproduce certain of the illustrations in this volume the editors beg to thank the Viscount Dillon, Mrs. Wickham, xiii PREFACE Messrs. C. Butler, William Curtis, Montagu G. Knight, the Wardens of New College and All Souls College, Oxford, and the Society of Anti- quaries. The editors are also under special obligations to Mr. Montagu G. Knight for presenting a drawing of Chawton House, and to Mr. Knight, Sir J. C. Hubert Miller, Mr. Henry J. Button, Mr. Henry Wheeler, and the clergy and numerous individuals throughout the hundred for affording help in the manorial history of several parishes. Finally, the editors wish to acknowledge gratefully the contributions on architecture voluntarily made by Mr. C. R. Peers and Mr. W. H. St. John Hope. XIV TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbrev. Plac. (Rec. Com.) Acts of P.C. . . Add ...... Add. Chart. . . Admir ..... Agarde .... Anct. Corresp. . Anct. D. (P.R.O.) A 2420 Antiq ..... Arch Arch. Cant. Archd. Rec. Archit Assize R. . Aud. Off. Aug. Off. . AylofFe . Bed Beds Berks .... Bdle B.M Bodl. Lib. . . . Boro Brev. Reg. . . . Brit Buck Bucks . . . . Cal Camb Cambr Cant Cap Carl Cart. Antiq. R. C.C.C. Camb. . . Certiorari Bdles. (Rolls Chap.) Chan. Enr. Decree R. Chan. Proc. . . Chant. Cert. Chap. Ho. . . . Charity Inq. . Chart. R. 20 Hen. III.pt. i. No. 10 Chartul. Abbreviatio Placitorum (Re- cord Commission) Acts of Privy Council Additional Additional Charters Admiralty Agarde's Indices Ancient Correspondence Ancient Deeds (Public Record Office) A 2420 Antiquarian or Antiquaries Appendix Archaeologia or Archaeological Archaeologia Cantiana Archdeacon's Records Architectural Assize Rolls Audit Office Augmentation Office Ayloffe's Calendars Bedford Bedfordshire Berkshire Bundle British Museum Bodley's Library Borough Brevia Regia Britain, British, Britannia, etc. Buckingham Buckinghamshire Calendar Cambridgeshire or Cambridge Cambria, Cambrian, Cam- brensis, etc. Canterbury Chapter Carlisle Cartae Antiquae Rolls Corpus Christ! College, Cam- bridge Certiorari Bundles (Rolls Chapel) Chancery Enrolled Decree Rolls Chancery Proceedings Chantry Certificates (or Cer- tificates of Colleges and Chantries) Chapter House Charity Inquisitions Charter Roll, 20 Henry III. part i. Number 10 Chartulary Chas Ches Chest Ch. Gds. (Exch. K.R.) Chich Chron Close Co Colch Coll Com Com. Pleas . Conf. R. . . . Co. Plac. . . . Cornw Corp Cott Ct. R Ct. of Wards . . Cumb Cur. Reg. . D. and C. . . . De Bane. R. . . Dec. and Ord. Dep. Keeper's Rep. Derb Devon .... Doc Dods. MSS. . . Dom. Bk. . . . Dors Duchy of Lane. Dur East Eccl Eccl. Com. Edw Eliz Engl Engl. Hist. Rev. . Epis. Reg. . . . Esch. Enr. Accts. . Excerpta e Rot. Fin. (Rec. Com.) Exch. Dep. . . Exch. K.B. . . Exch. K.R. . . Exch. L.T.R. . . Exch. of Pleas, Plea R. Exch. of Receipt . Charles Cheshire Chester Church Goods (Exchequer King's Remembrancer) Chichester Chronicle, Chronica, etc. Close Roll County Colchester Collections Commission Common Pleas Confirmation Rolls County Placita Cornwall Corporation Cotton or Cottonian Court Rolls Court of Wards Cumberland Curia Regis Dean and Chapter De Banco Rolls Decrees and Orders Deputy Keeper's Reports Derbyshire or Derby Devonshire Documents Dodsworth MSS. Domesday Book Dorsetshire Duchy of Lancaster Durham Easter Term Ecclesiastical Ecclesiastical Commission Edward Elizabeth England or English English Historical Review Episcopal Registers Escheators Enrolled Accounts Excerpta e Rotulis Finium (Record Commission) Exchequer Depositions Exchequer King's Bench Exchequer King's Remem- brancer Exchequer Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer Exchequer of Pleas, Plea Roll Exchequer of Receipt xv TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS Exch. Spec. Com. Exchequer Special Commis- FeetofF. . . . Feod. Accts. (Ct. of Wards) Feod. Surv. (Ct. of Wards) Feud. Aids . . - fol Foreign R. . . . Forest Proc. . . Gen Geo Glouc Guild Certif. (Chan.) Ric. II. Hants Harl. Hen. Heref. Hertf. Herts Hil. . Hist. Hist. MSS. Com. Hosp ..... Hund. R. . . . Hunt ..... Hunts . . . . Inq. a.q.d. . Inq. p.m. . Inst ...... Invent ..... Itin Jas. . Journ. Lamb. Lib. Lane L. and P. Hen. VIII. Lansd Ld. Rev. Rec. . . Leic Le Neve's Ind. Lib Lich Line Lond m. . . . Mem. . . Memo. R. . Mich. . . Midd. . . Mini. Accts. sions Feet of Fines Feodaries Accounts (Court of Wards) Feodaries Surveys (Court of Wards) Feudal Aids Folio Foreign Rolls Forest Proceedings Genealogical, Genealogica, etc. George Gloucestershire or Gloucester Guild Certificates (Chancery) Richard II. Hampshire Harley or Harlcian Henry Herefordshire or Hereford Hertford Hertfordshire Hilary Term History, Historical.Historian, Historia, etc. Historical MSS. Commission Hospital Hundred Rolls Huntingdon Huntingdonshire Inquisitions ad quod dam- num Inquisitions post mortem Institute or Institution Inventory or Inventories Ipswich Itinerary James Journal Lambeth Library Lancashire or Lancaster Letters and Papers, Hen. VIII. Lansdowne Land Revenue Records Leicestershire or Leicester Le Neve's Indices Library Lichfield Lincolnshire or Lincoln London Membrane Memorials Memoranda Rolls Michaelmas Term Middlesex Ministers' Accounts Misc. Bks. (Exch. K.R., Exch. T.R. or Aug. Off.) Mon. Monm. Mun. Mus. N. and Q. . Norf. . . Northampt. Northants . Northumb. . Norw. . Nott. N.S. Off. . . Orig. R. Oxf. . Palmer's Ind. . Pal. of Chest. . . Pal. of Dur. . . Pal. of Lane. . Par ...... Parl ...... Parl. R ..... Parl. Surv. . . . Partic. for Gts. Pat ...... P.C.C ..... Peterb ..... Phil ..... Pipe R ..... Plea R ..... Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.) P.R.O ..... Proc ..... Proc. Soc. Antiq. . Pub. R Rec. . . . Recov. R. . . Rentals and Surv. Rep Rev Ric Roff. . . . Rot. Cur. Reg. Rut. . Sarum Ser. . Sess. R. Shrews. Miscellaneous Book (Ex- chequer King's Remem- brancer, Exchequer Trea- sury of Receipt or Aug- mentation Office) Monastery, Monasticon Monmouth Muniments or Munimenta Museum Notes and Queries Norfolk Northampton Northamptonshire Northumberland Norwich Nottinghamshire or Notting- ham New Style Office Originalia Rolls Oxfordshire or Oxford Page Palmer's Indices Palatinate of Chester Palatinate of Durham Palatinate of Lancaster Parish, Parochial, etc. Parliament or Parliamentary Parliament Rolls Parliamentary Surveys Particulars for Grants Patent Roll or Letters Patent Prerogative Court of Canter- bury Peterborough Philip Pipe Roll Plea Rolls Pope Nicholas' Taxation (Re cord Commission) Public Record Office Proceedings Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries Part Publications Roll Records Recovery Rolls Rentals and Surveys Report Review Richard Rochester diocese Rotuli Curia Regis Rutland Salisbury diocese Series Sessions Rolls Shrewsbury xvi TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS Shrops .... Soc Soc. Antiq. . Somers Somers. Ho. S.P. Dom. . . . Staff. .... Star Chamb. Proc. Stat Steph Subs. R. . . . Suff. Surr Suss Surv. of Ch. Liv- ings (Lamb.) or (Chan.) Topog Trans. Shropshire Transl. . Society Treas. Society of Antiquaries Trin. Somerset Somerset House State Papers Domestic Staffordshire Star Chamber Proceedings Statute Stephen Subsidy Rolls Suffolk Surrey Sussex Surveys of Church Livings (Lambeth) or (Chancery) Translation Treasury or Treasurer Trinity Term Univ University Valor Eccl. (Rec. Valor Ecclesiasticus (Record Com.) Commission) Vet. Mon. . . . Vetusta Monumenta V.C.H Victoria County History Vic Victoria vol. Volume Warw. . Westm. . Will. . Wilts . Winton. Wore. Topography or Topographi- cal Transactions Yorks Warwickshire or Warwick Westminster William Wiltshire Winchester diocese Worcestershire or Worcester Yorkshire xvn ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY H AMPSHIRE possesses the most interesting relic of the Romano-British church that has as yet been found in England. The foundations of the little fourth century Christian church within the walls of Silchester, uncovered in 1893,* together with the gold ring bearing a Christian inscription,2 and the leaden seal stamped with the Chi-Rho monogram,3 have been already described and illustrated. Though archaeology is thus definite in its evidence as to early Christianity in the shire, history has nothing to say, for the tales of King Lucius and of Constantine's college at Winchester are but pious inventions of the fifteenth century. Of the archaeology of the Anglo-Saxon Church, from the seventh century downwards, Hampshire has abundant evidence in the structure and stones of many of her churches, as will be elsewhere shown ; but for this period history speaks plainly. The story of the conversion of Wessex and the establishment of the bishopric in Hampshire is easier to follow and much less involved than the like tale in many other English shires, particularly in those of the outlying parts of Mercia. This arises to some extent from Wessex becoming the most important of all the petty kingdoms, which naturally brought about a greater care and fulness in its chronicles. Wessex, or the kingdom of the West Saxons, was founded by Cerdic about 519 ; but it was not until 634 that the missionary bishop Birinus, with a little band of evangelists, is said to have begun the work of converting the south and west of England. The remnants of that Celtic church, which once had foothold in Hampshire, had long ago been driven elsewhere, mainly to the extreme west. Reports as to the outer darkness of most of this country appealed to the missionary instincts of Birinus, and offering himself to Pope Honorius he was consecrated bishop at Genoa and sent forth, as Bede expresses it, ' to sow the seeds of the holy faith in the innermost parts of pagan Britain.' Landing on the coast of Wessex (probably at Porchester), Birinus at first intended to push on into Mercia where there was as yet no bishopric ; but finding heathendom absolutely dominant among the Gewissas he deemed it best to tarry at the court of King Cynegils. He preached the 1 Supra, i. 278, 364-5. * Ibid. i. 223. s Ibid. i. 284. II T I A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE faith with such earnestness at Winchester that in the following year the king, with his son Cenwalh and many of the chiefs, was baptized. At this function the duty of chief sponsor, who gave the newly baptized Christian his hand as he left the water, was undertaken by Oswald, the famous king of Northumbria, the devoted adherent of the Scottish church. Thus was brought about at this historic baptism a most happy blending of the Christian influences of Celtic and Italian origin, each of which had their share in the enlightenment of Wessex. It may be suggested, without in the least impugning the reality of Cynegils' accept- ance of the truth, that state policy possibly showed the advantage of a Christian alliance. The baptism was shortly followed by the marriage of Oswald with the king's daughter. Winchester was not however made the first seat of the West Saxon bishopric. Cynegils, in conjunction with his royal son-in-law, decided that the bishop's stool should be placed at Dorchester-on-the- Thames. It seems at first sight curious that the centre of the see should be placed on the verge of the kingdom, but anticipations as to the future development of their respective kingdoms, which were not afterwards fulfilled, afford the probable solution of this decision of the two friendly kings. Bede tells us how zealously Birinus laboured, build- ing and dedicating churches, and winning much people to the faith. He died in 650 and was buried at Dorchester. Although Winchester was not as yet the ecclesiastical capital of the kingdom, Cenwalh built there a great church dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul, the parent of the future cathedral church, and established a monastery whence Christianity radiated into parts that could but rarely be visited by Birinus. Into the diocesan divisions connected with the short episcopates of Agilbert, Wini and Leutherius there is no occasion to enter ; suffice it here to say that in 676 Bishop Haedde transferred the episcopal seat from Dorchester to Winchester, and translated the body of Birinus to the cathedral church of the city that had witnessed the royal baptisms of 634. Haedde's great piety secured for him the honour of canoniza- tion, and Bede records many miracles at his tomb. On his death in 705 the growing diocese was divided ; Hampshire with the Isle of Wight, Surrey and Sussex forming the diocese of Winchester, whilst the more recently converted parts further west were placed in the charge of a bishop established at Sherborne. With regard to the Isle of Wight, it may be remarked that as it lay opposite the division between the two kingdoms of Wessex and Sussex there was much dispute as to its ownership, it being at one time considered part of Wessex and at another of Sussex. Bishop Daniel (7° 5-44) was the first person to exercise episcopal authority in the island. Bede's language implies that up to that period it had not received Christianity.1 From that date onwards it has always remained a part of the diocese of Winchester. 1 Bede (Engl. Hist. Soc.), iv. 16. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY The Isle of Wight, conquered by the Jutes, received its Christianity from another source. In the strange vicissitudes and wanderings of St. Wilfrid, that bishop sought shelter in 687 in the kingdom of Sussex under the Christian king Ethelwald. Here he laboured successfully for some years and befriended Cedwalla, an exiled member of the royal house of Wessex. When Cedwalla came to the throne of the West Saxons in 686 he gave to Wilfrid for the church a fourth part of the Isle of Wight, which had been the last stronghold of paganism. At this time Wilfrid was returning to the north of England, and he com- mitted the charge of this property and the spiritual necessities of the island to Bernwin, one of his clerks, and to a priest named Hiddila.1 The kingdom of Sussex, or the South Saxons, not only for some time possessed the Isle of Wight, but also the Jutish settlement of the Meonwaras on the mainland. When the Jutes arrived simultaneously with the West Saxons, one of their tribes made their way up the Meon, a tributary of Southampton Water. Along the borders of that stream they established little colonies or settlements, and became known as the Meonwara or men of Meon. They held themselves rigidly aloof from their neighbours, and had not been touched by the Christian teaching of Birinus and his successors. Here, at the end of the seventh century, Wilfrid also laboured with conspicuous success, founding several churches and christianizing this wedge of Jutish territory which had long before been driven into the heart of Hampshire. The archaeologist finds many traces of pre-Norman church fabrics along the banks of the Meon. At Warnford a most interesting double inscription on the church, of a date a generation or two after the Norman Conquest, still testifies to the missionary zeal of St. Wilfrid, telling of the rebuilding of this seventh century church by a great Hampshire landowner, Adam de Port, in the time of Henry II. The inscriptions run as follows, the first on the porch and the second on the north wall : — (1) FRATRES ORATE PRECE VESTRA SANCTIFICATE TEMPLI FACTORES SENIORES AC JUNIORES PRIVAVIT WILFRIT FUNDAVIT BONUS ADAM MODO RENO[VAVIT]. (2) ADAM me DE PORTU sous BENEDICAT AB ORTU GENS CRUCE was surrendered by the prior, William Norton, and twelve of the canons. This house too was originally assigned to Wriothesley. These surrenders of houses over the value of £200 were clearly illegal, but the action of the visitors was subsequently legalized by the act of 1539. With regard to Beaulieu, an interesting point occurred which shows how many awkward questions were involved in the suppression of these larger houses, and how much this monastic system tended to alleviate the sternness of the criminal law of the land. On the day after the visitors obtained the surrender of Beaulieu they wrote to Cromwell telling him that there were thirty-two sanctuary men within the bounds of the abbey who were there for debt, felony and murder, and to whom had been assigned houses where they lived with their wives and children. They declare that if sent to other sanctuaries they will be undone, and desire to stay there for the rest of their lives. On the sixteenth of the same month the ex-abbot Stephens wrote to Wriothesley begging him to be a good master to the poor men privileged in the sanctuary of Beaulieu for debt, and stating that they had been very honest whilst he was their governor. As a cogent 1 Letters and Papers, Henry Vlll. (1538), xiii.(i) No. 1117. » Ibid. (1539), ii. 597 ; Cott. MSS. Cleop. E. iv. 267. 8 Letters an J Papers, Henry Vlll. (1538), xiii.(i) 660. 58 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY argument with such a one as Wriothesley, he added that the houses these sanctuary men occupied were so poor that if they were turned out they would yield no rent. On the following day Dr. Crayford, an agent of Wriothesley, begs his master to obtain the king's protection for such of the Beaulieu sanctuary men as are debtors, an action which would much redound to his credit in the neighbourhood. From some of Cromwell's notes later in the year it is shown that this request in favour of the debtors was granted by the Crown.1 The letters of John Crayford and certain of Wriothesley's retainers sent down to look after his rich Hampshire spoils are distressing to read. Crayford (one of Cromwell's sub-commissioners) writes to the controller of Henry's household on 2 January, 1538, as to the extent of the fish- ponds (four of them a mile in length) and other details of the Titchfield monastery, only surrendered the previous week. The greed of the country side to gain some profit is a sorry sign of the times. On the Sunday following the fall of the house half a dozen neighbours from Eastmeon, fourteen miles off, came over to inspect, and promised to buy marble monuments, altars, etc., out of the monastic church. Crayford, himself in holy orders, tells his patron that ' Mrs. Wriothesley nor you neither be no meticulous ne scrupulous to make sale of such holy things, having the example of devout Bishop Alexander of Rome whose epitaph is : — Vendit Alexander cruces, altaria Christi ; Vendere jure potest ; emerat ille prius. He adds that plucking down the church is but a small matter, as he will build a chapel. Directly Beaulieu comes into Wriothesley's hands an army of masons, etc., are turned in to change it into a grand mansion for his residence. The choir and other parts of the church are em- ployed, being useful to protect him from the sea wind ; but all men of taste whom he consults decide against the tower of the church remain- ing. Southwick, which also fell into his clutches, was eventually assigned to one of his unscrupulous servants, John White. The only relief to this sorry business is that the church robbers fell out among themelves. Sir Thomas Wriothesley not only obtained possession of the abbeys of Beaulieu and Titchfield on different sides of the Southampton Water, but also of the site and many of the manors of the abbey of Hyde, of which he was actually seneschal or steward. He sold the spoils of this abbey, and personally superintended the rapid extinction of its fabric. No wonder that his case is chronicled in Spelman's History of Sacrilege. His acts as a spoiler, particularly at Winchester, brought about the hostility of Bishop Gardiner, who was his wife's uncle, but Cromwell's patronage secured him against the bishop's displeasure. On 21 September, 1538, Wriothesley, with Pollard and Williams, two of the minor monastic visitors, made an end of the shrine of St. 1 Letten and Papers, Henry PHI. (1538), i. 668, 792, 796, 877. 59 A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE Swithun in the cathedral church of Winchester. Their joint letter to Cromwell says that their work was done ' aboutes thre of the clok this Saturdaye in the mornyng,' so we may conclude that cowardice or shame caused them to labour in the dark. They bemoan that there was no gold, and that the precious stones were counterfeits, but they thought that the mere silver from the shrine was worth 2,000 marks. They also obtained a cross of emeralds, a cross called Jerusalem, a cross of gold, two gold chalices and some silver plate. They add : ' We have also this mornyng going to our beddeswarde, viewed th' aulter, which we purpose to bring with us ; it wol be worthe the „ taking downe.'1 The visitors continue : 'We entende, both at Hide and St. Marye's, to swepe away all the roten bones that be called reliques ; which we may not omitt, lest it shuld be thought we care more for the treasure thenne for avoiding of tha abomynation of ydolatry.' ! The acquiescence of the abbot of Hyde in the dissolution of that great historic abbey was secured by considerable promises, which were shortly fulfilled. He had been made Bishop of Bangor in 1534, and only held the abbey in commendam. Immediately after the surrender he was translated to Salisbury. The formal surrender was not signed till 30 April, 1539. The nuns of St. Mary's, Winchester, held out till 15 November, 1539, when they too surrendered, Elizabeth Shelley, the abbess, securing a pension of £26 13^. ^d. The wealthy convents of Wherwell (£339 8j. yd.} and Romsey (£528 ioj. io| and St. Mary's, Winchester, 12. The chantry priests numbered 10; the stipendiary priests, 6 ; and the priests of free chapels, 7. This gives a total of 88 pensioners for the county. The chantries named in this roll are those of — Andover, ' le Vyne ' in the parish of Shirborne St. John, Newport, Bisterne, castle of Southampton, free chapel of Boldre, St. Mary in Southampton, Marwell, * le Charnalhouse in Ebynton ' and Godshill. The stipendiary priests were at Alton, Odiham, Shirborne Monachorum, Carisbrooke, and two at St. Cross in Southampton. The free chapels named were those of Boldre, St. Martin's Briddlesford, St. Mary Magdalen's Godshill, Froberry in the parish of Kingsclere, Esteflede, Christchurch, and Wilberton in the parish of Brading. An interesting and exceptional manuscript gives a full list of the names of curates and other stipendiary priests, 324 in number, in the diocese of Winchester at Christmas, 1541. They are arranged under parishes in the several deaneries, together with the names of the rectors, vicars and others by whom their stipends were paid.1 There were twenty-five in the deanery of Winton — four for the church of St. Faith, paid by the master of St. Cross ; five for the chapel of St. Elizabeth, paid by the provost of the chapel ; one for the church of St. John, paid by the vicar ; three for Twyford with the chapelry of Ouslebury ; two paid by the vicar and one by the mayor of Winchester ; the curate of Weke by the rector, of St. Bartholomew by the vicar, and of St. Lawrence by the rector ; the two for Hursley by the vicar ; the curates of Chilcombe, Compton and Headborne Worthy by their respective rectors ; the curate of St. Nicholas by Mr. Nicholas Harpsfield ; the curate of Hunton by the rector of Cronsley ; and the curate of Littleton by the Dean of Winchester. In the deanery of Basingstoke there were thirty-five curates, of whom there were two for Basingstoke, three for Odiham and the rest singly for different parishes. In the deanery of Andover there were twenty-nine, three being for Andover and two for Hurstbourne Priors. In the deanery of Alton there were fifteen, two each for Alton and Colmer. In the deanery of Alresford were twenty- one, two each for Medstead and Kilmeston. In the deanery of Ford- ingbridge there were seventeen, two each for Harbridge, Fordingbridge, Wilford and Lymington. In the deanery of Somborne there were seventeen, two for Romsey. In the deanery of Southampton there were seventeen, three for St. Cross, Southampton. In the deanery of Drox- ford there were thirty-three, two each for Havant and Waltham and three for Eastmeon. In the Isle of Wight there were twenty-one, two for Godshill. This gives 230 as the total of curates for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. In March and April, 1543, a visitation was held of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight by Nicholas Harpsfield, official of the arch- 1 Add. MSS. 34, 137. This return was made for the Chancellor of the Court of First-fruits and Tithes. 62 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY deacon of Winchester.1 The .centres of the visitation were Basingstoke, Alton, Martyr Worthy, Andover, Romsey, St. Cross Southampton, Southwick, the chapel of Newport, Lymington and St. Mary Calender Winchester. To this visitation were summoned all impropriators, rectors, vicars, curates, chaplains and laymen (churchwardens) of, the respective deaneries. Their names are all entered in the rough minutes of the visitation under their respective parishes. Several of the curates who had neglected to bring with them their letters of orders were warned to produce them at Winchester on a given day. The rector of St. Peter's Cheesehill (Winchester) being in default with his induction fees was threatened with the sequestration of his benefice. The wardens of Alverstoke, Niton, King's Somborne and Whitwell were ordered to repair their church windows ; those of Holybourne, Froyle, Steventon and Fordingbridge to repair the churchyard walls ; those of Carisbrooke the church walls ; and those of Andover the roof of the church. The wardens of Bighton were warned to procure a font ; those of Hurst- bourne Tarrant to procure a portifer or breviary ; and those of Amport to provide by Whitsuntide a clerk (aquce-bajulus) at the cost of the parish, under pain of the church being interdicted. A particular day was named within which the work ordered was to be done, it being in most cases the nativity of St. John the Baptist. At the funeral of Henry VIII. the Bishop of Winchester was the celebrant ; but with the accession of Edward VI. Gardiner was excluded from the council, and protested against having to accept a renewal of his episcopate at the boy king's hands. The Duke of Somerset as Protector was determined to push on a religious revolution, and paid no heed to Gardiner's protests. On 25 September, 1547, the council sent Stephen Gardiner, the ex-chancellor, as a prisoner to the Fleet, on the charge of having ' spoken impertinent thinges of the Kinges Majeste's Visitacion and refused to set forth and receyve the injunctions and Homelyes for that as he sayd they contayned thinges dissident with the Word of God.' On 8 January, 1 548, the bishop was sent for from the Fleet prison, and was told by the council that he had remission of his offences under the general pardon of the previous month, ' where- upon having minstred to him a good lesson and admonition, he was discharged of emprisonment.' He returned to his diocese, making Winchester his headquarters, but was not long permitted to exercise any episcopal functions in Hampshire. Somerset was determined to overthrow him, and adopted the not unusual but none the less ignoble expedient of summoning him to London in May (1548) to preach before the council. His sermon on St. Peter's day at Paul's Cross naturally failed to satisfy his censors, and on the morrow he was summoned before Somerset, the archbishop, and three other of the privy council, and committed to the Tower. In the statement set forth in 'the council's act book it is alleged that on his return to his diocese in January the bishop ' began forthewith to sett foorth siche mattiers 1 4 anc^ at tne same time obtained £15 from a London goldsmith for a pair of silver censers, a ship and a pax. But by far the largest sale in the island had been effected by the chapel wardens of Newport, which must have been exceptionally richly furnished. Silver was sold to the extent of £47 u- 3^-, whilst a great variety of vestments and altar linen realized a considerable sum, and two bells £19 i6s. od. Every item, with the name of the pur- 69 A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE chaser, is set out in detail down to ' iid. one olde clothe.' The most interesting of these is * Item to Richard James the Good Friday's whit vestments for v'- iid.' The churches of the island were exceptionally rich in vestments. The following may be named : ' One olde cope of Redde velvet and a vestment of the same bordered wt- Imagery and powdered over wt- flowers and Angeles w'- the Albe to the same ' (Shorwell) ; ' One cope of Redde bawdkine bordered w'- grene velvet powdrid ower w'- byrdes bestes and flowers ' (Chale) ; and ' One sewt of grene sylke bordered and crossed w'- embrothery of Tissewe and spangled abrode wt- the same the Albe and everything to the same ' (Carisbrook). The Arreton inventory includes ' iiii narrowe sepulker clothes of Arris worke the story of the passione.' The following curious entry ends the Yarmouth inventory : ' One of their belles was takine owt of the styple by the parishe in an0 iiii E. Vlth. to be solde and the solders of the Castell supposing hit shoulde be convayed ower the seas arrested it and so it remayneth upon their chardge.' On 4 July, 1553, the young king died, and whatever may have been the forebodings of many, there was much satisfaction among all the decent folk of Hampshire that this death at once relieved them of the presence of Ponet. The bishop joined in Wyat's attempted revolu- tion, and on its failure fled across the seas to the house of Peter Martyr at Strasburg, with whom he tarried till his death in August, 1556. In the year of his death he published, on the continent, A Sborte Treatise of Politike Power, under the initials D.I. P., B.R.W., which stand for Doctor John Ponet, Bishop of Rochester and Winchester. In this treatise he advocated tyrannicide in the plainest and most direct terms, instancing the cases of Jezebel and Athalia as appropriate to that of Mary Tudor. It was evidently written as a popular appeal, for Ponet, though no mean astronomer for those days and the constructor of a curious dial for Henry VIII., did not disdain to instance recent frequent eclipses among the signs of heaven's wrath with England.1 On 3 August, 1553, Mary visited the Tower, and Gardiner was at once released after five years of captivity. Two days later the old man was ' sworne of the Queens Highnes Prevy Councel ; 2 on the 8th he said mass for the king's soul before her ; and on the 23rd was declared Chancellor of England. In the strange vicissitudes of his fortune, it 1 Hallam (Literature, ii. 39-42) has given this extraordinary booklet some fame by his praise of the vigour of its prose, though he adds that it is ' not entirely free from the usual fault, vulgar and ribaldous invective.' This is very mild censure, for many parts are far too disgusting to bear quotation. It must have been very trying to Ponet in his exile to think of Stephen Gardiner having been again installed in the bishopric of Winchester ; but what manner of soul could a man have who would thus write of an opponent who had been dead for some years. ' See how nature had shaped the outwarde partes, to declare what was within. This doctour hade a swart colour, an hanging loke, frowning browes, eies an ynche within the head, a nose hooked like a bussarde, wyde nosetrilles like a horse, ever snuffing in to the wynde, a sparowe mouthe, great pawes like the devil, talauntes on his fete like a ryfre, two ynches longer than the naturale toes and so tyed to with sinowes, that he coulde not abyde to be touched, nor scarce suftre them to louche the stones.' * dels of Privy Council, \ 5 5 2-4, p. 311. 