LIBRARY UNIVBRSITY Of CAUFORNIA SAN oiceo 0?/ SO. Zbc IDictotia 1bi8tov\> of tbe Counties of Englanb EDITED BY WILLIAM PAGE, F.S.A. A HISTORY OF DORSET VOLUME II THE VICTORIA HISTORY OF THE COUNTIES OF ENGLAND DORSET LONDON ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LIMITED This History is issued to Subscribers only By Archibald Constable & Company Limited and printed by Eyre & Spottisivoode H.M. Printers of London INSCRIBED TO THE MEMORY OF HER LATE MAJESTY QUEEN VICTORIA WHO GRACIOUSLY GAVE THE TITLE TO AND ACCEPTED THE DEDICATION OF THIS HISTORY » I THE VICTORIA HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF DORSET EDITED BY WILLIAM PAGE, F.S.A. VOLUME TWO LONDON ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LIMITED 1908 CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO Dedication ..... Contents ..... List of Illustrations and Maps . Editorial Note .... Ecclesiastical History Religious Houses : — Introduction .... Abbey of Abbotsbury Abbey of Cerne Abbey of Milton Abbey of Sherborne . Priory of Cranborne . Priory of Horton Abbey of Shaftesbury Priory of Holne or East Holme . Abbey of Blndon Abbey of Tarrant Kaines . Preceptor)- of Friar Mayne Dominican Friars of Gillinghain . Dominican Friars of Melcombe Regis Franciscan Friars of Dorchester . Carmelite Friars of Bridport Carmelite Friars of Lyme . Austin Friars of Sherborne . ' Priory Hermitage ' of Blackmoor Wilcheswood .... Hospital of St. Mary Magdalen Allington .... Hospital of Long Blandford Hospital of St. Mary and the Holy Spirit, Lyme Hospital of St. John the Baptist, Bridport Hospital of St. John the Baptist, Dorchester .... Hospital or Lazar-House, Dorchester Hospital of St, John the Baptist Shaftesbury . . , Hospital of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist, Sherborne Hospital of St. Thomas, Sherborne Hospital of St Leonard, Tarranl Rushton .... Hospital of St. Margaret and St Anthony, VVimborne Hospital of Wareham Wimborne Minster . Priory of Frampton . By Miss M M. C. Calthrop Bv A. G. Little, M.A By Miss M M. C. Calthrop PAGE V ix xi xiii I 47 48 53 58 62 70 7' 73 80 82 87 90 92 92 93 95 96 96 96 98 98 100 100 100 lOI 103 103 104 105 105 106 107 107 113 CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO Religious Houses {continued) — Priory of Loders Priory of Povington . Priory of Spettisburv Priory of Wareham . Political History Maritime History Social and Economic History Table of Population, 1S01-1901 Agriculture Forestry .... Sport, Ancient and Modern Introduction Hunting . Foxhounds . Blackmore \'ale Hounds The Cattistock . The South Dorset Lord Portman's Houn Point-to-Point Races Stag-Hunting The Ranston Bloodhound Roe-Deer Hunting Harriers and Beagles Otter-Hunting Racing Racing Celebrities Training Establishments and Farms Polo Shooting Falconry Angling Golf Industries : — Introduction Quarrying The Hemp Industry Fisheries . Cloth . Silk Pottery and Tiles Brewing . Cider Stud By Miss M. M. C. Calthrop . By Mrs. Edward Fripp, Oxford Honours Schoo of Modern History .... By M. Oppenheim ..... By Miss Madeleine C. Fripp and Miss Phylli Wrahce, Oxford Honours School of Modern History ...... By George S. Minchin .... By A. J. Buckle By the Rev. J. C. Cox, LL.D., F.S.A Edited by the Rev. E. E. Dorlino, M.A. By the Rev. Pierce A. Butler (