70 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY also fell to Gardiner's lot on i October to crown the queen at West- minster, the archbishop having now taken his place in the Tower on the charge of high treason. As a statesman he took the patriotic view of the queen's marriage with a British subject, which he strongly urged upon her ; but the circumstances of his diocese almost necessitated his taking the leading part in the queen's unhappy alliance with Spain. On 20 July, 1554, Philip landed at Southampton with 160 sail. Thence he proceeded to Winchester, and became the bishop's guest at Wolvesey. On the 25th this ill-fated marriage was celebrated in the cathedral church of Winchester, the bishop officiating. There is much con- troversy as to Gardiner's share in the severity of the earlier part of Mary's reign ; but at all events he did his best to save Cranmer's life, and prevented the committal of Peter Martyr to prison. In 1556, under Philip and Mary, warrants were issued by the Crown for the restoration throughout Hampshire of the ornaments seized by Edward VI. 's commissioners, or the return to the church- wardens of their money value when the ornaments were not forth- coming. These returns prove that in some cases the church goods that had been sent up to London at the end of the young king's reign were not sold or melted down to provide ' the masse of money ' so much needed, but remained docketed with the name of the parish from which they had been purloined. Among the restorations in kind were : Alresford, two chalices and patens and a cross of silver ; Alton, ' one swete of vestment of blewe velvet ' ; Andover, a suit of vestments of white damask ; Basingstoke, vestments and copes, valued at )Ti2 1 3-f. od. ; Beaulieu, 'one oyle box of silver' ; Christchurch, a pax of wood covered with silver ; Fordingbridge, a cross, a pyx, a pair of censers and ship, a sacring bell, and a pax, all of silver ; Mil- brook, a silver cross ; Nether Wallop, a pyx of silver and a suit of vestments of blue velvet ; Newton, a pyx of silver ; Ringwood, a cross, two candlesticks, a pyx, a pair of censers and ship, a sacring bell, two cruets and a pax, all of silver ; Romsey, a chrismatory and a little bottle and cup of silver ; and Whitchurch, two chalices and patens, a pair of censers, a pair of cruets, and a pax, all of silver. A far larger number of Hampshire churches, however, received the money value of the goods of which they had been spoiled, ranging from £26 Ss. od., the sum paid to the wardens of Winchfield, down to 3^. \d.^ which was obtained by those of St. Bartholomew's, Winchester. The commissioners' charge for this work of partial restoration was £8 1 3^. 4^., which included the sum of £3 ys. od. for riding up to London to bring back the money.1 Hampshire is the only county of which any trace of restored church goods remains at the Public Record Office. This restitution was not generally carried out throughout the country ; the results in Hampshire were probably brought about through the in- fluential position of Bishop Gardiner. He died of gout at Whitehall 1 Land Revenue Records (Church Goods), 1392/60, 445/1. 71 A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE on 17 November, 1555, and was spared the worst of the persecutions that throw such a gloom upon Mary's reign. The successor of Gardiner in the bishopric of Winchester was John White, a native of Hampshire and warden of Winchester college. He was one of Gardiner's executors, he preached at the requiem mass and went with the funeral procession in February, 1556, that conveyed his predecessor's remains from Southwark to Winchester. He had been consecrated Bishop of Lincoln by Gardiner at St. Saviour's, Southwark, in 1554, and soon attained an evil name in the pursuit of heretics. He presided in September, 1555, at the trial of Ridley. White was appointed to the bishopric of Winchester on 1 5 April, 1556, and on the same day Cardinal Pole appointed Dr. Steward, Dean of Winchester, and Dr. Stympe, who succeeded White as warden of the college, to visit the diocese of Winchester.1 The bulls for his translation were however delayed, and the conge (felire did not reach the chapter till 1 6 July. Hampshire rallied to the 'old religion' during the grievous and bitter years of Mary's reign, so that the county was happily almost entirely free from persecution. In the long list of martyrs arranged under counties during the four years of the burnings given in Strype's Memorials^ Hampshire is not once named. Nevertheless there was one county burning during White's episcopate a few months before the Queen's death. Thomas Benbridge, a gentleman of position, after examination before the bishop, was condemned to the stake at Win- chester on 29 July, 1558. When the fire reached him the pains caused him to recant, and the sheriff released him and sent him back to prison. On 4 August the Privy Council sent a letter of severe rebuke to Sir Richard Pexsall, the sheriff of Hampshire, for having released Benbridge without authority, and at the same time wrote to the bishop to insist on the execution of the sentence. Meanwhile Benbridge retracted his recantation, was once more led to the stake and martyred.2 Though he suffered at Smithfield, and was examined by Bonner, John Philpot,3 Archdeacon of Winchester, may also be mentioned here as a Marian martyr. He was born at Compton, Hampshire, and was third son of Sir Peter Philpot. It is probably to his credit that he quarrelled with his diocesan, Bishop Ponet, but the Privy Council intervened and told him to pay his dues to the bishop, and not to trouble the people with a visitation during harvest.4 He was a voluminous writer of the reformed school, and was burned for his doctrines on 18 December, 1555. On 13 December, 1558, White preached the funeral sermon on Queen Mary. For certain slighting expressions that he was supposed to have used towards Elizabeth, he was commanded to keep his house ; but on 19 January, 1559, he was called before the council, and ' after a good 1 Strype, Eccl. Mem. iii. pt. i, 481, 487. Fox, viii. 490 ; Acts of Privy Council, 1556-8, p. 361. 3 Philpot was one of the three brave men who in the Marian Convocation defended the Prayer Book. 4 Acts of Privy Council, 1 5 5 2-4, p. 99. 72 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY admonition geven him, was sett at lyberty and discharged of the said commandement of keping his house.'1 In March he voted in parliament against the Supremacy Bill, and at the end of the month took part in the Westminster Abbey conference between nine supporters of the late queen's policy and nine reformers. It was characteristic of the spirit of the day that at the end of the conference, which concluded on 3 April, the Bishop of Winchester, together with the Bishop of Lincoln, who were the most conspicuous disputants, were sent to the Tower and their goods sequestrated.2 On 26 June, White was formally deprived of his bishopric, but in conse- quence of ill-health was released from the Tower on 7 July, and suffered to live with his brother, an alderman of the city of London. Bishop White died in 1560, and was buried in his cathedral church.3 For refusing the oath of supremacy Dean Steward of Winchester was also deprived, as well as Prebendaries Hill, Bilson, Harding, Lang- ridge and Hyde, and Edmund Mervyn, Archdeacon of Surrey. The number of clergy throughout England who were ejected for declining to subscribe to Elizabeth's ecclesiastical supremacy was larger than is generally supposed. The number of Hampshire incumbents deprived in the early years of Elizabeth, in addition to the dignitaries, was twenty-four, serving the following parishes : Alresford, Ashley, Beau- lieu, Compton, Crawley, Catherington, Cliddisden, Clanfield, Ewhurst, Freshwater, Farley, Hursley, King's Worthy, Nateley-Scures, North Stoneham, Portsea, Sutton, Sparsholt, Sherfield-English, St. Lawrence (Isle of Wight), Titchfield, Wonsington, Wootton (Isle of Wight), and Wootton St. Lawrence.4 To these must be added John Marschall, Fellow of New College, Oxford, who was second master at Winchester College. Prebendary Hyde, named above, was head master. This gives a total for the county of thirty-three. The queen was no sooner settled on the throne than Cecil and other advisers urged a general royal visitation of the dioceses of England and Wales, on the lines of the one carried out when her boy-brother came to the kingship. The visitors were, in the main, leading Eliza- bethan statesmen ; but they were accompanied by certain of the clergy, who were chiefly named to act as preachers during the visitation circuit. Dr. Robert Home was nominated as a preacher-visitor for the southern province in June, 1559, and he was also visitor for Cambridge University and Eton. Winchester was one of the two dioceses that escaped this general visitation. The reason was that it had been already decided to 1 Acts of Privy Council, 1558-70, p. 45. The sermon preached by White at Queen Mary's funeral is set forth in Brit. Mus. Sloane MSS. 1578 ; there is a careless copy of this in Strype's Memo- rials of £>ueen Mary, app. Ixxxi. The proverbial comparison quoted by the preacher between ' a live dog and a dead lion' was twisted by some to refer to the two queenly sisters ; but the whole sense and argument of the sermon is destroyed by any such strained interpretation. * Ibid. p. 78. 3 Cal. Spanish State Papers (1558-67), pp. 46-8 ; Cal. Venetian State Papers (1558-80), p. 65. There is no evidence to be found in support of the story that White threatened to excommunicate Elizabeth (Gee's Efizabetkan Clergy, p. 32). 4 Ibid. pp. 285, 292. Chancellor Martin is generally named as deprived at this time, but it is an error. 11 73 10 A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE put Home in White's place, and it was thought that he might well be left to do his own visiting. Robert Home, who had been Dean of Durham under Edward VI., was not however consecrated Bishop of Winchester by the archbishop until February, 1561. He held the see for almost twenty years. The power for good or evil that follows the possession of a vast income was now much changed so far as this bishopric was concerned. An act of parliament was passed to strip it of those possessions which had been alienated with the connivance of Ponet in the days of Edward VI., but recovered in those of Mary.1 Moreover, a general Act had become law by which the Crown, in the event of any see falling vacant, could issue a commission to survey its castles, manors or lands, and to take to itself whatsoever seemed good, giving in exchange impropriations or tithes to a like amount. The proviso of exchange was however a delusion, and readily made void ; even Burnet styles this ' an act for robbing the Church without enriching the Crown.' At Durham, Home had destroyed with his own hands not only what were technically ' superstitious monuments,' but much that was purely artistic, so that of him it was written by one of his own chapter that ' he could never abide any ancient monuments, acts, or deeds that gave any light of or to godly religion.' 2 In his new diocese the destruction that he wrought, particularly with Wykeham's work at Winchester, was piteous. Much detail could be given from various contemporary writers and from letters, but it may suffice to sum it all up in the words of Wood : ' Bishop Home was a most zealous and active Puritan, and one of the greatest enemies which the monuments of art and the ancient rites of religion found at the Reformation.' 3 No sooner had Home established himself in his diocese than he began a general visitation with the object of securing uniformity. Surrey was his first care. On 8 June, 1561, the bishop wrote to Cecil stating that he had completed his visitation of Surrey and a great part of Hampshire, and was about to go forward to Southampton and the Isle of Wight. As to those who had appeared at his visitation, he had not found any ' repugning to the ordering of the realme concerning religion,' or any ministers declining to subscribe to the declaration. But he complains that many were absent, and many churches destitute of incumbents. He intended to have all absentees summoned before him when his visitation was complete.4 In August of the same year Home wrote again at length to Cecil, expressing his bounden duty to report to the council, since the queen had entrusted him with a considerable amount of civil jurisdiction in Hampshire, as well as that which per- tained to his spiritual office. The letters lately sent from the council had struck no small terror into men's minds, and were useful in forcing 1 i Eliz. c. 4. » Rites of Durham (Surtees Soc.) pp. 59, 65. Wood's Athena, \. 180. See also Warton's Life of Sir T. Pope, appendix 10, and Kitchin's Winchester, p. 1 80. * Dam. Stale Papers, Eftz. xvii. 23. The various references to the State Papers are to the originals ; where only the printed calendars have been used it is so stated. 74 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY them to live in order ; but their zeal must not be slackened. He thought the common sort of people could be easily brought to conform themselves, but the better sort required constant pressure, and the justices must be kept up to the mark. In conjunction with Sir Henry Seymour and Mr. Foster, he had called together the constables of the hundreds in their charge, and appointed days for their supplying lists on oath of recusants in each parish and tithing. Through this civil pro- cedure he had gained far more knowledge of religious disorders than through the churchwardens at his visitation. By diligent action he had driven out of the hundreds in his charge many idle and evilly-disposed persons ; but they merely moved to other hundreds where there was not such discipline. He complained that ' the great man that had rule the last yeer in this shere being resyaunt here ' was bitterly opposing him.1 In his next letter to Cecil, dated 12 January, 1562, from Waltham, he recites the great and diverse pains he had taken to reduce the inhabitants of Winchester to a good uniformity in religion. The churches had not been frequented as they ought for common prayer since ' the massing tyme,' and he had difficulty in finding ministers to preach sound doctrine. Many of the city livings were very small, and he had arranged with the mayor for certain churches to be united (' altho' the common sort be against it'), otherwise he could not get them well served. Some of these livings were in the queen's gift, and some in his ; and so he craved assistance from the Crown in this amalgamation. As it was, some even of the cathedral priests were still inculcating popery and superstition. He complains that he finds the citizens of Winchester ' very stubborne, whose reformation wolde helpe the greatest part of the shere.' 2 In November, 1 567, a body of Walloons who had fled from the Low Countries to escape the horrors of the Inquisition petitioned the mayor of Southampton for leave to establish themselves in that town and to have a church assigned to them ' where to learn to reverence God and the Magistrates.' The mayor referred the latter question to the Bishop of Winchester, before whom the refugees stated they were willing to make a confession of their faith ; but he raised certain difficulties with regard to their other requests, mainly with regard to servants and apprentices. On receipt of the mayor's detailed reply the Walloons forwarded it to Bishop Home, and he at once wrote strongly in their favour to Cecil, with the result that the queen authorized the settling at Southampton of twenty families of Low Country aliens, with ten menservants for each household.3 The bishop assigned to them for worship, with the sanction of Queen's College, Oxford, the chapel of St. Julian or God's House. In 1712 this congregation conformed to the Church of England, and still continues4 to use its liturgy. 1 Dom. State Papers, Eliz. ix. 36. « Ibid. xxi. 7. 3 Ibid, (addenda) xiii. 8o-z, xliii. 16 and xliv. 8. 4 The registers of this Walloon church, which began in December, 1567, are peculiarly interesting. The first baptism suivant La Liturgie Anglicane was on zi April, 1714. They were printed in extenso for the Huguenot Society in 1890. 75 A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE Hampshire, from the number of recusants, who increased rather than diminished under the bishop's vigorous treatment, was more troubled than most shires by repeated tests of uniformity. In November, 1569, the justices of Hampshire send to the council a formal certificate of their obedience to the Act of Uniformity, willingly subscribed to by ' the moste parte of us nowe presentlie in Commission.' They reported that Lord Chidiock Paulet objected to sign, as he did not agree with receiving the Sacrament ; that Sir John Berkeley was absent, but wrote promising to subscribe ; that of those who were heretofore in the com- mission, Richard Dowse excused his coming through sickness, Thomas Shelley cannot be found by the constable, and ' Anthonie Cope (an excommunicate person) refuseth to subscribe most obstinately.' The document is signed by nine justices, the first two being Bishop Home and Henry Seymour.1 A communication from the bishop to Cecil and the council, dated 24 October, 1577, shows what a considerable number of influential folk still clung to the Roman obedience in Hampshire. He forwarded a list of Hampshire recusants of substance, with the value of their property or goods, and promised shortly to send one of Surrey. The list of these recusants is headed with the name of the Earl of Southampton, but the bishop does not attempt any valuation of his property, as he says it will be so well known to the council. Forty-four names are given, without counting the wives of the recusants. At Warblington, George Cotton, Esq., and wife are mentioned, who had jC3°° a vear m lands, and Mrs. Bullaker, a widow, whose goods were worth .£500. Henry Shelley, gent., and wife, who had £200 in goods and £100 a year in lands, are enumerated under Buriton. Amongst others in this list are Lady Elizabeth Paulet of Crondal ; Peter Tichborne, gent., and wife, of Por- chester ; and Mrs. Tichborne, widow, of Westerton.2 Home died in 1 579, and was succeeded in the same year by John Watson, who had taken an Oxford M.D. degree, and originally practised as a physician. Afterwards he was ordained, and being known as a reformer he was appointed a prebendary of Winchester. Watson seemed well able to adapt himself to changing circumstances, for he not only retained his prebend through Mary's reign, but was instituted to the Hampshire rectory of Winchfield, to another benefice, and to the chancellorship of St. Paul's. When Elizabeth succeeded her sister, Watson again managed to keep in favour and received further prefer- ment. He was made Archdeacon of Surrey in 1559, rector of South Warnborough and master of St. Cross in 1568, and Dean of Winchester in 1570. Watson held the bishopric for only a little over three years, for he died in January, 1584. It was scarcely to be expected that one who had changed his own religious views so frequently would be very stern with either ' papists or sectaries,' and it is generally supposed that he was lax in his administration of all episcopal duties. The Privy 1 Dam. State Papers, EKz. lix. 46. * Ibid, cxvii. 10, 101 (i). 76 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY Council were constantly reminding him of the work they expected him to do. In August, 1580, when Watson was only bishop elect, the council wrote to him concerning the examination of certain notorious papists lately apprehended in that county, and ordered that they should be committed to Winchester gaol and kept apart from others. He was urged to use his ' best indevours from tyme to time to boulte owte all such matters as he shall thinke may by anie good meanes be gotten at their handes.'1 In the following October the bishop hears again from the council that they are informed that many of the wives of those who had been reduced to conformity ' do not only contynue obstinate by refusing to come to the Churche to Common Prayer, but also do use at their ordinarie meetinges among themselfes verie unreverende speeches of the Relligion nowe established in this realme, defacing the same as much as in them lieth ; he is therefore required not only to take bandes of every the husbandes of the said offenders that their wifes shall kepe themselves in their houses, and that no corrupte persons of Relligion shall have accesse unto them untill they shall be reduced to follow the example of their husbands in yelding due obedience to her Majesties lawes, but also for the speedy bringing them thereunto it is thought meete that they laye a convenient mulcte upon them from tyme to tyme, which may be imployed either for the setting fourthe of the House of Correction or some suche like charitable use.' 2 In November, 1580, there was considerable excitement over the arrest in Hampshire of Elizabeth Sanders, ' a professed noone,' and sister of the celebrated Roman controversialist and historian, Dr. Nicholas Sanders. She refused to say where she had been harboured since she came to England, and the bishop was ordered to detain her in the House of Correction and examine her straitly as to the place of her residence when in London. Another of Dr. Sanders' sisters married Henry Pitts of Alton, Hants, a family constantly in trouble for recusancy.3 When however the bishop did do his best to please the council by showing zeal against recusancy, he did not always give satisfaction. In compliance with their order of October, 1580, Bishop Watson com- mitted one John Goldsmith of Exton, gentleman, to the common gaol, because his wife was ' obstinate in her Poperie ' and would not come to church, whilst he refused to enter into bonds for her conformity. Gold- smith was sufficiently influential to get the ear of the council, and the result was that in February, 1581, the bishop was ordered to release him for the following quaintly expressed reasons : ' their Lordships are credibly given to understande, that the said Goldsmithe is not hable to overule his wiefes pevish disposicion in that behaulf, he is required to give order presently for his enlargement, and that the correction of her obstanacie be layed uppon her owne carcas, in case she shall contynue willfull disposicion in refusing to come to the Churche.' * 1 Acts of Privy Council, 1580-1, p. 133. 2 Ibid. p. 244. 8 Ibid. p. 270 ; Don. State Papers, Eliz. cxlvii. 74. * Ibid, cxvii. 232. 77 A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE The council were better pleased with the bishop in the following September, when they wrote expressing their pleasure that he had reduced some recusants to conformity by conferences of learned and godly men, and instructing him to commit others to take their trial at Quarter Sessions.1 In a list drawn up in June, 1582, of ' the notablest recusants yet remayninge prisoners in Winchester and elsewhere ' occur the names of ' William Burley, gent, in Queene Maries tyme a justice of peace ' ; ' Nicholas Scroope, gent, Thomas Owen, gent, a bachelor of the Civile lawe ; Symon Cuffolde, gent ; Gilbert Welles, gent,' who were all at that time in Winchester gaol. In a later hand to this list is added, ' Tiche- burne gent prisoner in Bekonsfelde gent.' * On 8 August, 1582, Bishop Watson wrote to Walsingham requesting instructions how to proceed with one, John Chapman, ' a Seminarie and Massing Priest.' He forwarded the little he had got him to confess, and wished to be directed whether he should still detain him or send him to the assizes at Andover. ' He is in the meane tyme comytted to a safe place in the Correction Howse. The Gaole hath many backward People, that we thought not goode to Comytt nether the Priest nor the Widdowe Mrs. Bullacre3 thither.' The examination of John Chapman, taken before the Bishop of Winchester, and Francis Cotton and William Wright, esquires, testifies that he was ordained by the Bishop of Wells and held the living of Langton Herring, Dorset, which he served six years ; that he left the ministry through doubts engendered by reading, without formal resigna- tion ; that he went to London and saw one, Blewet, a prisoner at the Marshalsea, and was directed to cross the seas to Rheims ; that after a year's sojourn with the seminaries at Rheims he was ordained priest ; that he landed in England about midsummer twelvemonth ; and that after visiting various parts of the west of England he came to Mrs. Bullacre's of Warblington. He acknowledged taking an oath to the pope at his ordination, but only such as all catholic priests take, and that he is the queen's subject in all causes temporal.4 Hampshire knew more of these seminary priests than almost any shire, because of its extensive seaboard whereon they might stealthily land from small vessels, and because of the residence in the county of not a few of substance who were thankful for their ministrations. In January, 1583, a sudden search was made by order of the council in the chambers of Winchester gaol occupied by Warnford, Howard, Slade, Body, Travers and Mercy Deane. The inventory 1 Dam. State Papers, Eliz. 1581-2, p. 203. * Ibid. cliv. 38. The Tichbornes, as one of the leading Hampshire families, were perpetually harassed, fined and imprisoned throughout Elizabeth's reign for their recusancy. The Diocesan History, strangely enough, instances them as a loyal Roman Catholic family, who were allowed ' to exercise their religion at home unmolested.' » Ibid. civ. 8. 1 The college of Douay, afterwards transferred to Rheims, was founded in 1568 to supply secular English priests to secretly serve the English Catholics of the Roman obedience, as the old 'Queen Mary priests ' were beginning to die out or had become infirm. 78 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY and goods that were seized were sent up to London, included a super- altar, a cope, five pieces of massing ornaments, a vestment, a stole, a set of beads, two great wax candles, and ' a greate masse booke in Latin.' ' They also took from the prisoners a variety of devotional and contro- versial works of theology, and one work of more serious import, Allen's Defence of English Catholics, wherein the lawfulness of killing Elizabeth is maintained, though not in such plain or virulent terms as those used by Bishop Ponet for the killing of Mary. The end of this episcopate was stained by two martyrdoms. John Slade, educated at Douay, followed the profession of a schoolmaster at Winchester. John Body, a Wykehamist and master of arts, was another Hampshire schoolmaster. After a long confinement in gaol they were condemned at the Winchester assizes for denying the queen's supremacy. Slade was butchered as a traitor at Winchester on 30 October, 1583, and Body at Andover on 2 November of the same year.8 They were both laymen.3 But it was not only the perverse Romanists who were a trouble to Bishop Watson. An extreme and extravagant section of the Anabaptists, who became known as the Family of Love or the Familists, established themselves in England towards the end of Edward VI. 's reign. There seems no doubt that they often offended grossly against decency and order. On 3 October, 1580, a proclamation was issued against 'the Sectaries of the Family of Love,' and a form of abjuration of their various heresies was issued by the council, to be administered to its members. A letter was sent to the Bishop of Winchester on 10 October, directing him to call to his assistance Sir William Moore, Sir Thomas Browne, and such other learned men as he thought meet for the sup- pressing and punishing of the ' Familie of Love.'4 The dioceses of Winchester, Ely and Norwich were the chief centres of the sect. On the death of Watson a more distinguished man and considerable scholar succeeded to the bishopric of Winchester. Thomas Cooper, the son of a poor Oxford tailor, educated as a Magdalen College quire boy, eventually through his diligence became fellow and master of the school where he had been pupil. His greatest work was the Thesaurus, or Latin dictionary, first published in 1565, which won Elizabeth's special esteem. He was also a considerable theologian and controversialist. Cooper was successively Dean of Christchurch and Gloucester and Bishop of Lincoln, and was translated to Winchester in 1584, where he was noted for his learning and personal sanctity. When the famous series of Martin Marprelate tracts attacking the English prelacy in 1588-9 were 1 Dom. State Papers, Eliz. clviii. 9. * Stow's Annals ; Challoner's Martyrs (Law's ed.) i. go-z. 3 One of the most astounding mistakes in Green's Short History (which fully acknowledges the cruelty and extent of the Elizabethan persecution fostered by the wicked bull of Pope Pius) is his state- ment that under the penal Act of 1 5 8 1 'no layman was brought to the bar or to the block . . . the work of bloodshed was reserved wholly for priests.' The fact is that fifty-seven laymen and laywomen were done to death under its provisions in addition to upwards of 100 priests. * Acts of Privy Council, 1580-1, p. 233. 79 A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE provoking rejoinders of a vulgar and coarse character, the Bishop of Winchester issued a scholarly and temperate rejoinder entitled An Admonition to the People of England, which was published under his initials.1 The reply of Martin to this dignified rejoinder surpassed the scurrility of the previous six tracts issued from this itinerant press. The title page of ' Hay any worke for Cooper,' of which a facsimile is given, with its coarse wit affords a good sample of the contents of its forty-eight pages. There is a certain kind of humour in styling Cooper 'Tom Tubtrimmer of Winchester,' but it is mere virulence to write down this scholar as ' a beastly defender of corrupt church government and not only a traitor to God and his Word but an enemy to her majesty and the state.' The Bishop of Gloucester is termed * that olde stealecounter massepriest John of Gloucester,' while the coarsest of personalities are indulged in as to the unmarried state of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Peterborough. The bishops collectively are termed wretches, sots, gross beasts, senseless and undutiful beasts, false apostles like Judas, incarnate devils, vicars of hell and bishops of the devil ! Although Bishop Cooper's name is chiefly identified with the Marprelate controversy, he had but little trouble with ' sectaries ' in Hampshire or elsewhere in his diocese. He was a good administrator of his diocese in both spiritual and temporal matters, but made it a matter of conscience to keep down and continuously harass the numerous Romish recusants of Hampshire throughout his episcopate. The bishop was no doubt the greatest persecutor of the recusants during Elizabeth's reign, outside the council, but this was mainly owing to the presence of papists in such large numbers in the Hampshire part of his diocese. In December, 1585, Bishop Cooper wrote to Walsingham begging that no favour might be shown to Mrs. Pitts of Alton, who at his instigation had been sent up to London and committed by the council to the Clink.2 He wrote that she was a very obstinate person, and reminded their lordships that she was a sister of ' Nicholas Saunders the traitor.' He considered that her return to Winchester would do more harm than ten sermons would do good, and with regard to her husband, who had conformed, he laid down the ruling that no man whose wife is a recusant could possibly be himself sound.3 Early in the year 1586 Robert Anderton and William Marsden, two priests from Rheims, landed in the Isle of Wight. They were at once arrested, and acknowledged themselves priests. They were sent to Winchester gaol and tried at the Lent Assizes. The judge showed special sympathy, as they had neither of them spoken a word on English soil before their arrest, but had to condemn them to death under the Act 1 For a full account of this able and exhaustive treatise see Arber's reprint (1883), with an intro- duction from the Puritan standpoint. 1 The Clink was the prison that adjoined the Southwark palace of the Bishops of Winchester ; it often went by the name of ' the hall of Winchester." 8 Dom. State Papers, EKz. clxxxv. 1 7. 80 Hay any worke for Cooper : ft Weft $tftle itirecteti bplMpeof mt IjitWtcation to fl)c rclicrenfce asptyoppg/ counfelluig tljcm/iftlKj? Vf ill nccfca be barrelled op/ fo? fraw of fintiiuior in t?K itaf!rr i(\ af Ijcr /Katf fh'c {t »1;c ^Sfatc/tljat r^cp tooulb »fc rijc abutfc of «uecctiO /hatrin/fo; tl;ep:ai«Din0of t^rie 045 • 73 2I4 Alton 4,785 • 24 392 Droxford 13,526 . 188 538 Southampton 4»°53 • 26 43** Fordingbridge 7,129 . 127 625 Isle of Wight 8,964 . 7 129 Winchester 4,545 . 243 177 Alresford 2,845 .105 8 1 Samborne 5,578 . 33 865 70,660 846 3,714 The proportion of Roman Catholics may not seem large, but it is nearly the largest of any county in England.1 Although this little known and seldom cited return is probably not exactly correct, and most likely somewhat understates the numbers of both papists and nonconformists, it is found when tested by other returns to be approximately accurate. To form a general total of the whole population, when the numbers given are of those over sixteen years of age, it is necessary to add about forty to every hundred. The parishes or chapelries where the proportion of Roman Catholics was the largest were : Bedhampton, where there were 12 papists to 45 conformists and 2 nonconformists ; Twyford, where there were 70 papists and 430 conformists ; Tichbourne, where the papists numbered 24 to the conformists' 79 ; and Otterbourne, where the papists were 54 out of a total population (over sixteen) of 189. The proportion of nonconformists was largest at Romsey, where they numbered 777 to 3 papists and 1070 churchfolk ; and at Porchester, where they numbered 140 to 5 papists and 175 churchfolk. Bishop Mews was a remarkable man. He was an Oxford graduate, and for a time president of St. John's College, who took service in the royalist force raised by the university in 1642, obtaining the rank of cap- tain and being one of the numerous prisoners taken at Naseby. He was an active messenger (being an adept in disguises) between the continent and England and Scotland in the royalist interest during the Commonwealth. The date of his ordination is not known. After the restoration he obtained rapid and abundant promotion. Soon after his translation to Winchester the militant bishop had an opportunity of displaying his 1 The papists of Derbyshire were somewhat higher in proportion ; the figures for that county were : C. 47,151 ; P. 588 ; N. 918. The diocese of London had 2,069 papists, but the conformists were 263,000 ; the diocese of Lincoln had 1,244 papists out of 215,000 conformists. 96 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY warlike proclivities. The Monmouth rebellion obtained considerable support in parts of Hampshire, the mayor of Lymington, Colonel Dore, proclaiming him king and raising a troop in his service. The Bishop of Winchester, though over seventy, at once took the field. At Sedgemoor it was the bishop's horses that drew the cannon and the bishop's hands that directed the decisive fire. Mews received at Sedgemoor a wound from which he suffered during the remainder of his life. It is pleasant to know that he afterwards interceded for the lives of the rebels, bearding even the ruffian Jeffreys. This rebellion led to perhaps the most infamous execution that has ever disgraced Winchester. Alice Lisle, of Ellingham, a widow of three score and ten, the second wife of John Lisle, ' a regicide,' but one of the most distinguished men in the Commonwealth service, gave shelter to John Hickes, a dissenting minister who had been an active supporter of Monmouth, but whom Lady Lisle believed to be escaping from a warrant for illegal preaching. She was arrested for harbouring a traitor, and Jeffreys, at the special commission at Winchester in August, 1685, surpassed himself in brutal browbeating and bullied the jury into finding her guilty of this capital charge. On 28 August, Jeffreys sen- tenced her to be burnt alive the same afternoon. The bishop's pressure secured a respite of a few days, and an alteration in the sentence. The aged lady, daughter and heiress of Sir White Beckenshaw of Moyles Court, Ellingham, was beheaded in the market place on 2 September, ' the victim of a judicial murder.' * At the revolution of 1688, Mews took the oaths to William and Mary. The nonjuring movement did not take much hold of the Hampshire clergy. The following were those who were then deprived : William Hanbury, rector of Botley ; Edward Worsley (son of Sir Edward Worsley), rector of Gatcombe ; Charles Buchannan, vicar of Farnborough ; Mr. Flood, curate of Ringwood ; and Mr. Kilback. Of Mr. Buchannan it is said that he was ' first a Complier, then a Recanter, afterwards complied again.'2 Bishop Mews died in 1706, at the age of eighty-nine, and was followed by Sir Jonathan Trelawney, translated from Exeter. During the time that he held the see of Bristol, Trelawney was one of the seven bishops who were put on their trial for resistance to the indulgence of James II. But his opinions underwent strange changes. In his visitation charge on first entering Winchester diocese he announced that he was equally hostile both to papists and the ' furious sects of dissenters." Trelawney finished the rebuilding of the palace of Wol- vesey, which had been begun by his predecessor, and resided there when in Hampshire. The most distinguished clergyman in Hampshire at this time was Joseph Bingham, author of that classical work, The Antiquities of the i Sidney Lee, Diet, of Nat. Biog. » Lift of Kettleuiell (1718), Appendix 6. The British Museum copy has MS. additions and altera- tions. Bowies' Life of Bishop Ken, ii. 18*. 8 This charge and a sermon were privately printed in 1877. British Museum, press mark 4473, P. 4. u 97 *3 A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE Christian Church, in ten volumes. He held the small living of Head- bourne Worthy until Bishop Trelawney collated him in 1712 to Havant. On Trelawney's death in 172 1 Bishop Charles Trimnell was translated from Norwich to Winchester, but only survived the change for two years. From the dedication that Bingham prefixed to the last two volumes of his Antiquities, it may be gathered that he was a zealous and conscien- tious administrator of his new diocese. He was a prolific writer of the Whig school, and held most pronounced latitudinarian views on the subordination of the Church to the State. To the same school belonged Bishop Richard Willis, who had pre- viously held the sees of Gloucester and Sarum. Benjamin Hoadly, who succeeded to Winchester in 1734 and who had been successively Bishop of Bangor, Hereford and Sarum, was far more of a vehement controversialist of the extreme latitudinarian and political school than a diocesan adminis- trator. The value that he set upon the office that he held can be judged from the fact that during the six years he held the bishopric of Bangor and drew its emoluments the diocese never once saw him, and it is sup- posed to have been the same with Hereford. To him belongs the shame of being the cause of the suppression of Convocation for nearly a century and a half. Two years after his acceptance of Winchester he endeavoured, in a charge, to allay the feeling of his clergy against him by a laboured defence of his writings, particularly of the painful Plain Account of the Nature and End of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The mere list of his printed pamphlets, sermons and controversial books occupies thirty columns of the British Museum catalogue. He much neglected his diocese, and died in 1761 at the age of eighty-five. Whilst the spiritual interests of Hampshire were being thus neglected in high places the warmth of the personal preaching of John Wesley naturally made itself specially felt. In 1753 this great itinerant preacher records his first impression of Portsmouth, where he preached on the Common on Sunday evening, 8 July. Wesley was favourably impressed, and describes the people as the most civil of any seaport in England. He does not give too good an account of the inhabitants of Newport, whom he visited on the following Tuesday. In October Wesley again visited the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton. He was not here again till October, 1758, when he preached in Mr. Whitefield's tabernacle at Portsmouth. In 1767 his journal records another visit to Portsmouth in the month of October, and from that year down to 1790 Wesley hardly ever let a year go by without his annual October visit to the great seaport and the Isle of Wight. Winchester was also visited with some regularity between 1766 and 1789. Wesley was at Winchester on Friday, 10 October, 1783, when he entered in his diary that ' a clergyman having offered me his church, I purposed beginning at five ; but the key was not to be found ; so I made a virtue of necessity, and preached near the Cross Street ; probably to double the congregation which would have been in the church.' 08 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY The sad condition of things engendered by the lax administration and neglect of the Whig Bishops of Winchester throughout the eighteenth century was not improved by the translation to this see, on the death of Hoadly, of John Thomas, who had obtained his preferment through being tutor to George III., and who had already occupied the sees of Peterborough and Salisbury. Brownlow North, who was successively Bishop of Lichfield, Wor- cester and Winchester (1781), owed his promotion to being half- brother of the premier, Lord North. The current tradition, cited in the Diocesan History, that Bishop North once examined certain candi- dates for ordination on the cricket field is as much a reflection on the laxity of the age as on that of the individual bishop. Nevertheless there was some real church life in the county under Bishop North, especially when the nineteenth century had opened. Between 1804 and his death in 1820, the bishop consecrated new churches at Dogmersfield, Whip- pingham, East Stratton, Micheldever, Chilworth, Fareham, Wyke and Baddesley. It would be doing a wrong to Church history to be silent as to the flagrant nepotism of this episcopate. Long leases of Church pro- perty were granted by Bishop North to members of his family on nominal fines. He appointed a nephew and namesake (afterwards a well known lay preacher) to a lucrative patent office when a babe in arms. The mastership of St. Cross bestowed on his son Francis, after- wards Earl of Guildford, and the outrageous misuse of the hospital funds, became a public scandal. A public inquiry in 1853 resulted in the Master of the Rolls declaring the matter ' a manifest and probably wilful breach of trust ' and that the distribution of the revenues was ' in direct opposition to the evidence and documents in their own custody.' To the tutor of George III. and the brother of a prime minister succeeded the tutor of William Pitt. Sir George Pretyman Tomline was appointed to the bishopric of Lincoln and the deanery of St. Paul's in 1787, and thence (after Pitt had failed in his efforts to promote him to Canterbury) translated to Winchester. He ruled the diocese for seven years with some zeal, but will be chiefly remembered for Sydney Smith's caustic attacks on his nepotism. A far happier era began in 1827, with the translation from Llandaff of Charles Richard Sumner, whose earnest episcopate lasted for forty years.1 His very first act on his translation was an augury of the interest Bishop Sumner took in his work, for he was enthroned in his cathedral 1 His first clerical promotion gave rise to a cabinet crisis and nearly to a change of ministry. In May, 1821, Lady Conyngham, George IV.'s favourite, asked the king to give Mr. Sumner a vacant canonry at Windsor and the king assented. Lord Liverpool, when he heard of it, posted down to Brighton and said that if he was not allowed the distribution of patronage he should resign. The Duke of Wellington and all his colleagues joined in the remonstrance against the presentation of Mr. Sumner and it was cancelled. However in 18*6 the king gave Mr. Sumner the bishopric of Llandaff and next year that of Winchester without consulting the premier or ministers of a weaker cabinet (The Greville Memoirs, i. 467, 117; Correspondence of Duke of WeKngton, i. 195). It is however kindly and justly said by the editor of the Greville Memoirs that if C. R. Sumner ' owed his early advancement to questionable influence, no man ever filled the office with more unaffected piety, dignity and goodness.' 99 A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE church in person. By the middle of the century any other action would have been considered a scandal, but it is a fact that from the Reforma- tion until 1827 every Bishop of Winchester had been enthroned by proxy. An earnest and conscientious evangelical, and confining his preferments to clergy of that school, Bishop Sumner was nevertheless respected and esteemed by the whole of his diocese. He held an exhaustive visitation of Hampshire and the rest of the see in 1828.' From that date until 1868, when seized with paralysis he resigned the see, the good bishop's life was one of continued faithfulness and vigour. In a ' Conspectus' that he drew up in 1864 it was shown that up to that date Bishop Sumner had consecrated in Hampshire eight new churches as well as sixty-five which had been rebuilt. During his time extensive changes were made in the arrangements of the see of Winchester. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners, appointed in 1836, at the very threshold of their work ordered that £3,600 a year should be paid by Winchester towards the augmentation of the smaller sees, and in 1851 the bishop's income was fixed at the next avoidance at £7,000. This was afterwards diminished to £6,500 by Bishop Browne's assignment of £500 to the new bishopric of St. Albans. In Victoria's reign the boundaries of the see have been altered at three different dates, but those changes have not affected Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Four grand and eminent examples of different schools of thought within the Church of England were closely connected with Hampshire during the nineteenth century. Legh Richmond (1772-1827), the pious evangelical divine, was ordained to the curacy of the parishes of Brading and Yaverland in the Isle of Wight ; his narratives of The Dairyman's Daughter and The Young Cottager were at one time the most popular religious works in England. John Keble (1797—1866), poet and divine, was rector of Hursley from 1836 to the end of his life. Charles Kingsley (1819-75), Christian socialist and author, was rector of Eversley from 1844 to the time of his death. Richard Chevenix Trench (1807-86), poet and divine, held curacies in Hampshire from 1835 to 1844 when he was appointed to the rectory of Itchenstoke, which he resigned for the archbishopric of Dublin in 1863. Of the three last well known Bishops of Winchester, Samuel Wilberforce, Edward Harold Browne and Anthony Wilson Thorold, and of Randall Thomas Davidson, the present occupant of the see, it will suffice here to say that in their administration of a high office Hampshire and the diocese at large have been exceptionally favoured. 1 The life of the good bishop issued by his son in 1876 falls into several mistakes in his contrast of Suraner's energies with his predecessor's laxity. For instance it is stated as to visitations that ' no queries had been officially issued in the diocese since 1788.' This is quite wrong ; it is due to Bishop North to state that visitation articles were issued and printed in 1801. 100 HAMPSHIRE Showing Ancient Rural Deaneriw «nd Kelitfious Houses Scale : ALRESFORD { 22. ZyZ5. Z6, «., WINCHESTER BENEDICTINE MONKS i The Old Mmster, Winchester, a. The New Minster, Winchester BENEDICTINE NUNS. 5. Nunnammscer, Winchester 4. Roniscy Ahbe). $ Wherwcll Abbey. CISTERCIAN MONKS 6. Ouarr Abbey. 7. Beaultcu Abbey. B. Netlcy Abbey. CISTERCIAN NUNS. 9 Wiptney Pnory AUSTIN CANONS 0. Christ Church Priory. 1. St. Denis' Pnory, Southampton. 3. Southwick Priory. 3. Breamore Pnory. 4. Mottisfont Priory. 5. Selborne Priory. 6 Barton Priory or Oratory, Isle of W.ght. PREMONSTRATENSIAN CANONS. • 7 T.tchfield Abbey. KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS. 1 8. Baddcsley Preceptory. FRIARS. 19. Winchester, Dominican. 20. „ Franciscan. 11. „ Austin. 21. „ Carmelite. 13. Sourhampton, Franciscan. HOSPITALS. 24. Winchester, St. Cross. HOSPITALS. (Contfl Winchester, Sr. Mary Magdalen. ,, ST. John Baptist. Southampton, God*s House. „ St.Mary Magdalen. . Poi tsrnouth, God's House. Bastngstolce, St. John Baptist. Fordingbridge, St. John Baptist. COLLEGES. College of Marwell. St. Elrzabeth, Winchester. Guild of the Holy Ghost, Ba.singstokc. ALIEN HOUSES. St. Helen's, Cluniac, Isle of Wight. Hayling, Abbey of Jumieges. Andover, ,, Si. Florcnt, Saumur, Hamble, ,, Trion, Chartrrs. Andwell, „ „ St. Cross (I. of Wight), Monk Sherborne, Abbey of St. Vigor, Cerisy. Ellingham, Abbey of StSauveur.Vicomtc. Carisbrook, ,, Lire- Appuldurcombe, Abbey of Montebourg. [The Victoria History of the Counties of England] ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY APPENDIX NO. I ECCLESIASTICAL DIVISIONS OF THE COUNTY The district now known as Hampshire was during the middle part of the seventh century in the diocese of Dorchester. In 676 Bishop Haedde moved the seat of his bishopric to Winchester, and in the diocese of Winchester this district has always been from that date, although the bishopric was in 705 divided into the dioceses of Winchester and Sher- borne,1 and again in 709 the then existing bishopric of Winchester was divided into the dioceses of Selsey and Winchester.1 From 1291, the date of Pope Nicholas' taxation,3 till the arch- deaconry of the Isle of Wight comprising the whole of that island was formed in 1871,* the county was co-terminous with the archdeaconry of Winchester. The rural deaneries within this archdeaconry were, in 1291, ten in number, namely Alresford, Alton, Andover, Basingstoke, Drokinsford, Fordingbridge, the Isle of Wight, Sombourne, Southamp- ton and Winchester.5 According to the Valor Ecc/esiasticus* taken in 1535 they were at that date the same, except that the rural deanery of Alresford was included in that of Andover, but this is clearly a mistake caused by the omission of the heading of the former rural deanery, as all the parishes in Alresford deanery are taken together at the end of that of Andover. The rural deaneries remained practi- cally unchanged till 1850, when the Isle of Wight was divided into the rural deaneries of East Medina and West Medina.7 About 1856 the archdeaconry of Winchester was re-constituted and the rural deaneries were increased to twenty-four, namely Alresford, Alton East Division, Alton West Division, Andover North-East Division, Andover North - West Division, Andover South - West Division, Basingstoke South- West Division, Basingstoke North-East Division, Chilbolton, Droxford North - East Division, Droxford South - East Division, Droxford South -West Division, Droxford North - West Division, Fawley, Fordingbridge East Division, Fordingbridge West Division, Micheldever, Odiham, Somborne, Southampton, West Meon, Win- chester, East Medina and West Medina in the Isle of Wight. Some further alterations were made about fifteen years later when the deaneries were reduced to twenty-one, namely Alresford, Alton, Alver- stoke and Portsea, Andover North Division, Andover West Division, Andover South Division, Basing South- West Division, Basing North- East Division, Bishop's Waltham, Fawley, Fordingbridge East Division, Fordingbridge West Division, Havant, Odiham, Petersfield, Romsey, Southampton and Winchester. By order in council of 18 April, 1878, the rural deaneries of Surrey were reconstituted, and the parish of Bentley 1 Jngh-Saxm Chron. (Rec. Com.), i. 68. 1 Bede, Hut. Eccl. (Mon. Hist. Brit.), v. 1 8, and Matth. Paris, Cbron. Maj. (Rec. Com.), i. 313. 3 Popeti'ub. fax. (Rec. Com.), zio. 4 London Gazette, 22 Dec. 1871. 8 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 210. « Valor Ecclei. (Rec. Com.), ii. 7, etc. 7 Clergy List, 1851, p. *8i. 101 A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE in the rural deanery of Alton was transferred to the rural deanery of Farn- ham in Surrey.1 The rural deanery of Alverstoke was by order of 4 February, 1879, divided into the rural deaneries of Alverstoke and Port- sea Island.2 By an order in council of 9 May, 1892, the whole of the rural deaneries of Hampshire within the archdeaconry of Winchester were reconstituted and made eighteen in number, namely, Aldershot, Aires- ford, Alton, Alverstoke, Andover, Basingstoke, Bishop's Waltham, Christ- church, Kingsclere, Landport, Lyndhurst, Petersfield, Portsmouth, Romsey, Silchester, Southampton, Stockbridge and Winchester, and the archdeaconry of the Isle of Wight was divided into two rural deaneries of East Wight and West Wight.3 On 7 August, 1900, the name of the rural deanery of Landport was changed to Havant and a few parishes were transferred from one deanery to another.4 APPENDIX NO. II SOME TYPICAL SEALS OF THE BISHOPS OF WINCHESTER The fine pointed oval seal of Richard of Ilchester (1174-88) (plate I.) represents the bishop standing on a platform, with right hand lifted in benediction and crozier in the left hand. In the field on the left hand is a hand holding a crozier, and on the right a pentacle. Legend : RICARDUS : DEI : GRATIA : WINTONIENSIS : EPISCOPUS. The reverse (plate I.) is a small pointed oval counterseal, with full length small figures of Sts. Peter and Paul, each having one foot on an orb. Legend : + SUNT • MICHI • SINT • Q • BONI • PETRUS • PAUL^Q • PATRONI. The oval seal of Peter des Roches (1205-38) (plate I.) gives the bishop standing on a corbel with right hand raised in benediction, and left hand holding a crozier. Legend : PETRUS : DEI : GRATIA : WINTONI- ENSIS : EPISCOPUS. The pointed oval seal of John of Pontoise (1282-1304) (plate I.) gives a full length figure of the bishop in the usual attitude. In the field, on the left, is a fleur-de-lis, and on the right two small flowers. Legend : + s. IOHANNIS : DEI : GRA : WINTONIEN : EPISCOPI. John Stratford's seal (1323-33) (plate II.) is a somewhat rude representation of the bishop in the customary attitude. Legend : SIGIL- LUM -jo ... William of Wykeham's (1367-1404) circular priory seal (plate II.) shows excellent workmanship of its date. In the upper canopy are the Virgin and Child in a niche; below them are two other saints. In larger niches on each side are figures of St. Peter and St. Paul. In base is a shield of arms, two chevrons between three roses. Legend : SECRETUM : WYLLELMI : DE : WYKEHAM I EPI : WYNTTON. 1 London Gazette, 7 May, 1878. ' Ibid. 14 Feb. 1879. 8 Ibid. 13 May, 1892. * Ibid. 14 Aug. 1900. I O2 HAMPSHIRE EPISCOPAL SEALS. I. PETER DBS ROCHES. (1205-1238.) RICHARD OK ILCHESTER. (1174-1188.) 9S, RICHARD OK ILCHESTER. COUVIERSEAL. JOHN OF PONTOISB. (1282-1304.) HAMPSHIRE EPISCOPAL SEALS. II. JOHN STRATFORD. (1323-1333.) WILLIAM WAYNFLETE. (1447-1486.) WILLIAM OF WYKEUAM. (1367-1404.) HENRY BEAUFORT. (1405-1447.) ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY The circular privy seal of Henry Beaufort (1405-47) (plate II.) has quarterly the arms of France and England within a bordure compony. Legend : SECRETUM : HENRICI : DEI : GRATIA : WINTONIEN : EPI. The large oval seal of William of Waynflete (1447—86) (plate II.) is an example of the overloaded and enriched seals of that date. In three elaborately canopied niches are figures of Sts. Paul, Peter and Swithun ; in smaller niches on each side are two angels. In the base the bishop with crozier is kneeling, between the arms of the see of Winchester and of France and England. The group at the top of the seal is obliterated. Legend: SIGILLUM : WILLELMI : WYNTONIENSIS : EPISCOPI. 103 THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES OF HAMPSHIRE INTRODUCTION So much interest is taken in the history of the various religious foundations which were suppressed in the days of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. that it is thought better to treat of them in a separate section, arranged according to the Order to which they belonged, apart from the topographical history.1 This arrangement will suit the con- venience of readers who may be specially interested in the story of the religious houses generally, or of any particular branch ; for there will be no necessity to look them up under a number of separate parishes scattered throughout the different hundreds. The account of the site or the condition of the remains and ruins will be given in the parochial history. Hampshire, with Winchester as its centre, was so pre-eminent in the making of England and of England's Church, that it is not surprising to find that .various large and influential Benedictine houses of royal foundation were established in its midst at an early date. Such were the Old Minster (643) and the New Minster (901) for Benedictine monks at Winchester, and the three large houses, with canonries attached, for Benedictine nuns at Nunnaminster, Winchester (circa 899), and at the abbeys of Romsey (circa 907) and Wherwell (circa 986). The Cistercian or White monks had three houses in the county, namely Beaulieu (1204) and her daughter Netley (1239) on the main- land, and Quarr (1131) in the Isle of Wight. There was also a convent of Cistercian nuns at Wintney (twelfth century). The Austin canons had seven houses, namely the great priory of early foundation, termed Christ Church (eleventh century ?), which was of such importance that it absorbed the name of Twyneham, where it was established; St. Denis, Southampton (circa 1124), founded by Henry I.; Southwick (1133) of like royal origin, but originally established at Porchester Church ; the smaller houses of Breamore (close of reign of Henry I.), Mottisfont (circa 1200), and Selborne (1233), and the Oratory of Barton (1275) in the Isle of Wight. There was but one house of Premonstratensian or White Canons, 1 For convenience of reference the Houses are numbered in accordance with the numerals on the map. 104 RELIGIOUS HOUSES namely that of Titchfield (1222), remarkable for its well-arranged library. The military orders of both the Templars and the Hospitallers had property in the county, but it was only at North Baddesley (twelfth century) that there was a preceptory of the latter. The four chief mendicant orders of itinerant friars had houses at Winchester (Dominicans, 1231-4; Franciscans, circa 1235; Austin Friars, temp. Edward I.; and Carmelites, 1278). The Franciscans were also established at Southampton about 1237. The old hospitals of England were invariably closely connected with religion, and were not infrequently under the control of a master and brethren, or master brethren and sisters who followed the Austin rule ; hence they were occasionally termed priories, and the master a prior. They were for the accommodation and relief of poor wayfarers and for the more permanent relief of the sick and infirm ; hence they were found in or near towns, or, if for lepers, on the outskirts beyond the gates. Winchester had its three hospitals : the richly endowed St. Cross (1136), whose funds were often so grievously misused ; St. Mary Magdalen (circa 1 174—89) ; and St. John Baptist (1275). Southampton had one of special interest in God's House (circa 1197), as well as the lazar house of St. Mary Magdalen (1173-4). Portsmouth had another Maison Dieu (1235—8) ; Walter de Merton turned the old hospital of Basingstoke (1230—40) into a resting-place for aged and infirm priests ; and there was another hospital at Fordingbridge (before 1282) of which but little is known. Of colleges and collegiate churches Hampshire had but three examples, in addition to the great educational establishment of William of Wykeham. The usual college or collegiate church was in no sense a place of education, save that provision was occasionally made for the instruction of the quire boys. The college, though no two foundations were exactly alike, was a collection of secular priests, guided in their life by certain statutory rules which ensured a certain amount of common life, and whose chief occupation was the rendering of a continuous round of choral worship and the celebration of masses for the souls of the founders. Occasionally the chaplains or fellows had poor brethren living in the college or infirm and sick under their charge, but they were in the main large chantry foundations. The small country college of Marwell owed its origin to Bishop Henry de Blois (1129-71), and the later and more important one of St. Elizabeth (1301) at Winchester to Bishop Pontoise. To these must be added, in its later development, the Gild of the Holy Ghost at Basingstoke (before 1244). The chief feature however of the religious houses of the county was the number of alien priories. They were more numerous in Hamp- shire than in any other county, which was doubtless chiefly owing to the easy accessibility of so much of the shire, with its extensive seaboard, to visitors from Normandy. The influence of these foreign monks from the great abbeys of H 105 M A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE Normandy, ruling their large estate in the interest of parent com- munities that owed direct allegiance to a power with which England was so frequently at war, constituted at times a genuine national danger, and must have been a constant cause of local irritation. There was probably a general feeling of satisfaction throughout Hampshire when these alien priories, that had been ruled with so much fickleness for more than a hundred years, were finally suppressed at the beginning of the fifteenth century ; more especially as their revenues were merely transferred to other religious purposes. The island of Hay ling was owned by the powerful abbey of Jumieges, where the abbot established a priory probably in the twelfth century, the site of which is now beneath the sea ; the abbey of St. Florent, Saumur, established a priory at Andover during the same period ; St. Vigor, Cerisy, at Monk Sherborne (1100-35) ; St. Sauveur Vicomte, at Ellingham (1160); whilst the abbey of Tiron, Chartres, had three houses, namely at Andwell (early in twelfth century), Hamble (1098-1128), and St. Cross (1120) in the Isle of Wight. In the Isle of Wight the abbeys of Lire and Montebourg also respectively con- trolled the small priories of Carisbrook (circa 1156) and Appuldurcombe (circa iioo), whilst the house of St. Helen's (circa 1090) was of Cluniac foundation. Not one of these ten houses were conventual, that is, the inmates had no voice in the appointment of their superiors, who were sent across the seas by the Norman abbots and who could be withdrawn at pleasure. The constitution of these alien priories has already been referred to in the ecclesiastical section, and their individual peculiarities are subse- quently briefly discussed under their respective houses ; but a word or two may here be permitted as to their treatment by the English Crown. It is easy to understand how they sprang up in England under the first kings of the Norman dynasty, but they soon became settlements of foreign monks, whose sympathies naturally centred in their homes across the seas, and whose main duties were the collecting and guarding of English rents and tithes that were sent year by year out of the kingdom to the parent house. King John was the first to seize the priories that were dependent on foreign houses, compelling them to pay into the royal treasury the sums or tribute — usually termed apport — which they had been in the habit of forwarding to the continent. In 1295, when Edward I. made war upon France to recover the province of Guienne, he had great difficulty in procuring the necessary funds for the campaign. He seized all the alien priories, numbering about a hundred, and used their revenues to fill his war chest. In order to prevent the foreign monks of the Isle of Wight and on the seaboard of Hampshire and else- where on the coast giving possible help to invaders, he deported many of them to other religious houses that were twenty or more miles from the coast. Edward II. subsequently followed this example, taking the alien priories into his own hands, but he not infrequently appointed their priors custodians for a consideration, obliging them to pay to the Crown 106 RELIGIOUS HOUSES the apport due to their superiors. If other custodians were appointed, reservation was however always made of a minimum sufficient to sustain the prior and the two or three monks who dwelt with him. When Edward III. came to the throne he restored many of the alien priories to their original owners and remitted the arrears of payments due to the Crown. But ten years later, when war broke out again with France, he reverted to the policy of his predecessors, and again seized the property of these French aliens. For twenty-three years these foreign houses remained in his hands ; but with the peace of 1361 most of them were restored, only to be again sequestrated eight years later when the war was renewed. In the time of Richard II. the alien priories continued mostly in the hands of the Crown ; they finally came to an end under Henry V. in 1414, when those that had not been already assigned with the Pope's assent to other religious purposes, were suppressed and their estates vested in the Crown. The Crown however in the great majority of cases recognized its responsibilities and transferred the pro- perty to other monasteries, such as the Carthusian house of Sheen, or to colleges and schools for educational purposes.1 A large number of the religious houses of Hampshire were subject to diocesan visitation, but the three Cistercian monasteries, the house of White Canons, and the alien priories, as well as the priories of the mendicant orders and the preceptory of the Hospitallers, were exempt. It is a little remarkable to find that the Cistercian nunnery of Wintney was subject to the bishop. There were in the county, exclusive of the hospitals and colleges, thirteen houses visited by the Bishop of Winchester, whilst twenty were visited by commissaries of their own order. The record of the visitations made by the commissary of the prior of Canterbury in 1501 is given under the respective houses for the first time,* nor have the valuable reports of the ' mixed commission ' of 1535 been hitherto printed. Numerous references to monastic visitations have also been obtained from the episcopal registers of Winchester. The lists of superiors have in several cases been materially extended from those supplied in the modern Monasticon. Information has been sought not only from the episcopal registers, but from original chartularies, and from the stores of the British Museum and Public Record Office. These sketches of the different religious houses make no pretence to be exhaustive in their treatment. Several of the Hampshire foundations well deserve monographs which have yet to be written. 1 There is a good summary of the history of the alien priories in Gasquet's Henry VIII. and the Monasteries, vol. i. ch. 2. * Kindly supplied by Mr. Leland S. Duncan, F.S.A. 107 A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE HOUSES OF BENEDICTINE MONKS i. THE PRIORY OF ST. SWITHUN, WINCHESTER The history of this monastery has been already so much dealt with in the Ecclesiasti- cal History of the county that there is com- paratively little to add. This monastery, is said to have been founded in honour of Sts. Peter and Paul, by Cenwalh, King of Wessex, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 643,* and according to the Annals of Win- chester in 639,' and was known after the foundation of Newminster or Hyde as the Old Minster. It was probably after the rebuilding of the cathedral church by Bishop Athelwold in 971 that the church and the monastery received the additional dedication in honour of St. Swithun by which it was afterwards known, though the joint dedication to Sts. Peter and Paul and St. Swithun lingered on for some time in official documents. There was apparently no distinction in early times between the lands of the bishop and the lands of the monastery. Grants were made to the church generally, but the lands granted appear to have been under the control of the bishop. About the middle of the tenth century certain lands seem to have been allotted for the maintenance of the monastery, but they remained still under the management of the bishop.3 At the time of the Domesday Survey the lands allotted for the support of the monks were mostly held by the bishop, those in Hampshire being Chilcomb, Nursling, Chilbolton, Avington, Whitchurch, Freefolk, Witnal in Whitchurch, Hurstbourne Priors, Clere, Crondal, Droxford, Polhampton in Overton, Exton, Alverstoke, Worthy, Wonston, Brainsbury in Barton Stacy, South Stoneham, Milbrook, Hinton Ampner, Fawley, Itchingswell, Hannington and Hoddington in Upton Gray.4 The monks themselves held Boarhunt, Wootton St. Laurence, Hayling Island, Brockhampton and Havant.8 The lands of the bishop and prior formed a great fief for which the bishop owed, at the end of the twelfth century, the service of sixty knights.8 1 Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Rolls Series), i, 48, 49. • Annalet Monastic} (Rolls Series), ii. 5. 3 See Athelstan's charter to Winchester A.D. 938, enrolled on Charter Roll, 1 2 Edw. II. No. 48. 4 V.C.H. Hampshire, i. 463. • Ibid. 468. • Red Book of the Exchequer (Rolls Series), i. 72, 91, etc. There are two chartularies in the British Museum of the priory of St. Swithun, both of which were unknown to the compilers of Dugdale's Monasticon. The first of these, acquired in 1844 from the dean and chapter of Winchester, con- tains a large collection of royal and other charters in Anglo-Saxon and Latin, from the reign of Cenwalh of Wessex, 688, to the time of Edward the Confessor, with the addition of a few Norman charters granted by William I., Henry I. and Stephen. It is beautifully written and in good preservation in the original stamped binding; it is sup- posed to have been compiled between 1 1 30 and 1150.' The other chartulary, acquired in 1873, opens with a brief history of the church to the year 967, followed by a notice of the bishops up to Egbald, 793. This is followed by charters from the time of the Confessor to 1242. Among the other entries are agreements with the monasteries of Canter- bury, Peterborough, Worcester, Gloucester, Reading, Tewkesbury, Chertsey, Burton, Ely, Abingdon, St. Albans, St. Pancras at Lewes, Glastonbury, Durham, Merton, Malmesbury, Bury St. Edmunds, Westminster, Wherwell, Romsey, Bee (Normandy) and Battle, as to mutual masses for the dead ; a list of plate and vestments, the gifts of Bishop Henry de Blois ; notices of the deaths and benefactions of Bishop William de Raleigh (1243) and Bishop John of Exeter (1262); copies of charters and agreements between priors and bishops, and as to pensions or oblations of parochial clergy from 1284 to 1334; together with the consuetudines elemosine and other cus- toms of the church. The chartulary con- tains eighty-three folios, and was compiled in the thirteenth century, save that there are a few fifteenth century entries towards the end.8 The prior furnished Thomas Cromwell, on his appointment as general visitor, with a succinct account of the early history of their house from the year 604, giving what they termed the annals of their first, second, third and fourth foundations. There is a copy of this in the Harley manuscripts.9 In September, 1243, the monks of St. Swithun obtained papal sanction to wear caps (pilleis) in quire on account of the cold, pro- 7 Add. MS. 15,350. 8 Ibid. 29,436. 8 Harl. MS. 358, fo. 600-64. 108 RELIGIOUS HOUSES vided that due reverence was shown at the gospel and the elevation.1 In the same month Innocent IV. issued his mandate to the priors of Rochester and of Holy Trinity, London, in a matter affecting this priory. The con- vent of Winchester had complained that, on the voidance of the priory (1239), Andrew, a monk, by secular force and by the assistance of the archdeacons of Winchester and Surrey, had obtruded himself into the office of prior. Andrew was therefore excommunicated by the Archbishop of Canterbury ; but of this he took no heed, and introducing an armed band into the cloister by night, ill-used, bound and imprisoned Richard de Triveri and many other monks. Further, at his instance, the archdeacon of Winchester issued sentences of excommunication and suspension against many members of the convent. The pope ordered the two priors to go to Winchester, to relax provisionally the archdeacon's sen- tences, and if, on examination, the facts justi- fied it, to provide a prior by canonical elec- tion. At the same date a papal faculty was forwarded to the sub-prior and convent of Winchester to use their privileges, although they had not done so for a long time on ac- count of their ignorance of the law, the dis- turbance of the realm, and the change of prelates of the see. This was accompanied by a general licence to the priory to administer their property, wherein is recited the particu- lars of their manors, advowsons, pensions and other rights.* The monks paid dearly for yielding to the pressure exercised by the Crown in the mat- ter of the election of Aymer to the bishopric. Soon after his election Aymer treated them with the utmost indignity and violence, driv- ing the- prior and his obedientaries from the house. In 1254 Prior William de Andrew visited Rome to lay his grievances before the papal court. Innocent IV. treated him with every consideration, and granted to him and his successors the use of mitre, ring, tunicle, dalmatic, gloves and sandals; the right of blessing chalices, altar palls and other church ornaments ; the giving of the first tonsure ; the conferring of the minor orders of door- keeper and reader ; and the giving of solemn benediction in divine offices and at table.3 The disturbed state of the unfortunate monastery at this period of its history is shown by a patent issued by Henry III. in July, 1255. It took the shape of a precept 1 Papal Registert, i. 200. 1 Ibid. 200, 20 1. The licence or bull is set forth at length in the Monasticon, \. 21 1-2. ' Papal Register!, i. 305 ; Ann. Winton. 95. to the abbots and priors throughout England, inhibiting them from receiving into their mon- asteries and houses any of the monks of Winchester, very many of whom of their own will and pleasure wander all over England in contempt and despite of monastic religion, and to the peril of their own souls, unless by letters of permission from the elect of Win- chester or the prior of the same place.4 It was not until 1256 that this quarrel be- tween bishop and prior was temporarily settled. The right of the monks to elect their own prior was formally conceded in 1258,* but this was again disputed in 1266, and once more settled in their favour in 1273." On 4 May, 1264, the citizens of Winches- ter rose against the monks and burnt the priory gateway, the gate called Kingsgate, the upper part of the church (ecclesia) of St. Swithun, and all the houses near the wall that belonged to the convent. The annalists do not mention any cause for this popular tumult, which was sufficiently severe to cause the death of several of the prior's servants.7 Considerable disputes again arose between the Bishop of Winchester and the prior of St. Swithun's at the beginning of the rule of Bishop Pontoise, as to the appointment of the obedientaries or officials of the monastery. In October, 1282, the bishop appointed Ralph Chaunterel, one of his attendants, to the im- portant office of kitchener to the priory, stating in his register that it was on account of his faithful service to him.8 In the following year the bishop collated John de Nortwold to the still more important office of cellarer ; this appointment is entered in his register among other collations and institutions to benefices." This last nomination gave rise to vigorous re- monstrance on the part of the prior and con- vent. Eventually in July, 1284, the bishop covenanted to yield to the prior the liberty of appointing and removing obedientaries and secular servants ; but the priory did not ob- tain this covenant in their favour without making a substantial concession. On the same day and year that this episcopal ordin- ance was issued the prior and convent con- ceded to the bishop the very valuable manors of Droxford, Alverstoke and Havant.10 As 4 Pat. 39 Hen. III. m. gd. 5 Annales Monaitici (Rolls Series), iv. 122. 8 Ibid. ii. 122, 389. 7 Ibid. ii. 101, iv. 450. 8 Winton. Epis. Reg., Pontoise, f. 100. • Ibid. f. 2. 10 Ibid. 106-9, Maneria de DrokensJbrJ, Alvare- stok cum Gosport, et Havante cum tencnt'ibus eorum de Hellng et Hamelettam tie Conoel. 109 A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE the Crown had on several occasions appointed obedientaries and sergeants for the monastery during the vacancy of the see, it was thought well to obtain royal sanction for this episco- pal ordinance. Consequently Edward I., in September, 1284, granted letters patent con- firming the episcopal covenant, and also grant- ing to the prior the power of appointing to the sergeanties or other secular offices pertain- ing to the house. At the same time the chapter was granted the custody of the priory during voidance.1 About ten days after the sealing of the covenant between the bishop and priory, through the resignation of William de Basing, there was a vacancy in the office of prior, and the bishop, with the unanimous assent of his brethren, put the custody of the house into the hands of Nicholas de Merewell, the sub- prior. On the same day (13 July) the bishop issued a letter to the retiring prior and the obedientaries giving them absolution after certain scandals, the nature of which is not stated. On 1 8 July the sub-prior and chapter asked leave of the bishop to elect a new prior ; in the bishop's letter of sanction he referred to the resignation of Prior William, stating that it was not caused through any crime or conscious fault, but for the sake of humility and true religion.* On 25 August, 1284, the bishop gave his assent to the election of William de Basing as prior, and issued the usual injunction to the sub-prior and convent to yield him due obedience.3 From this it would appear that the ex-prior was, with episcopal assent, re- elected.4 Bishop John of Pontoise was probably anx- ious to see if the re-election was satisfactory, for on 1 4 September he issued notice of a per- sonal visitation of the cathedral priory to be held at the ensuing Michaelmas. As no injunc- tions were issued consequent on this visitation it may be assumed that everything was found to be satisfactory.6 By 1291 the possessions of the prior seem to have been definitely separated from those of the bishop, and the estates of the former had considerably increased. The total yearly value was £701 CM. jd* At the same time 1 Pat. 12 Edw. I. m. 3. 3 Winton. Epis. Reg., Pontoise, 70, 7ob. 3 Ibid. f. 73. 1 The Monasticon and other printed lists of priors make out that there were two successive priors called W. de Basing ; but this seems improbable if not incorrect. 5 Winton. Epis. Reg., Pontissera, 73. • Pope Nick. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 213. it will be noticed that as late as 1346 the bishop owed the service of five knights' fees for his own land and also for all the lands of the prior.7 From the aid for making Edward the Black Prince a knight in this year we find that the prior of St. Swithun's held with John Frilende half a knight's fee in ' Nywenton ' ; he held also with two others half a fee in Stoke in St. Mary Bourne (Crokerestok), and half a fee in Long Sutton.8 On the death of Prior William in May, 1295, leave to elect was applied for and granted by the bishop. The monks on this occasion elected by way of ' compromise.' The chapter appointed William de Hoo, Adam de Hyde, Roger de Entingham, Henry Bacun, Henry de Merwell, Nicholas de Tarente and William Wallup to act as elec- tors. Their choice eventually fell upon Henry de Merwell alias Woodlock, and the bishop's assent was given on 7 June. The particulars as to this election are set forth in the episcopal register with much detail.9 On 13 June, 1305, Bishop Henry granted leave to fill up the vacancy in the priory, caused by his own elevation to the episcopate, and gave the custody during the vacancy to William de Somborne, John de Donketon and Ralph de Canne. On 31 July entry was made in the episcopal register of the process of election, and a week later the bishop's consent to the appointment of Nicholas de Tarente was signified, and he was duly in- stalled.10 The bishop visited the priory in 1308, and apparently found nothing to correct. In 1297 mandate was issued by the Crown to the justice of the forest to permit the prior to grant and make stable-stands, accord- ing to the term of the king's charter to him and his successors, in the demesne lands and woods where they had chases in Hamp- shire, and to carry away venison, and to keep their dogs not expeditated, but on condition that they set or stretched no nets for taking such venison.11 John de Ford, monk of St. Swithun's, received a royal pardon in June, 1344, for taking a doe and a sorel in the New Forest and carrying them away. At the same time Prior Alexander was pardoned for receiving the said doe and sorel.1* The various acta relative to the election of Richard de Eneford as prior are briefly 7 Feudal 4 iJ}, ii. 335. 8 Ibid. 325, 330, 333. 9 Winton. Epis. Reg., Pontoise, 16, 17. 10 Ibid. Woodlock, 9-1 1. 11 Pat. 25 Edw. I. pt. 2, m. 14. 13 Ibid. 1 8 Edw. III.pt. i, m. i. no RELIGIOUS HOUSES cited in Henry de Woodlock's register under the date of 8 September, 1309. * An important visitation of the priory of St. Swithun's was held by the bishop in 1315, which resulted in a considerable number of injunctions. The greater part of these are of the usual character, and partake more of enjoining a careful observance of the rule than of dealing with any particular delin- quency. Such were orders to attend all the offices, night and day ; frequent celebrating by the monks in priest's orders ; silence at the appointed time and places ; never to break bounds without leave ; to speak to no women, religious or secular, save in public ; to wear nought save the statutory dress ; and juniors to respect seniors. Others related to the due keeping of the cloister gate, to the custody of the seal, and to the annual rendering of accounts by obedientaries and bailiffs. Two or three are less usual, and probably refer to specific faults, such as directions against selling surplus food, and that parents or relatives visiting the inmates were to be invited to contribute according to their means. One order has a decidedly local touch, by which all the monks, save the sacrist and his servants, are forbidden to go out of the monastery by the gate called ' Redebreck ' * The bishop had the advan- tage in this visitation of full personal know- ledge of the house during the ten years that he was prior. In the second year of Bishop Stratford's rule (1325), a complete list of the monks of St. Swithun was drawn up. It begins with Prior Richard ; the second name, presumably the sub-prior, is Adam de Hyde, and then follow the names of sixty-two other monks.3 Bishop Stratford held two visitations of St. Swithun's during the ten years that he administered the see. In the last case penalties were imposed and then taken off.4 The priory was visited in February, 1410-1, by John Cattyk, chancellor of the diocese. He visited as the commissary of the dio- cesan, Bishop Henry Beaufort stating that he was not able personally to visit owing to the pressure of other arduous affairs.6 The earlier episcopal registers are for the 1 Winton. Epis. Reg., Woodlock, f. 1 1 3b. * Ibid. £23 (zd. numbers). 3 Ibid. Pontoise, f. 143. It is curious that this list should be entered on a blank leaf of an earlier register ; it was probably an error of the scrivener who made the entry. * Ibid. Stratford, ff. i3b, I9b, I7ib~4. 8 Ibid. Beaumont, £32 (2d. numbers). most part somewhat sparing in their reference to the work and administration of the cathedral priory, but the entries are frequent in William of Wykeham's days. The rectory of the church of Littleton was appropriated to the office of guest-master of the priory in the year 1171. In March, 1373, Bishop William of Wykeham licensed John Hyde, the monk guest-master, to hear confessions and to administer the Eucharist at Littleton during Lent and at Easter, for the depression of the times prevented the parish- ioners employing a parochial chaplain to assist the vicar. The licence was to expire at the end of the Easter octave.6 This temporary and useful licence was renewed to the guest- master year by year up to 1379. Hugh Basing was prior when Wykeham was elected bishop. On his death in 1384 Dr. Robert Rudborne succeeded, and he was followed in 1394 by Dr. Thomas Neville. The friction between bishops and priors is illustrated by the action that took place during Wykeham's episcopate with regard to a comparatively trifling but very interesting custom dating back to time imme- morial. According to this ancient custom whenever the diocesan visited Wolvesey, or any other residence in Winchester, the domicellus of the priory presented him with eight loaves of fine wheat flour and four gallons of wine, saying at the same time these words in French : ' Mounseigneur, Seint Pere et Seint Paule vous envoient.' Prior Hugh set the example of reducing the offering to a single loaf and one gallon of wine, and his example was followed by Prior Rudborne and by Prior Neville for the first four years of his office. But in 1398, other disputes having arisen, a covenant was made between Wykeham and Neville for the resumption of the full customary offering of bread and wine, and that the ancient words should be said in French, Latin or English. At the same time it was agreed that disputes between the tenants of their respective estates should be tried in the bishop's or prior's court and not in those of the king ; that the priory should maintain the bridge over the Lock- burn in College Street, and halve the expense with bishop of the bridge over the river ; and that the priory should abstain from feeding sheep or taking rabbits in the epis- copal chase and warren at Morestead.7 In June, 1373, Wykeham visited the priory and was apparently content with its condition, as no injunctions were entered. 8 Ibid. Wykeham, iii. f. 88b. 7 Ibid. £323. Ill A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE Another visitation of the cathedral priory was arranged by the bishop to be held in the autumn of 1386, but in November a mandate was issued postponing it, in conse- quence of urgent business, to 10 February.1 On 6 February, 1386-7, Wykeham addressed a letter to the prior and convent on the serious reduction in their numbers, and two days later he directed his official and another to conduct the visitation on 10 February.* It was at this time that the bishop issued a code of directions or revised rule for the guidance of the monks, providing in various ways against laxity.3 The number of the monks was at that time reduced to forty-six. It still stood at that figure during a third visitation, 1393, and though Wykeham again specially insisted on the raising of their numbers, the roll had fallen to forty-two at the time of his death.4 Much of the administration of the priory can be learnt from some of the old account rolls that still survive. A fourteenth-century roll in the possession of the dean and chapter contains an interesting account of the obliga- tions of the officers of the priory in connec- tion with the frater.6 The prior was bound to provide the frater with bread, beer, wine, salt, cheese and butter ; also with the necessary rush-woven mats and with straw litter for the floor. Cheese was to be served daily at dinner and supper from Easter Day to Quinquagesima Sunday, and butter on Wednesdays and Saturdays from i May to 14 September. New mats were to be fur- nished on the vigil of All Saints, and fresh straw seven times a year. The chamberlain provided a new cloth for the high table every Palm Sunday, and canvas cloths for the other tables as often as necessary ; he had also to find old cloths for cleansing the silver and other vessels. The sacrist had to send the fraterer fifteen wax candles on the vigil of All Saints, to be renewed as often as needful down to Maundy Thursday. The precentor and his fellows, who on Sunday and other feasts at 12 o'clock (after nones) have said the Placebo, were to have a ' punchard ' of good beer. The almoner was to give the fraterer a clapper (signum) on Maundy Thurs- day. The kitchener was to receive his food daily with the under-cooks, but was to sit at 1 Winton. Epis. Reg., Wykeham, iii. f. 3 Ibid. f. 226. 8 Moberly's Life of Wykeham, pp. 737-9, citing New College MSS. 4 Winton. Epis. Reg., Wykeham, iii. f. 2550. * A Consuetudinary for the Refectory tf the House ofS. Stvithun, edited by Dean Kitchin. the high table and have a punchard. The gardener was to provide apples on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in Advent and Lent ; the sub-prior, third prior and fourth prior, the fraterer and other officers were to have ten apples each ; if the prior was present he was to have fifteen. The same was to be done on St. James' Day, when there was the blessing of apples. At the east end of the frater, between the windows, stood a celebrated old cross or crucifix, from which, according to tradition, a voice proceeded, deciding the controversy between St. Dunstan and the ejected secular canons. The guar- dian of the altar of Our Lady and the keeper of the cloister garth had to provide tapers to burn before this cross on certain high days, and the fraterer to provide seven branches to burn in the like place daily during the second collation. The custom of carrying round the ancient cup of St. Athelwold to be kissed by all on his festival has been already described.* The cellarer had his meals with the community ; it was his duty to provide meat and drink and food of every kind, to produce and keep in repair all the necessary vessels for the cellar, kitchen and frater, to attend to the lighting of the chandelier and of the three flat lamps that hung before the cross. A curious entry further records that he was to have the care of all the animals acquired by different brethren. Pet animals were frequently found in religious houses : occasionally visitors ordered their expulsion, particularly squirrels and birds in cages, from nunneries. The cur- tarian looked after the due allowance of bread, and the corrodies or due provision for bishops, kings and other visitors. It was the porter's duty to clean out the frater against Easter, and to make the fire on the hearth in snowy weather. The daily life of these Benedictine monks can be traced from point to point in the large number of Obedientary Rolls of the different officials of the house that still survive of the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.7 The obedientaries were monks told off to fulfil certain duties, and to super- intend particular parts of the administration of the convent and its property. Their duty at St. Swithun's was essentially connected with the exercise of hospitality ; their priory lay in a chief city on one of the most important highways in England, and it was their well sustained boast to keep open house " r.C.H. Hants, ii. 7. 7 Compotus Rolls of the Obedientaries of S/. Swithun's Priory, edited by Dean Kitchin (Hanti Rec. Soc. 1892). 112 RELIGIOUS HOUSES for all comers. In this and in other respects the monks of the cathedral priory of the diocese maintained on the whole an excellent character. The ideal number of monks at which all the large Benedictine houses was supposed to aim was seventy ; but this was seldom attained. In 1325, as has been stated, the roll reached to sixty-four ; but the priory never recovered from the staggering blow of the Black Death. The numbers, even under the stirring episcopate of Bishop Wykeham, did not exceed forty-six, and at his death were only forty-two. Only once did they subsequently rise, and that by a single figure, the total in 1533 being forty-three. The Obedientary Rolls show that the lowest level was in 1495—6, when the numbers were only twenty-nine. Dean Kitchin, in his introduction to the Obedientary Rolls, makes a helpful division of the monastic officials of St. Swithun's into four groups, a division which applies broadly speaking not only to other Benedictine houses, but to most of the other religious orders: — (a) Round the Prior (the most dignified per- sonage, the bishop acting as abbot) were grouped the Subprior, the third Prior, and the fourth Prior, who all had definite claustral duties to fulfil. This group was responsible for the general order of the house. With these may be associated the land Steward, who was not a monk, and who is usually described as the prior's steward. (6) The second group was attached to the church, and included the Sacrist and Subsacrist who had charge of all material things pertaining to the services ; the Chanter and Subchanter, who were responsible for the actual conduct of divine worship ; the Anniversarian, who had charge of the obit days of benefactors ; and the Warden of the Works, who looked after all repairs of the church and other buildings. (c) The internal officers of the house were the Receiver, to whom were paid the rents of the several estates ; the Hordarian, who had charge of the material resources of the convent supplying the frater, etc., and also having charge of estates and income specially assigned for such purposes ; the Refectorian who received all the eatables, pass- ing them on to the Kitchener ; the Chamberlain, who had charge of the furniture ; the Cellarer who looked after the beer and wine and took charge of all the outbuildings and stables ; the Almoner who distributed to the poor in kind and money ; and the infirmarer, or physician monk in charge of the farmery. (if) The fourth was a little group of officers dealing with external affairs, as the Outer and Inner Porters, and the Guestmaster. The extant Obedientary Rolls of St. Swithun's are most numerous in connection with the office of hordarian, of which there are fifteen, and of the almoner, of which ii I there are thirty-two. The Diet Roll for 1492 describes precisely how the Winchester monks fed at their two meals, apart from beer and vegetables, which are not entered. On an ordinary day, such as the Monday before Christmas, they had on the table a dish of marrow and grated bread, eggs, venison, beef, mutton and calves' feet. On Christmas Day they had in addition onion broth, the total cost being IQJ. gd. against 8;. \d. of the previous Monday. On a day of strict fast, such as Friday in Passion week, they had salt fish, figs and raisins, and rice. Another interesting item is that the monk gardener of St. Swithun's was bound to provide flowers to deck the church at certain festivals, as well as to find the apples for Advent and Lent con- sumption. Bishop Fox visited St. Swithun's on 26 August, 1521, and subsequently (i February, 1521-2) issued a variety of injunctions that tell of some disorder. The injunctions open with blaming the chanter and subchanter for lack of quire books, and that those in use were torn (rupta) and out of repair. The most interesting rebuke to the monks was that they neglected to choose scholars to send to the University of Oxford in accordance with the Benedictine constitutions.1 The election of Henry Brook as prior in the time of Bishop Fox is set forth with great circumstance in his registers. Application for licence to elect was made in December, 1524, but the new prior was not installed until 7 March, I524~5.2 Dr. Hede, commissary of the prior of Canterbury, during the vacancy of the sees of both Canterbury and Winchester, visited St. Swithun's on 27 February, 1500. In addition to Thomas Silkstede, the prior, the following office holders were examined at the visitation : Thomas Manhouse, sub-prior ; John Dorsett, third prior ; John Pury, gar- dener; Richard Aunstell, sacrist; Philip Yong, almoner ; Thomas Cyan, hordarian ; John Stonkton, master of the works ; Walter Hyll, firmarius ; John Beste, hostilar ; John Cerne, depositarius ; John Wodesun, warden of Our Lady ; Peter Marlow, chanter ; Arnold Gylbert, chamberlain ; John Westbury, cur- tarian ; Henry Broke, fourth prior ; and Tym- pany Alt, depositarius. Twelve others were also examined, giving a total of twenty-nine who appeared before the visitor. Of these three were deacons, one a sub-deacon, and one an acolyte. Two are simply entered as professed of the order of St. Benedict, and were novices: 1 Winton, Epis. Reg., Fox, iv. ff. 67, 1 Ibid. Fox, v. ff. 74-83. A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE Thomas Manydon, aged 16, who had been three weeks in the monastery, and Fulk Hampton, 18, who had been there for a like period ; neither of them had as yet received the first tonsure. The evidence was wholly in favour of the order and administration of the house. The statutory number of the monks was at that time reduced to forty, and there were then only thirty-five, but the treasurer reminded the visitor that there had been five recent deaths. At the close of the evidence Dr. Hede's only injunction was as to the speedy filling up of the full number of the monks. The visitor called upon the prior to take an oath of canonical obedience to the prior and convent of Canterbury during the vacancy of the see, and to the Archbishop of Canterbury when the see was filled. Prior Silkestede however declined, unless the prior of Canterbury took an oath to observe the rights of the cathedral church in the same way as the Bishop of Winchester did at the time of his consecration. The question was adjourned till the following day, when Silke- stede submitted.1 The story of the end of St. Swithun's as a monastery, and the desolation effected in the church in September, 1538, has already been told in the Ecclesiastical History. At the time of the dissolution the monas- tery held the manors of Nursling, Mill- brook Morecourt, Hursley, ' Oxenbridge,' Avington, Exton, ' Hadington,' Bransbury, Upsomborne, ' Henton, Wymanston,' the city of Winchester and the soke, and lands and rents in Dean and Lovington in Hampshire ; and the manors of ' Hynxton,' Overton with the rectory, Alton with the rectory, Stocke- ton, Patney, Westwood ' Langfischedide ' next Endford, and Shipton Bellinger in Wiltshire ; and the manor of Bleadon in Somersetshire, as well as pensions from divers churches.2 The steps by which the ancient Benedictine house of St. Swithun was turned into a dean and chapter in 1539-42 have been already mentioned in the Ecclesiastical History. A whole series of documents touching this change, eleven in number, are extant at Winchester, and have been printed and edited by Dean Kitchin.3 The first letters patent formally establishing the new body are dated 28 March, 1542. On i May, 1542, the newly-formed dean and chapter were endowed with the following 1 Sede Vacante Register, Christ Church, Canter- bury. 2 Dugdale, Monasticon, i. z 1 7. 3 Documents relating to the Foundation of the Chaffer of Winchester (Hants Record Soc. 1889). manors and lands, most of which had pre- viously belonged to the prior and convent, viz. Avington, Berthon Priors, Bransbury, Chilbolton, Crondall, Exton, Haddington, Hanton, 'Littleton,' Manydown, Millbrook, Moorecourt, Nursling, Silkstead, Button, Upsomborne, West Meon, Whitchurch and 'Wonsington' in Hampshire ; and Alton, Ham, Hinton ' Langefysshehre ' near Endford, Over- ton, Patney, Shipton Bellinger, Stockton, Westwood, ' Winnaston' and Wroughton in Wiltshire, and Bleadon in Somerset.4 The possessions of the dean and chapter in 1682 consisted of the Hampshire manors of Barton and Newhouse, Sparsholt and Wyke, Compton, Sparkford and ' Fulfludd,' Chilcombe and Morstead, ' Wynall,' Ovington and ' Brixden,' Crondall, Sutton, Manydown, ' Boghurst,' Hannington, Whitchurch, Free- folk, Charlcott, 'Wonsington,' Bransbury, Chilbolton, Littleton, Upsomborne, 'Thur- munds," Silkstead, Exton, Hinton Ampner, Shipton, Morecourt and Oxenbridge, Loving- ton, the city of Winchester, office of woodward and the liberty of the fair of St. Mary Mag- dalene ; in the county of Wilts the manor of Hinton, Ham, ' Bechinstoke,' Botwell and Longstreet, Wroughton, Little Alton, West- wood, ' Elmestubb ' and Eversley, and a large number of churches in both counties.6 The manors of inheritance, which be- longed to the dean and chapter and were handed over to the ecclesiastical commis- sioners in 1 86 1, were Crondall with Sutton, Warblington, and Hinton Ampner.6 PRIORS OF ST. SWITHUN OF WINCHESTER Brithnoth, about 970, made abbot of Ely Brithwold, about 1006, became Bishop of Winchester Elfric Puttoc, 1023, made Archbishop of York Wulfsig, died 1065 Simon or Simeon, 1065-82, brother to Bishop Walkelyn, made abbot of Ely7 Godfrey,8 1082-1107. A volume of his epigrams is among the Cott. MSS. Vit. A. xii. Geoffrey,9 1 107-1 1. He was deposed Geoffrey II.,10 1111-4, ma(^e abbot of Burton, Staffordshire 4 Dugdale, Monasticon, i. 70. 5 Documents relating to the Church of Winchester (Hants Record Society), ii. 182. 6 Information supplied by Mr. Hugh de B. Porter, Deputy Steward. 7 dnnales Monastici (Rolls Series), ii. 33. 8 Ibid. 43. " Ibid. 10 Ibid. 114 RELIGIOUS HOUSES Eustace, 1114-20 Hugh, 1 1 20 Geoffrey III., died in 1126 Ingulph, made abbot of Abingdon in 1130 Robert, 1130-6, made Bishop of Bath and Wells Robert II.,1 1173, made abbot of Glas- tonbury Walter,3 1171-5, made abbot of West- minster John,3 died 1187 Robert III., surnamed Fitzhenry,4 1 187— 1214, made abbot of Burton Roger, 1214 Walter II.,8 died 1239 Andrew,8 1239 Walter III., 1243, resigned in 1247 John de Cauz, 1247-9, 'n latter year made abbot of Peterborough7 William Taunton, 1249-56, made abbot of Middleton in Dorset- shire,8 and afterwards elected Bishop of Winchester, but the election was invalidated Andrew of London,9 1258-61, resigned Ralph Russel,10 1261-5 Valentine,11 1265-76, deprived John de Dureville, i27&12-8 13 Adam de Farnham, 1279," excom- municated for disobedience July, 1282, and absolved in the following month William de Basynge, 1282, resigned in 1284, but was re-elected the same year ; finally resigned in 1295 Henry Wodelock, alias Mereville, 1295- 1305, made Bishop of Winchester 1S Nicholas de Tarente,1* 1305-9 Richard de Enford,17 1309, 1326 Alexander Heriard,18 1327, died 1349 John Merlaw,19 1349-56 Hugh Basyng,20 1356-84 Robert Rudborn," 1384-95 Thomas Nevil," 1395 Thomas Shyrebourn " 1 Annales Monastici (Rolls Series), ii. 61. 1 Ibid. » Ibid. 63. « Ibid. " Ibid. 323. " Ibid. 7 Ibid. 91. 8 Ibid. 96. • Ibid. 99. 10 Ibid. 102. 11 Ibid. 123. " Ibid. 13 Ibid. iv. 475. 14 Ibid. 476. 15 Pat. 33 Edw. I. p. i, m. 17, and Winton. Epis. Reg., Pontoise, 9. 19 Winton. Epis. Reg., Woodlock, lib. 17 Ibid. H3b. 1S Ibid. Stratford, 107. 19 Ibid. 46b, 51. 20 Ibid. 113-5. M Ibid. Wykeham, 157-9. M Ibid. 53 His name occurs in the Obedientaries Rolls from 1413 to 1433. William Aulton,24 died 1450 Richard Marlborough,25 1450-7 Robert Westgate,26 1457-70 Thomas Hinton,27 1470-98 Thomas Silkested,28 1498—1524 Henry Brook,29 1524-35 William Basyng, alias 1535-9 Kingsmill,3 DEANS OF WINCHESTER31 William Kingsmill, D.D., 1541-8 Sir John Mason, knt. (layman), 1549-53 Edmund Steward, LL.D., 1554-9 John Warner, M.D., 1559-64 Francis Newton, D.D., 1565-72 John Watson, M.D., 1573-80 (Bishop of Winchester, 1580) Lawrence Humphrey, D.D., 1580-89 Martin Heton,D.D., 1589-99. (Bishop of Ely, 1599) George Abbot, D.D., 1599-1600-9. (Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, 1609; London, 1610; Archbishop of Canterbury, 1611) Thomas Morton, D.D., 1610-16. (Bishop of Chester, 1616) John Young, D.D., 1616 — dispossessed by the Commonwealth Alexander Hyde, LL.D., 1660-5. (Bishop of Salisbury, 1665) William Clark, D.D., 1666-79 Richard Meggott, D.D., 1679-92 John Wickart, D.D., 1693-1721 William Trimnell, D.D., 1722-9 Charles Naylor, LL.D., 1729-39 Zachary Pearce, D.D., 1739-48. (Bishop of Bangor, 1748) Thomas Cheyney, D.D., 1748-60 Jonathan Shipley, D.D., 1760—9. (Bishop of Llandaff, 1769; St. Asaph, 1769) Newton Ogle, D.D., 1769-1804 Robert Holmes, 1804-5 Thomas Rennell, D.D., 1805-40 Thomas Gamier, D.C.L., 1840—72 John Bramston, D.D., 1872-83 George William Kitchin, D.D., 1883- ?5 William Richard Wood Stephens, D.D., 1895-1902 4 His name occurs in the same, 1435 to 1447. 25 Winton. Epis. Reg., Wainflete, i. 29-34. 8 Ibid. 85. " Ibid. ii. i. 28 His name occurs in the Obedientaries Rolls from 1498 to 1517. 29 Winton. Epis. Reg., Fox, v. 83. 30 His name occurs in the Obedientaries Rolls from 1536 to 1537. 31 List from Woodward's Hants, vol. i., collated with Dioc. Calendar and Dioc. History. A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 2. NEW MINSTER, OR THE ABBEY OF HYDE time also the church was enriched with the relics of St. Judoc or Josse the confessor, which The abbey of the Holy Trinity, the Blessed Were brought there by certain monks of Virgin Mary, and St. Peter of the New Min- ™nthleu who fled to England from Danish • • — - raiders. Shortly after the dedication of the church the remains of Alfred were carried in solemn procession to the New Minster from their temporary resting-place in the church of St. Swithun or the Old Minster in Winchester and buried on the right side of the altar. In the same tomb were also interred Edward's mother, Queen Ealhswith, foundress of Nun- naminster, and afterwards the bodies of Edward and his two sons, Ethelward and Elfward, were buried in a tomb adjoining that of his parents. At a later date the New Minster became the burial place for several members of the Saxon royal house.8 The church was served by secular canons, who, as it is said by the later chroniclers that had no sympathy with the seculars and mar- ried priests, permitted great laxity of discipline and were the cause of scandal. About 963 Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester, with the approval of King Edgar and St. Dunstan, as a part of his scheme for monastic reform in his diocese, insisted upon the adoption of the Benedictine rule by the inmates of New Min- ster under pain of expulsion, and King Edgar supplied a series of laws to be used by the monastery.9 The majority of the house re- fused to accept the new rules and were driven from the monastery, their places being taken by regular monks from Abingdon, over whom Ethelgar was placed as abbot. Ethelgar, like most of the Church reformers of this date, was a man of distinct individuality ; he had received his monastic training under Ethelwold at Abingdon and upon his appoint- ment to New Minster he took in hand the reform of the monastery with the zeal copied from his late master. Not only did he look to the rule of the house, but he carried out various works on the buildings including the erection of a tower, said to be of great height and beauty, and a richly carved ceiling. He became Bishop of Selsey in 980 and suc- ceeded St. Dunstan as Archbishop of Canter- bury in 988. King Cnut was a great benefactor to the Minster, not only in lands but by the gift of the golden cross richly adorned with precious stones with two great images of gold and silver and sundry relics of saints. Among other benefactions received by the monastery 8 Neviminster (Hants Record Soc.), Pref. xvii. ster l in Winchester was founded in 901 by Edward the Elder in accordance with the wishes of his father King Alfred. It would appear that towards the close of the ninth century Alfred, being anxious to promote the better education of the children of his nobles, summoned Grimbald, a learned priest and monk of St. Berlin at St. Omer in Flanders to assist him in- this work. Grimbald arrived in 893,* but it was not till the last year of his reign that Alfred told him of his inten- tion to build a new monastery at his royal borough of Winchester.3 The king only lived long enough to purchase the site for the monastery in the open churchyard immediately to the north of the cathedral or the Old Min- ster from Bishop Denewulph and the canons of the Old Minster and others.4 It was left to Edward the Elder to carry out his father's intention to build the monastery and to place Grimbald6 there as the first Abbot. The Church was consecrated in 903 6 and in the same year Edward endowed the monastery with considerable possessions, including the land of Micheldever and lands of Stratton, ' Burcote,' Popham, Woodmancote, Candover, Cranborne, Drayton juxta Nunneton,- Swar- raton, Northingtone, Norton juxta Selborne, ' Slastede,' Tatchbury, Abbots Anne, ' Colen- gaburna,' 'Ceoseldene' and Durley.7 At this 1 According to Edward's first charter the dedi- cation was to the honour of the Holy Trinity only, but in his second the dedication was as is given here (Liter de Hyda, Rolls Series, Introd. xxix.). At a later date the dedications to the honour of St. Saviour and St. Grimbald appear (see a table of the dedications at various periods in Netvminster and Hyde Abbey, Hampshire Rec. Soc. Pref. viii.). * Liber de Hyda (Rolls Series), 36 ; see also Hist, of the Engl. Church, by W. Hunt, 275 ; and Diet, of Nat. Biog. under ' Grimbald.' ' These facts and most of the particulars given in this sketch are taken from the Liber Vita: or register and martyrology of the abbey, edited for the Hants Record Society by Dr. de Gray Birch, and the Liber de Hyda, edited by Mr. Edward Edwards for the Rolls Series. 4 There is some doubt whether Alfred or his son purchased the land for the site (Diet, of Nat Biog. 'Grimbald'). 6 Grimbald died in 903. He became a tute- lary saint of the foundation attaining to a place in the English calendar in the next century (Plum- met's Life of Alfred the Great, 137-9). 6 jingh-Saxoa Chron. (Rolls Series), 181. 7 Cott. MS. Domit. A. xiv. 7*b. and Harl. MS. 1761, f. 47. 116 etc. 9 Printed in Dugdale's Monastics, ii. 439. RELIGIOUS HOUSES at about this time was the gift in 1041 by Queen Emma, widow ofCnut, of the head of St. Valentine, which was cherished as one of the most valuable possessions of the house. Alwyn, brother of Earl Godwin, became abbot in 1064. During his abbacy a disas- trous fire destroyed a considerable part of the domestic buildings of the Minster on St. George's Day, 1066. This abbot naturally took the part of his nephew Harold in re- sisting the Norman invasion, and according to the register of the monastery he was slain in battle on the field of Hastings. Mr. Round has already dealt with the question of the supposed active part that the monks of New Minster took at the battle of Hastings, and has shown from the Domesday Survey how considerable are the exaggerations usually current with regard to the consequent confis- cations of the Conqueror.1 At the time of the Survey the Abbey held in Hampshire, Brown Candover, Woodmancote, Fullerton in Wherwell, Leckford, Micheldever, Cran- bourne, Drayton in Barton Stacey, West Stratton, East Popham, Abbot's Worthy, Alton, Worting, Bighton, Bedhampton, Lomer in Corhampton, Warnford, Lickpit in Basing, North Stoneham, Kingsclere, Tatchbury in Eling, Abbots Anne, and Laver- stoke.* Not long after the Conquest evil days fell upon the abbey. On the death of Rewalan the Red King made his 'infamous chancellor,' Ralph Flambard, abbot. By an openly simoni- acal arrangement between the abbot-chan- cellor and the king, Herbert Losinga, Bishop of Norwich, bought the New Minster for his father, Robert Losinga, who was appointed abbot in 1091. On the death of Abbot Robert in 1093, the unhappy abbey again fell into the unscrupulous hands of Ralph Flam- bard. Relief however came to this scandal with the accession of Henry Beauclerk in noo, when Hugh, a monk of St. Swithun's, was appointed abbot. The will of the next abbot, Geoffrey, was one of singular moment to the abbey ; the register styles him Fundator Hide. In 1 109 the monks were enabled to leave their crowded site, the cause of many a serious inconvenience, and move to commodious quarters on the north side of Winchester, just beyond the city walls, known as Hyde Mead. Henceforth this important Benedictine house was known as Hyde Abbey. The old site was sur- rendered into the king's hands, and was shortly afterwards restored to the cathedral 1 V. C.H.Hants, i. 417. 1 Ibid. 469. church of St. Swithun. To the monks of Hyde the king granted another charter, whereby, amongst other regulations, it was arranged that a joint procession of the monks of St. Swithun and Hyde was to be made year by year.3 Their new home was speedily ready for occupation, and in i no the monks of New Minster carried with them to the Abbey of Hyde, in solemn procession, their sacred relics, the great gold cross of Cnut's benefaction, together with the illustrious remains of Alfred, his queen and his son. Henry I. made several grants to the abbey, among them the churches of Kingsclere and Alton and 5 hides in Alton which William I. had given in exchange for land in the city of Winchester.4 He also confirmed to them the right of soc and sac, thol and theam and other liberties.5 To Geoffrey succeeded Osbert in 1124. The length of his rule is somewhat uncer- tain, but it probably ended in 1135- The new abbey, however, only lasted for thirty years, for when the city was fired in 1 141, in the midst of the fierce civil war between the adherents of Maud and Stephen, the Abbey of Hyde perished in the conflagration.6 Then for several years there was continuous strife between the monks of Hyde and the high born and imperious Bishop Henry de Blois. By him, say the Hyde annalists, was the great cross of Cnut burnt, alluding to its loss in the great fire, when the bishop directed fireballs to be thrown from his castle of Wolvesey into that quarter of the city adjoin- ing the abbey. In 1142 Hugh de Lens succeeded as abbot after a vacancy of six years. There was much internal dissension at this time, and in 11493 large deputation of the monks pro- ceeded to Rome to complain of their abbot, as well as to renew their charges against their diocesan. Hugh was removed, and for two years the abbey was again vacant, whilst Bishop Henry endeavoured to persuade the Pope to convert his ancient see to an archi- episcopate, and to make Hyde Abbey the centre of one of his suffragan bishoprics. The scheme however failed, and Selid was elected abbot in 1151. In the seventeenth year of his abbacy, the continuous suits against the bishop were at last decided in favour of Hyde, and amongst other acts of restitution the bishop presented to the abbey as skilful a reproduction of Cnut's golden 3 Charter R. 16 Edw. IV. m. 9. * Ibid. 5 Had. MS. 1761 f. z6b. * Ann. Man. (Rolls Series), ii. 52. 117 A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE cross as the art of the day could furnish. After its destruction by fire some parts of the abbey were rebuilt, but the work was very gradual. The thorough reconstruction of the great church was not even begun until 1 182. Selid died in 1171, the same year as Bishop Henry, when there was again a vacancy for about five years. In 1177 Thomas, the Prior of Montacute,1 a Cluniac house in Somerset, became abbot ; he resigned his office in 1181. He was succeeded by John Suthill, during whose vigorous rule of nearly forty-two years the abbey prospered and enjoyed much internal peace. In 1185 this abbot proceeded to Rome to bring back the pall for Baldwin, Archbishop-elect of Canterbury. In 1208 John restored the tem- poralities which had been taken into his hands by reason of the interdict.8 The abbot at this time owed the service of twenty knights to the Crown for his lands.3 The year after SuthilFs appointment (i 182) the annalists tell of a miraculous appearance of St. Barnabas at an altar dedicated to his honour, and it was this incident that gave an impetus to the church restoration. There were various other remarkable manifestations at this altar, which caused the faithful to flock to the abbey, and the saint became the object of a special cult at Hyde. Henceforth the monks were frequently described as monks of St. Barnabas. In 1267 there was a serious affray in the abbey between the servants of the abbot and those of the pope's legate, Otho, who had come to Hyde to keep the festival of Christ- mas with a great retinue, and who observed the feast with too much conviviality.4 A curious faculty, which throws some light upon the condition of monastic life in the thirteenth century, was granted by Pope Nicholas IV. in 1288 to this abbey, by which permission was granted to the monks to wear caps of sheep or lamb skin at the divine offices and processions, the cold in those parts, it was said, having caused paralysis and other diseases to some of the monks.5 In 1302 royal licence was obtained for the appropriation (in accordance with a patent of 1292) of the church of Micheldever and 1 Mr. Edwards is wrong in styling him, when editing the Liter de Hyda, Prior of Bermondsey. The Prior of Bermondsey was made Abbot ofAbing- don about the same time (see Ann.deWint., p. 61). * Close Rolls, John (Rec. Com.), p. no. 3 Red Book of the Exchequer (Rolls Series), i, 72, 91, etc. * Ibid. 14 Hen. III. m. 5d. 8 Cal. of Papal Letten, i. 492. its chapels, of the annual value of £70, to which the bishop had already assented, on condition that the revenue should be applied to the use of guests and of the poor and in- firm persons who flocked to the abbey.8 Various impediments arose to this appropria- tion, but at last it was confirmed by Clement V. in 1309, and papal mandates to that effect were sent to the Archdeacon of Winchester and to the Chapter of Salisbury ; in the same year there was the like papal confirmation of the appropriation of the church of Alton.7 There were several visitations of the mon- astery during the first half the fourteenth century, and in 1312 Bishop Woodlock had occasion to inhibit the convent from using the common seal for any alienation.8 Again in 1318 Bishop Sandale addressed a stern let- ter to the abbot bidding him check the careless monks who neglected meditation and their claustral duties, and complaining of the luke- warmness of his rule.9 Odiham's rule was but brief. On 21 May, 1319, the abbot was seriously ill, and the monks sent their steward to the king to try and arrange for the custody of the temporalities during the expected vacancy. The abbot however died on June 5 before the matter could be arranged, so that it was not until June 10 that the monks received the agreement, whereby it was ar- ranged that the convent might retain the custody on payment of 200 marks to the Crown, provided the vacancy did not exceed two months. Walter de Fifield, a monk of the house, had the temporalities restored to him as abbot (the agreement of June 10 being held to be void) on August i. Between this abbot and his convent there were many disputes, the chief contention of the prior and brethren being that he was wrongfully increasing the separate abbatial revenue at the expense of the house at large. The matter came fre- quently before Bishop Stratford, with the re- sult that the abbot was virtually acquitted.10 The bishop made a formal visitation of the abbey in February, 1325, and issued as the result an elaborate series of decrees, which were in the main of the usual character. The attendance of all at the night and day offices was enjoined ; brothers in priest's orders were to celebrate daily ; close custody was to be kept of the doors ; the disturbance 6 Pat. 30 Edw. I. m. 16. 7 Cal. of Papal Letters, ii. 51, 63. 8 Winchester Epis. Reg., Woodlock, f. I74b, 175. 9 Ibid. Sandale, £27 (vide supra, p. 27). 10 Ibid. Stratford, ff. 162, 163. 118 RELIGIOUS HOUSES caused by boys chattering on the south side of the farmery was to be stopped ; the access of men and women into the church and cloister at inordinate hours and times was to cease ; no brother was to frequent the nunneries of Winchester, Wherwell, or Romsey under pain of a year's confinement at Hyde ; parti- cular injunctions were laid down as to eating and drinking ; playing at chess or dice was forbidden ; frocks or cowls of fustian or worsted were not to be allowed, but were to be of black serge according to their rule ; cinctures or burses of silk were forbidden ; nor were they to have lockers save in the cloister carols.1 To this visitation and its consequent decrees the abbot raised formal objections, but he was overruled. Bishop Orlton visited the abbey on 7 No- vember, 1334, preaching in the chapter-house from ' Ut ambuleth digni Deo per omnia pla- centes.' The same bishop also visited on 29 May, 1337.* By the aid of 1346 for making Edward the Black Prince a knight we find that the Abbot of Hyde held with Robert Payne an eighth part of a knight's fee in Abbots Worthy (Hidebourne Wordy), three knights' fees in Mitcheldever, a hide in Northington with Henry de Nonhampton, and half a fee in Bicton with Roger Gervays.3 In 1344 there was an outbreak of the villeins of Chisledon, Wilts, against the abbey rule, for which they received chastisement at the abbot's hands. The fearful Black Death of 1349-50 reduced the abbey to penury, so that in order to avoid utter wreck it surren- dered itself absolutely into the hands of Wil- liam Edingdon, Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of the kingdom. The annalist does not proceed to state what measures the bishop took for the relief of the abbey or how he administered their funds. It would, how- ever, appear that after the election of Thomas de Pechy, the new abbot, in 1362, by good management the monastery had partly re- gained its prosperous condition, for in 1377 it was able to lend Richard II. the sum of £50. Nicholas Strode who became abbot in 1417 took a considerable share in the political affairs of the day, and is described as ' a man of conspicuous parts and secular activity.' He died in 1440, and was followed by Thomas Bramley, to whose election the royal assent was given early in May. In March, 1446, this abbot's name appears among the distinguished signatories to the 1 Winchester Epis. Reg. Stratford, f. 1 Ibid., Orlton, i. ff. lob, 54. 3 Feudal A 'ids, ii. 326, 329, 334. final foundation charter of Eton College. In the same year the great bell-tower of Hyde Abbey, with its eight bells, was de- stroyed by fire. In 1447 Cardinal Beaufort died, and left £200 for the repairs of the church, doubtless in consequence of this mis- adventure. Abbot Bramley died in February, 1465, and was succeeded by Henry Bonville, the prior. This election caused much dissension in the abbey. Bishop Waynflete, on appeal, sent the new abbot to govern the priory of Boxgrove, Sussex, whilst the new prior of Hyde, Thomas Worcester, virtually governed the abbey. In 1471 an arrangement was made by which Abbot Bonville was to re- ceive £50 a year from the abbey revenues, and to attend convocation, council, or par- liament as abbot ; but he was not to come near Hyde Abbey for three years.4 Mean- while however in 1472 Bonville died, and Thomas Worcester was at once elected in his place.5 On the election of Richard Hall in April 1488 Henry VII. granted a pension, which a newly elected Abbot of Hyde was bound to grant to a clerk of the king's nomination from the abbey funds, to Peter Carmelian. Peter was a native of Brescia, who had been naturalized that very month ; he was a court poet, and chaplain and Latin secretary to Henry VII.8 Bishop Wykeham was a firm maintainer of all the episcopal privileges of the see. There was an ancient custom that, on the confirmation of a new bishop, the abbot of Hyde should present him with a choral cope, comely and suitable for a bishop's estate, for use in the cathedral church. On Wykeham's appointment Thomas Pechy, then abbot of Hyde, neglected to supply the customary cope, and ignored frequent reminders. At last, in October, 1368, the abbot was cited to appear in the church of St. Mary Overy to show cause why a cope should not be rendered.7 The issue is not stated, but doubtless it was in favour of the bishop. In 1390, Bishop Wykeham entered in his register the grant made by Pope Boniface IX. to Abbot Eyne- sham, authorizing his use of mitre, ring and pastoral staff;8 on 8 February, 1387, the 4 Winchester Epis. Reg., Waynflete, ii. ff. 106- 8b. 5 Pat. 4 Edw. IV. pt. ii. m. 2. 8 He also received corrodies or pensions from other ecclesiastical foundations ; see Diet, of Nat. Bug. 7 Ibid. Wykeham, iii. f. 15. 8 Ibid. f. 2493. A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE same bishop issued an elaborate series of in- junctions for the better government of the abbey ; * and by his will left to the abbot a silver-gilt flagon worth £10 ; to each monk in priest's order, £2 ; and to each in lower orders, £1. Dr. Hede, as commissary for the Prior of Canterbury during the vacancy of the see, visited this abbey on 3 March, 1501. Richard Hall, the abbot, gave written and viva voce answers to the visitation articles. He stated that the abbey was in debt fifty marks when he entered on his office. The common seal was kept under four keys held respectively by the abbot, prior, sub-prior and precentor. Richard Romsey, the prior, said that the abbot had also placed in his hands the office of sacrist. John Lavender, sub-prior ; William Salisbury, almoner ; Thomas Wrigh- ton, steward ; Thomas Gloucester, guest- master ; Henry Curtes, precentor ; John Forest, cellarer (vinetarius) ; William Chusyl- den, the third prior and infirmarer ; John Alta, master of the works ; William Win- chester, sub-chanter ; and various others, who did not hold office, summed up their testi- mony in the effective phrase of omnia bene. Edward London, one of the monks, stated that the novices and two other young brothers did not attend the grammar school, and that it was the fault of the abbot. Anthony Stavely complained that the prior heavily punished the young monks and others with- out cause. There were also certain complaints on the part of two or three of insufficient food in the farmery. Abbot Hall's government was lax. At a visitation held by Dr. Dowman, the bishop's vicar-general, in January, 1507, the prior and six senior monks were summoned to the chapter-house and faced with various serious charges as to the access of women to the pre- cincts, the frequenting of taverns in the city, and insufficient instruction of the younger monks. This was followed by the sum- moning of twenty-five junior monks who were duly admonished. Then the vicar- general conferred with the abbot and seniors as to reformatory measures. The seniors admit- ted laxity as to egress, alleged their ignorance of all foundation for the graver charges, spoke of the difficulty of a strict observance of the Benedictine rule, but promised vigilance and increased exertion for the future.* Two years later the abbot died, and was 1 These are printed in full, from a MS. in the custody of the Warden of New College, Oxford, in Dr. Birch's Liber fittr, pp. Ixrvii.— xcvi. 1 Winchester Epis. Reg., Fox, ii. f. 42. succeeded on 19 February by Richard Romsey, the prior, who was the last of the honestly elected abbots of Hyde. He governed the community for nearly twenty-one years under the episcopates of Fox and Wolsey. During the latter part of his life the aged Bishop Fox visited Hyde every fifteen days. In 1522 certain episcopal injunctions were issued which reveal some irregularities, the gravest whereof referred to some of the younger monks practising long-bow archery in the Hyde meadows. In August, 1526, Abbot Romsey received a communication from Wolsey, and wrote asking for a month's time to deliberate over his proposals. He pleaded that he was ' somewhat diseased,' and not well able to travel to see Wolsey, especially as he was expecting the king in the following week. The tenor of Wolsey's letter can be gathered from the reply. He had acknowledged that Romsey had ordered his house ' discreetly as yet," but now that he was suffering from age and weakness he urged him to resign. The old abbot replied, with some spirit, that he was not so aged or impo- tent of body or wit, but that he was able to exercise his office to the pleasure of God, the increase of good religion and the wealth of his house.3 At the close of 1529 Abbot Romsey died, and on 28 January, 1529-30, the monks of Hyde gathered for the last time in their chapter house for the election of an abbot. A portion of the community struggled hard to appoint one of their own number, but others had been won over to support the election of John Salcot, alias Capon, who was already Abbot of Hulme, Norfolk. After several adjournments, the election of the nominee of Wolsey and the Crown was secured. Salcot was a strenuous and ostenta- tious supporter of the king's divorce. In 1534 he was consecrated by Cranmer, Bishop of Bangor, and in 1539 translated to Salis- bury. Among all the absolutely unscrupulous turncoats and time-servers of those strange times the last Abbot of Hyde certainly bears the palm.4 Salcot on his appointment set to work to prepare for the end, and in 1534 or a little later Cromwell designed a strange and most lax regulation for the fraternity 5 ; but if ever this came into operation, it was of short duration. In April, 1538, the surrender was signed, and in September of the same year 3 Letters and Papers Hen. V11I. iv. 2394. * See the strong but just account of his career in Edwards's introduction to the Liber de HyJa, bciv.-lxx. 8 Cott. MS. Cleop. E. iv. 29. 1 2O RELIGIOUS HOUSES came the visitors, Pollard, Wriothesley and others, vandalizing with their own hands. The number of inmates of the monastery in 1507 was an abbot, a prior, six senior and twenty-five junior monks, making in all thirty-three members.1 This number at the time of the dissolution of the house, was re- duced to twenty-one.* In the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries, however, it would appear from the lists of admissions to the monastery given in the Liber Vitte, the number of members was slightly greater. Pensions were assigned to all those who signed the deed of surrender. The abbot's pension probably ceased immediately, as he was re- warded with the bishopric of Salisbury. The prior's pension was ^13 6s. Set. a year ; three senior monks had £10 each, two had £8, and the rest £6. Annuities were also granted from the monastic funds to Cromwell, Wrio- thesley and others. In 1557 there were only the prior and ten of the monks left in receipt of pensions. To Wriothesley were granted some of the richest manors of the abbey, including Micheldever and Stratton, as well as a short lease of the entire site of the abbey, its church and appurtenances. Wriothesley pulled the abbey down with extraordinary rapidity and sold the materials ; the rever- sion of the site, together with the demesne lands, passed by royal grant to Richard Bethell. At the time of the dissolution of the house the monastery held the hundred of Michel- dever, the manors of Abbots Worthy, ' Slacke- stede,' Woodmancote, Micheldever with the rectory ,' Dottesley,' North Stoneham, 'Owers,' East Stratton, Preshaw, Loomer, Alton East- brook, 'Bicketon,' Brown Candover, Fullerton and Leckford, Abbots Anne, Winterbourne, Pewsey, 'ThiseldonwithBurythorpp,'Colling- borne, Puddletrenthide, ' Southese, Tytles- combe,' Heighten and Doughton with the rectory. The rectories of Alton, Puddletrent- hide and the chapels of Popham, Northamp- ton, Stratton, and lands in Winchester and elsewhere.8 When Leland visited Winchester in 1539, so rapidly had Wriothesley done his work that he could find nothing but the site, merely recording that ' in this suburb stood the great Abbey of Hyde.' * In Camden's time there are said to have remained some ruinous out- houses, a gateway and a large barn supposed to have been the abbot's hall.5 William Cole, 1 Liber de Hyda, Introd. Ixii. 2 Netvminster (Hants Rec. Soc.), Pref. 1. 3 Dugdale's Monasticon, ii. 448. * Leland's Itinerary, iii. 86. 5 Dugdale's Monasticon, ii. 432. II the antiquary, was here in 1723, and could merely discover the convent barn and holes whence even the foundations had been dug.' In 1788 the county magistrates purchased the abbey field as the most suitable spot for the erection of a county gaol ! There seems good reason to believe that at this time the grave of Alfred was destroyed and his dust scattered.7 ABBOTS OF NEWMINSTER Grimbald, 903 Beornhelm, Ethelgar, 965-83 ./Elfsige, circa 983-97 Brightwold, 995 or 997-1012 Brithmere, 1012-21 Alnoth, 1021-35 Alwyn, 1035-57 Alfnoth, 1057-63 Alwyn II., 1064-66 Wulfric, 1069-72 Rewalan, 1072- Ranulf Flambard Herbert Losinga Robert Losinga, 1091-93 Herbert Losinga,8 1093 Hugh, 1 1 00-6 Geoffrey, 1106-24 ABBOTS OF HYDE Osbert, 1124-35 (?) Six years' vacancy Hugh de Lens, 1142-9 Two years' vacancy Salidus, 1151-71 Five years' vacancy Thomas, 1177-81 John Suthill, 1181-1222 Walter Aston, 1222-48 Roger of St. Valery, 1248-63 William of Worcester, 1263-81 Robert, or Roger, of Popham, 1282-92 Simon Canning,9 1292-1304 Geoffrey of Ferringes,10 1304-17 William of Odiham, 1317-19 Walter of Fifield,11 1319-62 Thomas Pechy,18 1362-80 8 Add. MS. 5828, f. 175. 7 Arckteologia, xiii. 309-12. 8 Mr. Edwards in the Introd. to Liber de Hyda, xliii. states that Ranulph Flambard re-entered after the death of Robert Losinga. 9 Pat. 20 Edw. I. m. 6. 10 Ibid. 32 Edw. I., m. 4, 3, 2 ; Winchester Epis. Reg., Pontoise, f. 46. 11 Register ofSandale (Hants Record Society), pp. 108-9. ia Winchester Epis. Reg., Edingdon, i. 116. 121 l6 A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE John of Eynesham,1 1381-94 John Letcombe, 1394-1408 John London,* 1408-16 Nicholas Strode, 1416-40 Thomas Bramley, 1440-65 Henry Bonville, 1465-72 Thomas Worcester, 1472-9 John Collingborne, 1480-5 Thomas Forte, 1485-8 Richard Hall, 1488-1509 Richard Romsey, 1509-29 John Salcot, 1530-38 HOUSES OF BENEDICTINE NUNS •7. NUNNAMINSTER, OR THE ABBEY OF ST. MARY, WINCHESTER To the north-east of St. Swithun's, and immediately to the east of the New Minster, stood the great abbey of St. Mary, the nuns' minster, usually known as Nunnaminster. It was founded jointly by Alfred and his queen Eahlswith, about the close of the ninth cen- tury,3 but the buildings were completed by their son, Edward the Elder. After Alfred's death, the queen retired to this monastery, where she died. It would seem probable that she should have been made abbess, but Leland describes Edburga the daughter of Edward, who died in 925, as the first abbess.4 The endowment of the monastery seems to have been inadequate for its maintenance, and it is said to have fallen into great poverty. King Edred bequeathed to it Shalbourn and Bradford in Wiltshire;6 but notwithstanding this addition to its revenues, Bishop Ethelwold, possibly on account of its poverty but more probably with a view of establishing there the stricter form of Benedictine rule, practically refounded it in 963^ and apparently re-en- dowed it. By the Domesday Book we learn that the abbess held Lyss, Froyle, Leckford Abbess, Long Stoke, Timsbury, and Ovington in Hampshire ; Coleshill in Berkshire ; and Urch- font and All Cannings in Wiltshire. We know nothing of the history of this monastery from this date till the middle of the twelfth century, when during the civil war between Maud and Stephen the city of Winchester, together with this monastery, was burnt in 1 Pat. 4, Ric. II. pt. I, m. I ; 4 Ric. II. pt. ii. m. 3 3 ; Winchester Epis. Reg., Wykeham, i. ff. 113, 114. 3 Winchester Epis. Reg., Beaufort, ff. 4, 5. 8 William of Malmesbury ascribes the founda- tion solely to Alfred, but the Hyde Chartulary (Harl. MSS. I76i,f. 14) describes the queen as fundatrix eccleiie Sancte Marie lanctimmia&um Ann. Manas Act (Rolls Series), ii. 10. 5 Liber de HyJa, 346 and note. • Ang. Sax. Cbron. (Rolls Series), ii. 93. H4I.7 It was a rule that upon the election of an abbess, the convent was bound to find in early times a corrody and later a pension for a person nominated by the Crown, and in this way it appears that Juliana de Ley- grave, niece of the king's (foster) mother, Alice de Leygrave, who suckled him in his youth, received at the election of Maud de Pecham in 1 3 1 3 a nun's corrody for life, the value to be received by her wherever she might be, and a suitable chamber within the nunnery for her residence whenever she might wish to stay there.8 This prerogative of the Crown seems to have been exercised at each election of an abbess, and writs for the payment of such corrodies or pensions are to be found among the public records.9 The Crown also seems at a later date to have claimed a right to nominate a nun for admission to the mon- astery at the coronation of each sovereign,10 and a like privilege was exercised by each Bishop of Winchester at his consecration.11 Besides the professed nuns and their house- hold the abbey of Nunnaminster supported a certain number of chaplains or canons who had prebendal stalls in the abbey.18 The original idea of having canons attached to these old Benedictine foundations seems to have been to provide the nuns with suitable chaplains, as well as with priests who could superintend the management of their tempor- alities. The canons of Nunnaminster could, however, as a rule, have been of little or no service to the monastery, whose income they drained. For instance, at his own request, the pope granted Roger Holm, canon of this monastery in 1349, the church of Elvydon, 7 Ann. Monastic! (Rolls Series), ii. 52. 8 Close, 6 Edw. II. m. 4d. 9 See grant to William de Boiston, clerk, of a pension in 1337 (Close, 1 1 Edw. III. p. 2, m. $d) ; and to Richard Withers in 1527 (Letters and Papers, Hen. rill.iv. 3»i3[3])- 10 See the nomination of Agnes Denham in 1418 (Pat. I Rich. II. pt. 2, m. 3). 11 See mandate for the admission of Dyamunda daughter of Richard de Sutton in 1320 (Winton. Epis. Reg., Asserio, f. i) ; the same for Joan Test- wood in 1367 (ibid. Wykeham, iii. f. lob). 11 Dugdale's Monasticon, ii. 452. 122 RELIGIOUS HOUSES in the diocese of Salisbury, notwithstanding that he was also the holder of canonries in Lincoln and London, and was expecting a benefice from the Abbot of Ramsey.1 Or again, Canon Richard of Norwich of this convent had papal sanction in 1355 to hold a London canonry, although in addition to the prebend from Nunnaminster he drew the emoluments of prebends from Salisbury and Kilkenny, and held the church of Adesham.8 Throughout the papacy of Clement VI. (1342—52) pluralism was specially rampant, and there were few worse cases than those of the holders of prebends in the Hampshire nunneries of Nunnaminster, Romsey and Wherwell. In 1317 papal sanction was obtained for Roger de Inkepen, a wealthy and beneficent citizen of Winchester, to found and endow a chapel in the cemetery of Nunnaminster, to be served by two priests, the patronage of which was to belong to him and his heirs.3 This chapel was dedicated to the Holy Trinity ; one of the priests was termed the warden and the other the chaplain ; they lived together and had a common table ; they were ordered to say daily mattins and even- song in the chapel in addition to the masses.4 In December, 1321, this chapel was defiled by shedding of blood, when the bishop com- missioned Peter, Bishop of Corbavia, to recon- cile it.5 We have mention also of another chantry in the monastery founded at the altar of St. Peter at the east end of the south quire aisle by Robert de Wambergh, Archdeacon of Wells, in 1328. It was endowed with lands at Urchfont for the support of a chaplain to pray for the souls of Emeline Longspee and others.8 During the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- turies the abbey, like other similar foundations, seems to have got into pecuniary difficulties. In 1343 the convent attributed one of the chief causes of their poverty to the action of the king in taking the profits of the tempor- alities during a vacancy, and to assist them they petitioned the pope for licence to appro- 1 Cal. of Papal Petitions, i. 152. 8 Ibid. i. 281 ; see also the petition for a canonry for William de Meon in 1343 (ibid. i. 58). Reference has already been made to the re- buke by the bishop in 1 3 1 8 of the unseemly dress of one of the chaplains of the nunnery (supra, p. 28). 3 Ibid. ii. 1 60. 4 Pat. II Edw. II. pt. I. m. I ; 12 Edw. II. pt. I, m. 20 ; St. Swithun's Chartulary, ff. 60- 1 b. 5 Winton. Epis. Reg., Asserio, f. "j\>. 8 Pat. 2 Edw. III. pt. i, m. 1 1. priate the parish church of Froyle. To this the pope assented, but ordered that it should be done through the diocesan.7 The pre- liminary arrangements for this appropriation had been carried out by Bishop Orlton just before his death ; but on the succession of Bishop Edingdon, that prelate, with the sup- port of the Archbishop of Canterbury, re- fused his sanction. Whereupon the convent in 1346 again approached the pope, setting forth the state of affairs, and pleading the sterility of their lands, the destruction of their woods, the diminution of their rents, and the excessive number of nuns and sisters, whereby they were unable to pay their debts, provide for the inmates, or repair the buildings. They further pleaded the reduction of their temporalities through royal administration. The pope in reply empowered the Bishop of Hereford to carry out the appropriation.8 In the same year Bishop Edingdon issued an in- hibition to the abbess not to receive sisters beyond the ancient number.9 A few years later in 1349 the monastery suffered on account of the Black Death. The abbess, Maud Spine, apparently succumbed to this plague, at all events there was a vacancy in that year.10 The cattle plague which fol- lowed the Black Death severely affected the convent. This, coupled with the general re- duction of their rents and the barrenness of their lands, caused by the sparsity and dearness of labour, were among the causes again pleaded on behalf of Nunnaminster, in a petition to the pope in 1352, for the appropriation of the church of Gretford, in the diocese of Lincoln, valued at 40 marks. The prayer was granted, and the ordinance of the vicarage was committed to the Bishops of Salisbury, Worcester and Wells.11 Notwithstanding that the custody of the temporalities during a vacancy was granted to the prioress and con- vent at a rent to the Exchequer in I464,12 which, as we have seen, was a concession much sought after by the convent, the abbess and convent in 1468 again complained that they were so burdened with the repair of their houses and church, and with the payment of tenths and other imposts that they could not 7 Cal. of Papal Petitions, i. 56 ; Cal. of Papal Letters, iii. 112. The licence had been obtained for this appropriation as far back as 1330, but it had never been completed (Pat. 4 Edw. III. p. i , m- 39)- 8 Cal. of Papal Petitions, i. 122. 9 Winton. Epis. Reg., Edingdon, ii. f. 3b. 10 Ibid. i. f. 51. 11 Cal. of Papal Petitions, i. 230. 12 Pat. 4 Edw. IV. pt. 2, m. 7. 123 A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE fulfil the obligations of their order as to hospi- tality. To assist them in their distress King Edward IV. granted that they should have view of frankpledge and assize of bread and ale, with waif and stray at their towns of Urchfont and Allcannings, in the county of Wilts, from all their tenants and other resi- dents.1 In 1476 a further grant was made, as the previous one was not so valid as had been hoped, that the nuns should have all sums of money and rents due to the king from them- selves or their tenants or other residents in the same towns.* On 24 January, 1370, the bishop excom- municated certain persons who had been in- strumental in the abduction of one of the nuns ; s and in June of the same year he issued his mandate to the abbess to re-admit a nun, Isabel Gerway, who had apostatized, but was then anxious to return.* The name of the abducted nun is not given in the first of these documents, and they both probably refer to the same sister. Some idea as to the internal rule of the house can be obtained from the frequent visi- tations of the bishops of the diocese. In 1 308 Bishop Woodlock commissioned Lawrence, sub-prior of St. Swithun, and Master Stephen de Dene, his commissary general, to visit the nunnery; on 1 6 March, 1309, he issued an elaborate series of injunctions for the better government of the house, divided into thirteen heads.6 Bishop Stratford (1323-33) also held, or caused to be held, various visitations of his monastery, and on two occasions cited the Abbess Maud for the correction of excesses.6 It is recorded that Bishop Orlton (1333-45) personally visited Nunnaminster on 9 April, 1334, when he preached in the chapter house from the text, ' Deo per omnia placenta.' In 1336 he commissioned his official to visit for the correction of excesses (the usual phrase), and there was a further visitation in I337.7 Bishop Wykeham paid considerable attention to the monastery. In 1384 he ad- dressed a mandate to the abbess for the cor- rection of nuns who were disobedient to their officers, and censured the superior for lack of discipline.8 In September, 1396, the bishop commissioned Nicholas Wykeham, Arch- deacon of Wilts, and John Elmere, the offi- 1 Pat. 8 Edw. IV. pt. 3, m. 3. 1 Ibid. 1 6 Edw. IV. pt. i, m. 20. Winton. Epis. Reg., Wykeham, iii. f. 303. Ibid. 36b. Ibid. Woodlock, f. 150. Ibid. Stratford, ff. 56, 57b, 79, 176-7. Ibid. Orlton, i. ff. lob, 41, 5411. Ibid. Wykeham, f. 2 1 2a. cial, to visit the abbey,9 and on 14 June, 1403, he granted his licence to the abbess and nuns to hear divine service in their new Lady Chapel adjoining the quire.10 By his will Wykeham left to the abbess five marks, and each of the nuns one mark. Dr. Hede visited St. Mary's on 2 March, 1501, when Abbess Joan Legh was able to give satisfactory evidence as to the order and administration of her house. The common seal was kept in a chest, the three keys of which were in the respective possession of the abbess, prioress and sacrist. Margaret Fawcon, the prioress, testified that all the sisters had their meals in the frater, save one who was very aged. Agnes Tystede, sub- prioress, testified that all the convent rose at night for mattins, save the sick and aged. Christiane Whytyngton, infirmarer, stated that the annual balance sheet was duly presented in chapter. Margaret Bawdewin, precentor, testified that omnia bene. Agnes Trusset, the second cantor, Agnes Kyng, the third cantor, and Agnes Massaw, the fourth cantor, gave brief evidence to the same effect, and so also did Alice Tys- tede, scrutator, Agnes Byrcher, Margaret Shafte, Agnes Cox, senior teacher (dog- matista), and Margaret Legh, mistress of the novices. Elia Pitte, the librarian, was also well satisfied with that which was in her charge.11 The first commissioners appointed for visit- ing the Hampshire monasteries were Sir James Worsley, John and George Poulet, and William Berners. Their report of St. Mary's, Winchester, was highly favourable. They visited this nunnery on 15 May, 1536, and examined on oath Elizabeth Shelley, the abbess; Thomas Lee, auditor; Thomas Legh, receiver ; and Thomas Ticheborne, clerk. They found in the convent 102 persons, namely, 26 religious, 5 priests, 13 lay sisters, 9 women servants, 20 officials and waiting servants, 3 corrodiers, and 26 children. Their names are all set forth in full. Of the re- ligious persons, all, save four, were professed, and ' every of them entende to kepe theyr habits and religion to what house religious or ever they shall be comytted by the kinge's highness, Dame Frith Welbek only excepted, which desireth thanne to be comytted to any oder house to have capacite.' All the pro- fessed are termed Dames. The five chaplains were Master John Hazard, confessor, and four others. 9 Ibid. iii. f. 291. 10 Ibid. 356b. 11 Sede Vacante Register, Canterbury Priory. 124 RELIGIOUS HOUSES Among the women servants were Jane Sherley, ' the abbas gentyllwoman,' as well as a servant. The prioress, sub-prioress and ' sexten ' (sacrist) had each their servant in their respective houses, and so had ' Dame Maud Burne in her house.' The other three were ' lavenders ' (washerwomen) to the abbess and convent. The officials and servants were a general receiver, clerk, ' curtyar ' (cur- tiler), cater, butler, cook, under-cook, baker, convent cook, under convent cook, brewer, miller, porter, under-porter, porter of Eastgate, two 'churchemen,' ' Peter Tycheborne chylde of the high aulter,' and two servants of the receiver and clerk respectively. The corro- diers were Thomas Legh, John Lichfeld and Richard Yeckley. The twenty-six ' chyldren of lordys, knyghttes and gentylmen brought up yn the sayd monastery ' were : ' Bryget Plantagenet, dowghter unto the lord vycounte Lysley ; Mary Pole, dowghter unto Sir Gefferey Pole knyght ; Brygget Coppeley, dowghter unto Sir Roger Coppeley knyght ; Elizabeth Phyll- pot, dowghter unto Sir Peter Phyllpot knyght ; Margery Tyrell ; Adryan Tyrell ; Johanne Barnabe ; Amy Dyngley ; Elizabeth Dyng- ley ; Jane Dyngley ; Frances Dyngley ; Susan Tycheborne ; Elizabeth Tycheborne ; Mary Justyce ; Agnes Alymor ; Emma Bartue ; Myldred Clerke ; Anne Lacy ; Isold Apulgate ; Elizabeth Legh ; Mary Legh ; Alienor North ; Johanne Sturgys ; Johanne Fylder ; Johanne Francis ; Jane Raynysford.' The commissioners put on record that the religious persons of this house ' have been and are of very clene, vertuous, honest, and charit- able conversation, order, and rule synce the furst profession of thym, which is also reported not only by the Mayors and Comynaltye of the Citye of Winchester, butt also by the most worshipfull and honest persons of the Centre adjoynynge thereunto, which have daylye made a contynuall sute unto the said Commyssioners to be suetors unto the Kinges highnes for tolleracon of the said monastery.' ' Item the said monastery is in a very good state of Reparacon and standeth nigh the middell of the Citye of a great and large compasse envyround with many poor house- holdes which have theyr only lyvynge of the said monastery, and have no demaynes where- by they may make any provysion butt lyve only by theyr handes, making theyr provysion in the markettes.' They returned the monastery as out of debt, and reported that the convent seal was put in a bag sealed with the seal of Richard Poulet, locked in a coffer with three keys, which remained in the custody of the abbess and two of the chief governors of the monas- tery ; that the value of the lead on the church and houses was £154 IDJ., and there were five great bells and one little one, worth £28 2s. 6d. ; that the inventory of the jewels, ornaments, household stuff, stock and stores amounted to ,£486 13*. "]d. ; that £24. 6s. 8d. was owing to the monastery ; that the annual value of the lands and possessions was £330 iSs. 6$d., and that the value of the woods was £231 6s. 4<£1 The Valor of 1535 returned the gross annual value of the abbey as £245 175. 2^ ad nuptias.'1* In 1336 Edward III. granted to the con- vent the custody of the temporalities of their house during a vacancy, for which they were to pay £20 for each month of the vacancy.13 By the return of the aid for making Edward the Black Prince a knight it appears that the abbess held in perpetual alms half a knight's fee in Sidmanton.14 In 1370 Bishop Wykeham authorized the abbess to appoint one or two chaplains, clean in life and pure in conscience, to confess her- self and the sisters." Later in his episcopate the bishop adopted the better plan of himself appointing the confessors. By an undated com- mission, apparently circa 1395, Ralph Basyng, a monk of Winchester, and two other priests were appointed to confess the abbess and nuns of Romsey.18 Basyng was appointed to a similar position for the nuns of Wherwell in 1393. At the time of the nomination of Basyng and his two colleagues as confessors, the con- fessor's licence held by Friar John Burgeys was revoked, and a monition was issued to the abbess warning her not to allow any secular priest serving in the conventual church or in the town of Romsey to have access to her in the rooms or cloister of the abbey, nor to hold with them any conversation save in the presence of an honest and trustworthy sister nun. On 29 May, 1372, Bishop Wykeham wrote to the Abbess and Convent of Romsey desiring them, at the request of William, Earl of Pembroke, to receive his noble kinswoman, Dame Elizabeth de Berkele, during the ab- sence of Maurice Wytht, her husband, on foreign service with the earl.17 The letter was to be taken as an episcopal licence, for 10 Close, 8 Edw. II. m. I. 11 Ibid. m. 25. 12 Winton. Epis. Reg., Orlton, i. f. ii. 13 Pat. 10 Edw. III. p. i. m. 43d. 14 Feudal Aids, ii. 331. 16 Winton. Epis. Reg., Wykeham, iii. f. 38. • 1S Ibid, f. 29 1 b. 17 Wykeham's Registers, iii. f. 128 RELIGIOUS HOUSES without such leave the reception of a guest would have been quite irregular. At the same time a like letter was sent to the nun- nery of Wherwell, so that Dame Elizabeth could make her choice of houses or change her residence during her husband's absence. The Earl of Pembroke was in charge this year of the disastrous expedition to relieve Rochelle, when his ships were burnt by the Spanish fleet and he himself taken prisoner. A curious dispute arose in the time of Bishop Wykeham between the (canon) sacrist of the abbey church and the vicar of the parish church of Romsey. An order from the bishop to the rural dean of Sombourn to in- hibit the vicar, John Folyot, and his chaplains, pending the decision of a cause promoted by the abbess and convent against them, states that it had been the usage, time beyond memory, for the sacrist of the abbey church to bless the palms and boughs of other trees used at mass on Palm Sunday, and that from the high altar and not elsewhere ; nevertheless the vicar and chaplains had interrupted the sacrist in the exercise of this privilege.1 The instruction to the rural dean is dated 13 March, 1372, and as Easter that year fell on March 20, the inhibition would be in good time to prevent a scandal on the ensuing Palm Sunday. The north aisle of the great abbey church of Romsey was used as the parish church. The high altar would be in the nuns' quire. It can therefore be readily understood that the vicar ministering to the people would resent the palms being blessed out of sight of the congregation. At this time there was also a dispute be- tween the town and the abbey as to the re- pair and maintenance of this north aisle or chapel, and on 15 March, 1372, the bishop appointed Thomas de Sheptone, canon of Wells, and two other commissioners to hold an inquiry in order to settle upon whom this responsibility lay.3 On 10 May, 1403, a faculty was granted to the vicar and parish- ioners of Romsey to pull down and rebuild the wall of the north aisle of Romsey Minster from the transept to the porch in order to enlarge it. The petition of the parishioners stated that the aisle was so narrow and con- fined that on Sundays and festivals there was no suitable or even decent accommodation for the worshippers, and they expressed a desire not only to make their part of the minster larger, but fairer. The bishop granted the faculty in language strongly approving of the beautifying of God's sanctuary, and of pro- viding fully for the numerous population of both sexes of the town of Romsey, for whom this north aisle was their only parish church ; but he made it a condition that not only was the work to be done at their own expense, but it was to be sustained in like manner. On the day following the grant of this faculty the bishop sent a letter to the abbess and nuns of Romsey advising and exhorting them to show favour and kindness to the project of the vicar and parishioners.3 Henry, Bishop of Annadown, acting as suffragan to Wykeham, was at Romsey abbey on Sunday, 19 September, 1400, when he received thirteen novices, Margery Camoys, Alice Warennere, Joan Stratford, Alice Northlode, Alice Forester, Elizabeth Sampson, Maud Lovell, Katherine de la Mare, Alice Chamberlayn, Isabel Lekforde, Alice Artone, Juliana Shirnham, and Joan Umfray.4 From the names it may be assumed that the abbey received ladies of position and good birth among its professed members. The abbess, Dame Lucy Everard, was ap- parently ailing in 1402. In August of that year licence was granted her for a twelve- month to hear divine service in her oratory in the presence of one of the sisters and her servants. After having held the position for about thirty years, Elizabeth Brooke, who was elected abbess in 1472, brought the gravest discredit on the abbey. The scandal of her life was naturally accompanied by general laxity of discipline and by the. decay of the fabric. In 1494 Archbishop Morton caused Robert Sherborne (afterwards Bishop of Chichester), treasurer of Hereford Cathedral, to visit those religious houses of Winchester diocese that were subject to diocesan control. Abbess Brooke confessed on that occasion to a debt of £80 ; she suspected that the nuns made egress through the church gates, but denied that any frequented taverns or suspected places. Isabel Morgan, prioress, testified, on the contrary, that some of the nuns did fre- quent taverns, and went into the town with- out leave ; she also hinted at a scandal con- cerning the abbess. Various of the nuns were examined, and one of them complained that their sins or faults were not punished, and that the doors were not kept shut.5 This nunnery was again visited on 27 March, 1502, by Dr. Hede, the commissary of the Prior of Canterbury, during the vacancy 1 Wykeham's Registers, iii. f. 6$b. * Ibid. f. 88b. II 3 Ibid. ff. 355, 356. 4 Ibid. f. 328. 5 Archbishop Morton's Register, ff. 90, 91. I29 17 A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE of the sees of both Canterbury and Win- chester. The abbess stated that the statutory number of nuns was forty, that they did not take their meals in the frater but in certain rooms assigned them by the abbess, that there were no debts and no valuables pledged, that there was a secular chaplain in the monastery according to their statutes. Isabel Maryuleyn, prioress, testified to the due observance of the night and day offices; that the abbess was very remiss in correcting the delinquencies of the sisters. Cecily Reed, sub-prioress, had but little to say. Joan Skelyng stated that the abbess was wont to pay certain salaries to the nuns of IOJ. or 6s. 8d.; that a great scandal had arisen concerning the abbess and Master Bryce super mala et suspecta conversa- tion ; that lately, at the instigation of Master Bryce, the abbess had been negligent in cor- recting the sisters. Joan Paten, precentor, said that tenements in the town of Romsey belonging to the monastery were in decay through the fault of the abbess; that since the coming of Master Bryce the abbess had conducted herself badly towards the sisters, and that she would accept no one's advice but his ; that since his coming she had not taken her meals with the nuns, and that there were rumours of incontinence. Thomasine Ashley, almoner, stated that the bread had diminished in quantity; that one Gilbert de Wilshire had certain letters pertaining to the convent under the common seal without the consent of the chapter ; that the abbess and her accomplices had broken open the chest in which the common seal was enclosed, and that Joyce Rowse, who had the custody of one key by the mandate of the late Bishop of Winchester, could testify to this. Edith Holloway, cellarer, said that Mary Tystede and Agnes Harvey wore their hair long. Anne Rowse, sacrist, said that the abbess was somewhat remiss in correction, and made further charges of a pecuniary character against Master Bryce. Joyce Rowse agreed with Thomasine Ashley as to the custody of the common seal and the dismissal of the holders of the keys ; she further said that the abbess under the influence of Master Bryce behaved cruelly towards her sisters and that there was a great scandal about them ; that the roof of the chancel was defective through the fault of the abbess, and she gave particulars asto various defalcations in the priory accounts. Maria Fystede, cantatrix, referred to the condition of the accounts in the time of the late abbess Joan Brygges, and said that rents which were then only 90 marks under the present abbess had grown to 300 marks ; but that the bread and cheese in the convent had lessened in measure through the interven- tion of Master Bryce; that Bryce was sus- pected of being the father of a girl in Wilt- shire ; that houses in the town as well as the dorter and the chancel were in decay through the fault of the abbess, and that Master Bryce kept two or three horses at the expense of the monastery; that he had obtained a large salary under the common seal as chap- lain of the farmery, and that he sat at table with the abbess and that there was common scandal about them. Ellen Tawke, third cantatrix, testified that the dorter and chancel were defective in their roofs ; that the abbess had been in that office for thirty years, but what gain she had brought the monastery she was ignorant, but rather believed that the annual rents had increased to 1 1 1 marks from 50 ; that the houses of the monastery were in decay through the fault of Master Bryce, whose advice was followed by the abbess, and that scandal had arisen about them. Christine More, fourth cantatrix, said that the house was not in debt more than twenty marks, and that as for the rest it was omnia bene. Avice Haynow said that the chancel and the dorter were in decay, so that if it happened to rain the nuns were unable to remain either in quire, in the time of the divine service, or in their beds, and that the funds that the abbess ought to have expended on these matters were being squandered on Master Bryce, and that there was a grave scandal about these two. Agnes Harvey, sub-sacrist, made similar state- ments as to the roofs of thg quire and dorter, and that the actual fabric of the monastery in the stone walls was going to decay through the fault of the abbess, and gave further particu- lars of the expenses incurred through Master Bryce. She also asserted that Emma Powes was guilty of incontinence with the vicar of the parish church. Emma Powes, who had been professed in a certain priory near Derby, and from that place had been removed to another priory in Hereford diocese, where she had been prioress, and thence had come to this house, said that silence was not observed in the dorter, and that the roof of the quire and the lady chapel were in decay. Alice Whytingstale, mistress of the school, said that the abbess at various times had prohibited her from receiving the Eucharist and from making her usual confession, and that since the arrival of Master Bryce the abbess had not conducted herself amicably towards her sisters. She also gave evidence as to the faulty roofs, and that a corrody had been granted to Master Bryce of the annual value of £20, and that he had caused a great scandal. The testimony of six other nuns were also set forth of a brief 130 RELIGIOUS HOUSES character. The visitation is left incomplete, much of the last folio being blank.1 The result of this grievous exposure seems to have brought about the enforced resigna- tion of the aged and evil abbess, and in June, 1502, Joyce Rowse was elected abbess and received the temporalities.2 It was difficult for the abbey to recover from the long laxity that had so unhappily prevailed under Elizabeth Brooke, and in 1506 Bishop Fox had to remove the sub-prioress and to administer severe censures.3 Abbess Joyce resigned in September, 1515, and on the i6th of that month the conge tfelire was granted to the prioress and convent, who elected Anne Westbrook, ' sexteyn ' of the monastery, as their abbess. Elizabeth Ryprose, the last abbess, was elected on 15 December, 1523. The docu- ments relative to this election are set forth in great detail in the episcopal registers.4 The temporalities were restored in the following month.6 In November 1537 the abbey, alarmed at the fate of the smaller houses, procured an elaborate inspection and confir- mation of all their royal charters from the time of Henry I. downwards.6 But this was so much waste of parchment and fees. Sir Richard Lister wrote to Cromwell in September, 1537, informing him that the nuns of Romsey, hearing they were in danger of suppression, were making leases and alien- ating their goods. He desired to know whether he was to stay them in this.7 On 28 December, 1538, John Foster re- ported to Sir Thomas Seymour as to the state of the house of Romsey. He pronounced the house out of debt ; that the plate and jewels were worth £300; the bells worth £100. The church is described as a great sumptuous thing, all of freestone and covered with lead, and worth £300 or £400 more. The annual rents are returned at £481 is. 8d. The names of the abbess, Elizabeth Ryprose, the prioress, Edith Banester, and the sub- prioress, Katharine Wadham, are set down, together with twenty-three other nuns. Mr. Foster wrote : ' In answer to your letter by Mr. Flemynge, whether the abbess and nuns would be content to surrender their house, 1 Sede Vacante Register of Canterbury Priory. 3 Lansd. MS. 963, f. 55. 3 Winton. Epis. Reg., Fox, iv. f. 80. The confessions are given of Alice Goreyn for slander and Margaret Dowman of incontinence. * Ibid. v. ff. 54-62b. s Letters and Papers, Hen. VIII. iv. 66. 6 Ibid. xii. 1 1 50 (5). 7 Ibid. Jciii. 35*. the truth is, that, in consequence of the mo- tion made by your kinswomen and other friends, they will be content to do you any pleasure, but they would be loath to trust to the commissioners' gentleness, as they hear that other houses have been straitly handled.'8 Nearly a third of this community had made their religious profession in July, 1534, very shortly before the beginning of their troubles. One of these was Katherine, youngest daughter of Sir Nicholas Wadham, Governor of the Isle of Wight, whose sister Jane had also been for some years a professed nun of the same abbey. John Foster, whose letter to Seymour has just been cited, lived at Baddesley near Romsey, and was convent steward. His reference to ' kinswomen ' ap- plied to the two Wadham nuns and to another nun of the name of Elizabeth Hill. Sir Nicholas Wadham's first wife was a daughter of Robert Hill of Antony, and his second was Margaret, sister to Queen Jane Seymour and Sir Thomas Seymour. Through their influence it was hoped that a quiet sur- render would be made.9 Whether this was effected or not cannot now be asceertained, for there is no extant formal surrender. But the abbess and con- vent in January, 1539, had licence to alienate their lordships or manors of Edingdon and Steeple Ashton and all their lands and tene- ments in Hampshire and Wiltshire to Sir Thomas Seymour.10 The clear annual value of the abbey was reckoned by the commissioners at £161 •js. iod.11 The lands returned on the first minister's account after the dissolution of the house were the manors of Romsey with the rectory and fair, Moor Abbas, ' Moor Malwyn,' Itchenstoke with the rectory, Sway, Sidmon- ton, Holm Lacy (Hunlacey) with ' Torleton juxta Coates,' and ' Bardolfeston ' in the parish of Puddle.12 The parishioners of Romsey managed to save the fine old conventual church from de- struction by buying it back from the Crown in 1554 for ;£ioo. This is much below Steward Foster's valuation ; but it must be recollected that the parish had an unassailable right to a considerable portion of it, which even Henry's counsellors could not ignore. The pointed oval seal, of late twelfth cen- B Ibid. xiii. 1155. 9 Abbot Gasquet's Hen. VIII. and the Engfish Monasteries, i. 310—3. 10 Letters and Papers, Hen. Vlll. xiv. 191. 11 Aug. Off. Misc. Books, cccxlii. f. 9. 13 Noted in Dugdale's Monasticon, ii. 510. A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE tury date, of which an illustration is given, represents St. Elfleda, the abbess and patron saint, in full length with crozier in right hand and book in left. Legend : SIGIL'S MARIE . . . ROMES' ECL'K. ABBESSES OF ROMSEY Elfleda, died in 959 Merwenna, 974 Elwina, 993 Elfleda, 996 Christine, 1086 Hadewis or Avice, 1130-55 Maud, 1 155-60 Mary, 1 1 60 Juliana,1 died in 1199 Maud Walerand,* 1199-1219 Maud Paria or Paricia, 1 2 1 9-6 1 Amice, 1263 Alice Walrand, 1290-8. Philippa de Stokes,3 1298-1307 dementia de Gildeford,4 1307-14 Alice de Wyntereshulle, 1315 Sibil Carbonel, 1315-33 Joan Icthe,5 1333 Isabel de Camoys,6 1352-96 Lucy Everard,7 1396 Felicia Aas,8 died in 1419 Maud Lovell, 1419-62 Joan Brygges, 1462-72 Elizabeth Brooke,9 1472-1502 Joyce Rowse, 1502-15 Anne Westbrook, 1515 Elizabeth Ryprose, 1523-39 5. THE ABBEY OF WHERWELL The Benedictine nunnery of Wherwell was founded about 986 by Elfrida, the widow of King Edgar, in expiation for her part in the murders of her first husband Ethelwolf and of her son-in-law King Edward. Here she spent the latter part of her life in penitence, and here she was buried. Elfrida died on 17 November, 1002, and the nuns ever after observed her obit on that 1 Wharton's Anglia Sacra, i. 304. » Ibid. 3 Pat. 26 Edw. I. m. 17. 4 Ibid. I Edw. II. pt. i, m. 1 8, 14 ; Winton. Epis. Reg., Woodlock, f. 69^ 5 Winton. Epis. Reg., Stratford, ff. 8lb, I34b ; Pat. 7 Edw. III. pt. 2, mm. 30, 25. 6 Winton. Epis. Reg., Edingdon, i. f. 75. 1 Wykeham's Registers, i. ff. 260,261. 8 Harl. MS. 6962, f. 148. She was cousin of Bishop Wykeham. » Pat. 12 Edw. IV. pt. I,m. 13, 10, 5 ; Win- ton. Epis. Reg., Courtenay, f. 20. day. An account of the founding of this abbey and its various obits, as well as an elaborate transcript of its evidences, is pre- served in a stoutly bound chartulary, pur- chased by the British Museum in 1869, which has hitherto escaped attention.10 This chartulary of the abbey of Benedictine nuns of St. Cross, Wherwell, was compiled in the fourteenth century, and contains copies of 463 charters, records of suits and other docu- ments, in Latin and French, from the con- firmation by Henry III. of the foundation charter to 1364. There are also thirty-two charters of later insertion, and a few documents from the reign of Richard II. to that of Henry V. are copied at the end. In the year of Elfrida's death, and appar- ently immediately after its occurrence, King Ethelred granted a charter of confirmation of all his mother's gifts to the abbey, which was then under the rule of the Abbess Heanfled. This grant included exemption from all earthly service, and the gift of land and houses at ' Edelingdene,' Winchester and Bullington. u According to the Annals of Winchester and Florence of Worcester, Emma the mother, and Edith the wife, of Edward the Confessor were both for a time under confinement in the monastery of Wherwell, but there is some confusion between the king's wife and mother, and it seems doubtful whether Emma ever was sent to Wherwell.18 The Domesday returns of the abbey pro- perty, which lay entirely in Hampshire, com- prised the vills of Wherwell, Tufton Good- worth, Little Anne, Middleton, Bullington, and houses in Winchester.13 The annual revenue then amounted to £14 I Of. About 1 1 86 the Abbess Maud 'of sweet memory,' and of ' good and noble birth,' began her rule over the abbey, which she maintained for forty years, dying at the age of eighty. She was succeeded in 1226 by her friend and fellow worker Euphemia, in whose time a large number of undated charters relative to small gifts or grants was made. She died on 26 April, 1257. Her bene- factions to the abbey and her kindly rule are gratefully acknowledged by the compiler of the chartulary at considerable length. The following is a free English rendering of this important and interesting entry : — On the 6th of the Kalends of May, in the year of grace, 1257, died the blessed mother abbess 10 Egerton MS. 2104. The account of the founding is on f. 43. 1 Ibid. ff. 15, 1 6. 2 Freeman's Norman Conquest, ii. note H. 13 y.C.H. Hants, i. 475. 132 RELIGIOUS HOUSES Euphemia, most worthy to be remembered, who, by our affection and good fellowship, and with divine sanction, succeeded the late abbess Maud of sweet memory. It is, therefore, most fitting that we should always perpetuate the memory, in our special prayers and suffrages, of one who ever worked for the glory of God, and for the weal of both our souls and bodies. For she increased the number of the Lord's handmaids in this monastery from forty to eighty, to the exaltation of the wor- ship of God. To her sisters, both in health and sickness, she administered the necessaries of life with piety, prudence, care, and honesty. She also increased the sum allowed for garments by \id. each. The example of her holy conversation and charity, in conjunction with her pious exhortations and regular discipline, caused each one to know how, in the words of the Apostle, to possess her vessel in sanctification and honour. She also, with maternal piety and careful forethought, built, for the use of both sick and sound, a new and large farmery away from the main buildings, and in conjunction with it a dorter and other necessary offices. Beneath the farmery she constructed a watercourse, through which a stream flowed with sufficient force to carry off all refuse that might corrupt the air. Moreover she built there a place set apart for the refreshment of the soul, namely a chapel of the Blessed Virgin, which was erected outside the cloister behind the farmery. With the chapel she enclosed a large space, which was adorned on the north side with pleasant vines and trees. On the other side, by the river bank, she built pffices for various uses, a space being left in the centre where the nuns are able from time to time to enjoy the pure air. In these and in other numberless ways, the blessed mother Euphemia provided for the worship of God and the welfare of the sisters. But notwithstanding all this, she also so conducted herself with regard to exterior affairs, that she seemed to have the spirit of a man rather than a woman. The court of the abbey manor, owing to the useless mass of squalid outbuildings, and the propinquity of the kitchen to the granary and old hall, was in much danger of fire ; whilst the con- fined area and the amount of animal refuse was a cause of offence to both the feet and nostrils of those who had occasion to pass through. The mother Euphemia, realizing that the Lord had called her to the rule of the abbey of Wherwell, not that she might live there at ease, but that she might, with due care and despatch, uproot and destroy and dissipate all that was noxious, and establish and erect that which would be useful, demolished the whole of these buildings, levelled the court, and erected a new hall of suitable size and height. She also built a new mill, some dis- tance from the hall, and constructed it with great care in order that more work than formerly might be done therein for the service of the house. She surrounded the court with a wall and the necessary buildings, and round it she made gardens and vineyards and shrubberies in places that were for- merly useless and barren, and which now became both serviceable and pleasant. The manor house of Middleton, which occupied a dry situation and was close to a public thoroughfare, and was further disfigured by old and crumbling buildings, she moved to another site, where she erected perma- nent buildings, new and strong, on the bank of the river, together with farmhouses. She also set to work in the same way at Tufton, in order that the buildings of both the manor houses in that neighbourhood might be of greater service and safer against the danger of fire. These and other innumerable works, our good superior Euphemia performed for the advantage of the house, but she was none the less zealous in works of charity, gladly and freely exercising hospitality, so that she and her daughters might find favour with One Whom Lot and Abraham and others have pleased by the grace of hospitality. Moreover, because she greatly loved to honour duly the House of God and the place where His glory dwells, she adorned the church with crosses, reliquaries, precious stones, vestments, and books. And because the bell tower above the dorter fell down through decay one night, about the hour of mattins, when by an obvious miracle from heaven, though the nuns were at that moment in the dorter, some in bed and some in prayer before their beds, all escaped not only death but even any bodily injury, she caused another bell tower of worked stone to be erected, conformable to the fair appearance of the church and the rest of the buildings, of command- ing height, and of exquisite workmanship. But as she advanced in years, towards the end of her life, there was imminent danger of the complete collapse of the presbytery of the church ; by the advice of skilled builders, she caused the presbytery to be taken down to the last stones of the foundations ; and because the ground was found to be under- mined and unsafe, she caused the damp soil to be dug out to a depth of twelve feet till firm and dry ground was found, when, having invoked the grace of the Holy Spirit, with prayers and tears she laid with her own hands the first stone of the founda- tions. Moreover she rejoiced to have found favour with God, so that before her last days were ended she saw this work that she had begun brought to its desired end. Thus she, who had devoted her- self when amongst us to the service of His house and the habitation of His glory, found the due reward for her merits with our Lord Jesus Christ, through the prayers and merits of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the blessed apostles Sts. Peter and Paul, in whose honour, at the instigation of the abbess Euphemia, this church was dedicated, who with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever liveth and reigneth God through all the ages of eternity. Amen. The taxation of 1291 valued the tempor- alities of the Abbey of Wherwell at the very considerable sum of £201 181. ^\d. ; and, in addition to this, the abbess received pensions of j£i IOJ. from the church of Wallop and jTi 6s. 8d. from the church of Berton. On 12 August, 1291, Pope Nicholas IV. granted a relaxation of one year and forty 133 A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE days of enjoined penance to penitents who visited the church of the Abbess and Convent of Wherwell, on the four feasts of the Blessed Virgin, and on that of the Holy Cross and its octave.1 Bishop Pontoise visited this house in 1301, and ordered that silence should be better ob- served, and that there should be more dili- gence in the care of temporal matters ; he also rebuked two of the religious for being quarrelsome.* In 1308 Bishop Woodlock visited Wherwell, but the visitation did not result in any injunctions.3 In August, 1315, Abbess Isabel, staying in perpetual seclusion in her house like other abbesses and nuns of that order, according to a new constitution, nominated Robert de Cormailles and John de Swyltenham her attorneys for one year.* Bishop Sandale, in March, 1317, directed the Archdeacon of Surrey to make inquiries respecting a poor clerk, John de Apola, in the town of Guildford and the district, whence he is said to have come, whether he was free- born and legitimate, and of good life and honest conversation, and whether there is any papal or canonical obstacle to his holding a benefice. The result was to be made known to the Abbess and Convent of Wherwell, whence it would seem probable that John was a chaplain of that house, and about to be presented to one of their benefices.5 The right of the Crown at each election of an abbess to nominate a clerk to receive a pension from the monastery until he should be provided with a suitable benefice was exercised from time to time.8 On 14 August, 1319, the Abbess and Con- vent of Wherwell were cited by the bishop to a visitation that he proposed to hold at their house on the day after the feast of the nativity of the Blessed Virgin. As this visi- tation did not lead to any injunctions, it is fair to assume that the result was omnia bene. In June, 1321, Bishop Asserio wrote letters to the convent requesting that Isabel, the daughter of Richard de Button, might be ad- mitted as a nun.7 In December, 1324, the bishop appointed John Berman to hear the nuns' confessions.8 1 Cat. of Papal Letters, i. 540 ; Egerton MSS. 2104, f. 33b. a Winton. Epis. Reg., Pontoise, f. 32. 3 Ibid. Woodlock, f. 1 59. * Pat. 33 Edw. I. m. 14. 5 Winton Epis. Reg., Sandale, f. 9. 8 Close, 7 Edw. III. pt. 2, m. $d. and Letters and Papers Hen. fill. ii. 4031. 7 Winton. Epis. Reg., Asserio, f. 2b. • Ibid. f. I2b. At the beginning of the year 1330 Abbess Isabel Wyntreshull was probably seriously ill, for on 1 1 January the convent obtained letters patent granting that whenever her place be- came void through death or otherwise, the prioress and convent should have the custody and full and free administration of the tempo- ralities.9 This grant was confirmed two years later.10 In March, 1331, the bishop interfered, and appointed a nun to preside over the convent in consequence of Isabel's impotence.11 There is evidence at this time of the wide- spread possessions of this convent (confined entirely to Hampshire at the Domesday Sur- vey), for mandates for the restitution of the temporalities of Wherwell in 1333, to Abbess Maud, were sent to the escheators of the counties of Bedford, Berks, Bucks, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Hants, Oxford, Somerset and Wilts.13 In 1334 an indulgence was obtained for the altar constructed in the conventual church of Wherwell in honour of our Lord's resurrec- tion.13 On 23 May, 1337, the house was visited by Bishop Orlton.14 In the time of the Abbess Maud (1333-40) an inventory of the ' jewels ' in the custody of the sacrist was drawn up. It comprised a cup of silver gilt within and without, the gift of Abbess Maud, with thirteen gold rings affixed above, and precious stones affixed to the foot, pro Corpore Christi ; a cup of silver not gilt, the gift of Abbess Ellen de Percy ; a gilt cup for a ciborium ; another gilt cup in the shape of a tower for a ciborium ; another cup well gilt within and without for a ciborium ; a silver pyx pro Corpore Christi ; a cup (ciphus) of silver, with a foot on which was depicted St. Thomas of Canterbury ; a gilt cup which bore the figure of St. Thomas of Canterbury ; a lesser chalice gilt within and without ; three small broken chalices ; two small chalices for the high altar ; a small chalice for the altar of St. Cross ; a chalice for the altar of St. Catherine ; a chalice for the altar of St. Mary Magdalene (the sum of the chalices pertaining to the church of Wher- well was eleven) ; two great crosses ; two silver basins for the high altar ; four silver cruets for wine and water for the altars ; two silver cruets for daily use at the high altar ; two silver candlesticks ; a good censer of silver, 9 Pat. 3 Edw. III. pt. 2, m. 5. 10 Ibid. pt. I, m. 34. 11 Winton. Epis. Reg., Stratford, f. 66. 12 Pat. 7 Edw. III. pt. 2, m. 5. 18 Winton. Epis. Reg., Orlton, i. f. 5. 14 Ibid. f. 54b. 134 RELIGIOUS HOUSES and two worse ones of silver ; two ships for incense, with two small spoons ; a small silver crown, with eleven gold rings fixed in it, for the high altar ; another better crown of silver, with nineteen gold rings ; and two silver basins for the high altar.1 Wykeham was consecrated bishop on 10 October, 1367, and on the I7th received the temporalities from the king. He did not lose much time in making good his right to nomi- nate a novice for the Wherwell nunnery, for on 14 October he ordered the abbess and con- vent to receive Joan Krompe, a lady of good and honourable condition.8 In the following year the bishop sent letters to the Abbess of Wherwell straitly enjoining her, for the avoid- ance of scandalous gossip, never to allow friars nor any other religious or secular men to stay the nightinthe convent, and threatening canon- ical penalties if this order was neglected.3 On 3 March, 1377, Bishop Wykeham appointed Walter Chapellayne, a Franciscan of Winchester, to confess the nuns until the quindene of Easter.4 This interim appoint- ment was continued for between fifteen and sixteen years, when Walter Chapellayne's confessor's licence was revoked, and the abbess and convent were admonished, on i August, 1393, to accept Ralph Basyng, a monk of Winchester Cathedral, as their con- fessor.6 On 30 July, 1378, an inspection and con- firmation was granted to the abbess and nuns of Wherwell, on a fee of one mark, of an unauthentic charter of King Alfred, purport- ing to grant the nuns the wood of Wherwell Harewood.6 And again in December, 1384, letters patent were granted to the abbess, to the effect that during the king's life she should have chattels of fugitives. The abbey held Mestowe Hundred, and among other liberties the chattels of fugitives. In the late king's reign Henry Harold of Wherwell killed his wife Isabel and fled to the church of Wherwell. The abbess asserted her right, and his chattels were seized, to the value of £35 4;. 8d., by Gilbert Josep, her reeve. The question was tried by the judges of the 1 The sacrist of the church of Wherwell had various important duties, and there were special rents, realizing a total of jzs. lod., attached to the office. The chartulary contains no fewer than thirty-two charters relating to the office of the sacrist (ff. 2002-1 ib). * Winton. Epis. Reg., Wykeham, iii. 1 1 b. 3 Ibid. f. 253. * Ibid. f. 1 5ob. 6 Ibid. f. 26 1 b, 262. 6 Pat. 2 Ric. II. pt. i, m. 38. Bench in the late reign, but though judgment had been found for the abbess to the effect that the king had no right to such chattels save in the time of voidance of the abbey, the decision was not formally delivered by reason of a difference of opinion among the justices. The signet letter of Richard II. also provided that the abbess should not be molested for the sum seized in the case of the fugitive Harold.7 On 1 6 June, 1393, excommunication was denounced against certain persons unknown who abducted Katherine Faukener, a nun of Wherwell.8 A different colour is how- ever given to this ' abduction ' by an entry in the episcopal register seven years later, namely on 12 April, 1400, when the Ab- bess of Wherwell was enjoined to receive Katherine Faukener, who had run away, the bishop urging that the Church ought never to shut its bosom to any one returning, in the firm hope of a fruitful penitence.9 On 31 March, 1501, the priory was visited by Dr. Hede, acting as commissary for the Prior of Canterbury, during the vacancy of the see. Maud Rowse, the abbess, testified to the regular attendance at the night and day hours ; that the yearly rents had risen to 40 marks ; that the house was not in debt nor any of its valuables pledged ; that a balance sheet was presented in chapter every Michaelmas ; that the com- mon seal was kept in the treasury within two chests having six keys, of which two pertaining to the outer chest and one to the inner were in her custody, one of the outer and another of the inner chests in the custody of the prioress, and the other of the inner chest in the custody of the sacrist ; and that there was sufficient store of grain and other things for the current year. Maud Byrte, prioress, stated that silence was duly observed at the customary times and places. Katherine Polton, sacrist, and Christine Hopkyn, precentor, and eighteen other members of the convent, in- cluding six novices, also gave evidence that omnia bene.10 The Abbess Maud died on 24 January, 1518; the convent obtained the congl d'ttirc on 3 February. In a letter of Bishop Fox to Wolsey, dated 15 February, he thanks the Cardinal for expediting the king's letters for a free election of a new Abbess of Wherwell. As the sisters had made a choice pleasant to God and true to the king, he begged his "> Ibid. 8 Ric. II. pt. I, m. 5. 8 Winton. Epis. Reg., Wykeham, iii. f. 258. 9 Ibid. iv. f. Jigb. 10 Side Facante Register, Canterbury. 135 A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE favour for the bearer to obtain the royal assent. The sister who carried the letter was Avelene Cowdrey, the subprioress, selected by her fellow nuns as their abbess. The king gave his assent on 26 February, the bishop confirmed the election on 3 March, and on 1 3 March the temporalities were re- stored.1 In October, 1533, one John Cooke, a con- fidential servant of the Crown, was commended to the Abbess of Wherwell for a ' farm ' both by the king and Cromwell, but the abbess declined.8 It was probably owing to this among other causes that Sir William Poulet and Thomas Legh were instructed in the following April to move my lady of Wher- well to resign her office on an honest and competent pension, with liberty to stay in her own house, or in any other place of re- ligion she liked.3 In the first instance she plainly answered that she would in no case resign until she had spoken with the king him- self. Disgraceful charges were now made against the abbess in connection with the Bishop of London, and she was summoned to London and appeared several times before the Council. A commission was appointed in June, 1534, to examine into the charges.4 There is no formal record of the result, but it may be safely taken for granted that the scandal was rebutted. In September, 1535, those birds of ill-omen, Thomas Legh and John Ap-Rice, visited Wherwell monastery at Cromwell's command, and on the promise of the large pension of £20 per annum in- duced the prioress to resign.5 The election of Abbess Kingsmill on 25 September seems to have been arranged, as it was expected that she would be a ready tool in the hands of Cromwell for ' resigna- tion ' purposes. The low scheming to get hold of the plums of the falling abbeys receives apt illustration in the case of Wherwell. Abbess Kingsmill wrote in January, 1538, to Wriothesley, beg- ging him to labour for the advowson of the prebend of Middleton for Dr. Legh. Now that it was void, Mr. Cooke pretended to a title to it, but the abbess hoped that Dr. Legh might enjoy their gift, for his learning and excellent qualities may profit her and her monastery, and not such as may buy it of Mr. Cooke, who, as she understands, has sold it to two or three already.6 On 1 5 June of the same year, Mr. John Kingsmill, brother 1 Letters and Papers, Hen. Vlll. ii. 3920, 3952, 3970, 4006. * Ibid. vi. 1361. 8 Ibid. vii. 527-9. 4 Ibid. vii. 907. 6 Ibid. ix. 344, 439. * Ibid. xiii. 8. of the abbess, wrote to Wriothesley, begging for the prebend of Bath pertaining to the house of Wherwell, just vacant by the death of the prebendary, who was vicar of Wherwell. The next nomination was in Cromwell's hands, and if his lordship and Wriothesley esteemed it too small for them, he would like it for a friend of his sister the abbess or for himself.7 It was originally intended that the house should be granted to John Kingsmill, brother of the abbess, but on the eve of its surrender, Thomas West, Lord de la Warre, made such strong representations to Cromwell, because the nunnery stood so wholesomely in the country where he was born, and that his wife had no house to dwell in if he should die before her, that the site and estates of the house were eventually granted him.8 Wher- well was surrendered on 21 November, 1539, when the complaisant abbess received the large annual pension of £40, the prioress £6, and twenty-three other nuns pensions varying from £S to £2 13^. 4d. At the time of the surrender ' The Houses and Buyldings assigned to remayne ' were 'the late abbess lodging with the houses within the quadrante, as the water leadith from the easte side of the cloister to the gate, the farmery, the mylle and milhouse, with the slaughter house adjoynynge, the bruingand baking houses, with the granaries to the same, the barne and sta- bulles in the utter courte. Possession thereof delyvered to the Lord La Ware by force of Mr. Chancellor's letters.' The parts ' demed to be superfluous ' were ' the church, quayer and steple covered with leade, the cloister covered with tyles and certain gutters of leade, the chapitre house, frayter, dormytory, convent kitchyn, and all th'olde lodgings betwene the granarie and the halle dore, covered with tyles.' The commissioners re- served ' to th' use of the king's magestie ' 512^ ounces of silver plate. The ornaments, goods and cattle of the monastery, reserved for a like use, realized ^75 18*. There were five bells in the steeple. In addition to the pensions, three of the late religious of the monastery received by way of ' reward ' or temporary forestalment of pension 401. each, and four 2Os. each. The sum of £2 5 3*. was also divided amongst forty-eight persons who had been chaplains, officials, or servants of the late monastery. At the dissolution the lands returned as belonging to this abbey are the manors of 7 Ibid. xiii. 1190. 8 Ibid. xiv. 425, 1427, 544, 547-9 ; Pat. R. 31 Hen. VIII. pt. 4. m. 4. RELIGIOUS HOUSES Wherwell, Weston, Middleton, ' Totington,' Bullington, Good alias Goodworth, Clatford, Little Anne with all the prebend of Good alias Goodworth, ' Aisshesey ' in the Isle of Wight, East Compton with the portion of the tithes in ' Fowleston,' Bathwick, Woolley, ' Mattockesford ' in the parish of Botley, and lands, rents, etc., in Tetbury, ' Wringmershe,' Upton, ' Hethefylde ' and * Bromeley,' Apple- shaw, Wyke, Hursley, Estaston in the parish of Middleton, Winchester and Southampton. Also lands, rents, tithes, etc. in ' Hanydon ' and ' Mildeston ' in Wiltshire ; in Newbury and Inkpen in Berkshire ; in ' Ertingdon,' Guildford and St. Nicholas next Guildford in Surrey. The patronage of churches named by the commissioners includes the prebends of Wher- well and Milton and the vicarage of Goodworth in Hampshire, the vicarage of Compton in Berkshire, the parsonages of Collingborne and Everley in Wiltshire, and the prebend of Bathwick in Somerset.1 ABBESSES OF WHERWELL Heanfled Maud, 1186-1226 Euphemia, 1226-57 Mary,4 1259 Constance,6 1261-2 M. de Ticheburne,6 1262. Mabel, 1270-81 Ellen de Percy,7 1282-98 Isabel de Wyntreshall,8 1298-1333 Maud de Littleton,9 1333-40 Amice Ladde,10 1340-61 (?) Constance de Wyntereshall, u 1361 Joan Cotterell,12 1361-75 Cecily de Lavyngtone,13 1375-1412 Alice Parys,u 1412 Sibyl Boolde, died in 1451 Alice Serle,15 1451-2 Julian Overy, 1452-94 Maud Rowse,16 1494-1518 Avelene Cowdrey,17 1518-29 Anne Colte,18 1529-35 Morphita Kingsmill,19 1535-39 HOUSES OF CISTERCIAN MONKS 6. THE ABBEY OF QUARR The Cistercian abbey of Quarr, dedicated to the honour of the Blessed Virgin, situate on the northern shore of the Isle of Wight, in the parish of Binstead, was one of the earliest foundations of that order in the kingdom. It was founded by Baldwin, the second de Redvers, Lord of the Wight, in 1131. By a charter of that date he granted to Geoffrey, abbot of his Norman monastery of Savigny, land on which to build the monastery, the manor of Arreton, the land of Sheat (Sieca), 'Boccumba,' the mill of Christchurch and the mill of ' Boleherst.' * This grant was con- firmed by William de Vernon, Earl of Devon, the son of the founder, about 1195, together with various subsequent grants of lands and salt pits, and of the chapel of St. Nicholas in Carisbrooke castle ; the grantor also gave liberty to the monks of Quarr to buy and sell free of toll in all his lands.3 Henry, Duke of Normandy, before he came 1 Aug. Off. Misc. Books, ccccxciv. 1 7-2 1 . 2 Worsley's Hist, of Isle of Wight (1781), app. li. Although there is no extant chartulary of this abbey, the number of charters cited in the Monas- ticon and in Madox's Formulart are considerable. There are also about a hundred original charters among the calendared 'Ancient Deeds' of the P.R.O. 8 Ancient Deeds, P.R.O., D. 942. II 137 to the throne, gave to the monks of Quarr land in ' Locwella ' ad faciendum ibidem capitalem abbatiam^ from which it is evident that the island abbey was considered capable, within twenty years of its foundation, of dispatching a colony to found another mon- astery.80 About 1150 a composition was 4 Egerton MS. 2104, f. 35. 5 Ibid. f. 45b. 6 Royal Letters, 2437. 7 Pat. 10 Edw. I. m. 18. 8 Ibid. 27 Edw. I. m. 27. The Wherwell Chartulary contains copies of the letter of Prioress Benedicta to the bishop, asking him to confirm the election of Isabel (Jan. 25), and of the bishop's letter of consent dated February 2 (Egerton'sMSS. 2104, ff. 119, ligb, l84b. 9 Winton. Epis. Reg., Stratford, f. 139; Pat. 7 Edw. III. pt. 2, m. n. 10 Ibid. Orlton, f. 87 ; Pat. 14 Edw. III. pt. I, m. 23. 11 Ibid. Edingdon, f. I lib. 12 Tanner's Notifia, xlii. 13 Winton. Epis. Reg., Wykeham, i. ff. 66, 67. Reference has already been made to this election in the Ecclesiastical History section. 14 Ibid. Beaufort, f. 48b; Rymer's F&dera, viii. 764-5. 15 Ibid. Waynflete, i. ff. 40, 50. 16 Tanner's Notitia. 17 Letters and Papers, Henry fill. ii. 3920, 3952, 3970, 4006. 18 Ibid. iv. 5799, 5838. 19 Pat. 27 Hen. VIII. pt. i. m. 44. 20 Dugdale's Monasticon, v. 317. 18 A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE entered into between Hillary, abbot of Lire, and Gervase, abbot of Quarr, by which the former conceded to the latter, in return for a yearly pension of 40*., the tithes and profits of the manors of Arreton, Haseley, Luccombe, Titchingham and Shalcombe. This arrangement was renewed in 1239 with a further sum of los. a year for the support of the church of Carisbrooke.1 In 1238 Gregory IX. issued a bull allow- ing the community to choose a confessor from their own body. Edward I. in 1284 granted the abbey free warren over all their manors in the Isle of Wight.* At the time of the taxation of 1291, the annual value of the temporalities of the abbey in Winchester, including four mills and the profits of tanneries in the island, amounted to £96 y. q.d. The abbot had also temporali- ties at Forwood, in Exeter diocese, of the annual value of £13 6s. 8d. The Crown imposed a life pensioner on the community on 13 April, 1330, when Benedict de Glannvyll, who had long served the king and his father, was sent to the abbey to receive such maintenance for life as John le Hunte had had in that house in his lifetime, by the late king's request.3 On 9 March, 1339, William Trussel, admiral of the fleet from the mouth of the Thames towards the west, received orders from the king to supersede the exaction made on the abbot of Quarr for finding a ship pre- pared for war with sixty men, mariners and others, well armed and supplied with neces- saries, to set out with other ships under royal command. The abbot had successfully be- sought the king to be released from this obligation, inasmuch as he was already main- taining ten men-at-arms and no small number of archers in the Isle of Wight for its defence at a great expense, and was quite unable to support any further charge.4 We find by the feudal aid of 1346 that the abbot held half a knight's fee in perpetual alms in Sheat in Gatcombe.5 In 1366 Edward III. granted the abbey licence to crenelate as a safeguard against foreign invasion, and about the same time 1 For these and other early particulars see Worsley's Hist, of Isle of Wight, app. l.-lxxviii., and Stone's Arch. Anfiq. of Isle of Wight, pt. i. p. 1 1 o, note § * Charter Roll, 12 Edw. I. No. 41. 3 Close, 4 Edw. III. m. 36d. 4 Ibid. 13 Edw. III. p. I. m. 35. 8 feudal Aids, ii. 339. 138 letters patent were issued that all wine ships belonging to the community should come and go free of duty.6 The abbots of Quarr held a distinguished position in the Isle of Wight. When a com- mission of array was issued in April, 1380, on information of an intended invasion by France and Spain, the abbot of Quarr headed the list of eight gentlemen nominated by the Crown, preceding even Sir Thomas de Beauchamp, the governor of Carisbrooke castle.7 John Cheselburgh, abbot of Quarr, occupied a like honourable position, in royal commissions of 1461 and 1462, to summon the king's subjects of the island and of the counties of Hampshire, Surrey and Sussex to defend the Isle of Wight against the French.8 The Valor of 1535 gives the clear annual value of the house as £134 3*. i id. In December, 1535, Abbot Ripon wrote to Cromwell about farms that the lord privy seal and his nephew Richard had desired to obtain. The abbot protested that the farms in question were the demesnes of the monas- tery by which hospitality and the household were maintained, and that without them the abbot could not continue the house. Besides the demesne, the monastery could not spend yearly above £120, and fifty persons had to be kept, besides such as resorted thither from the country. He trusted therefore that Cromwell's servant would be contented with the reversion of any farms he might have to let, and to secure his favour he would give the fine to him and his nephew.9 The last abbot's anxiety as to his farms was not how- ever of long duration, for being under £200 of annual value the monastery was dissolved in 1536. Special efforts were made in the locality to secure the king's good will for this monastery and for Netley on the other side of the water, but all in vain. The particularly good report of the county commissioners, Sir James Worsley and John and George Poulet and William Berners, presented on 30 May, 1536, was treated as so much waste paper. They reported that the abbey of Quarr was : ' A hedde house of Monkes of the ordre of Cisteaux beinge of large buyldinge scituate upon the ryvage of the sees by raporte greate 6 Pat. 39 Edw. III. pt. 2, m. 23 ; 40 Edw. III. pt. i, m. 15. 7 Ibid. 3 Rich. II. pt. 3, m. zid. 8 Ibid, i Edw. IV. pt. i. m. 3d ; 2 Edw. IV. pt. i, m. i yd (Cal.). 9 Letters and Papers, Hen. VII I. ix. 925. RELIGIOUS HOUSES refuge and comforte to all th'inhabitantes of the same yle and to strangers traveillinge the seid sees'; £156 lOs. id.; 10 monks, all priests, of good religious conversation, eight of whom desire to continue in religion, and two to have capacities ; 39 other inmates, viz. 10 waiting servants, 7 servants in the church, 8 officers in the household, 10 hinds, 2 lavenders,1 6 dairymen, and one 'corodur' ; church, mansion and building in convenient repair, lead and bells worth £19 ; plate and jewels, £481 4*. 3^. ; ornaments, £17 i Os . 8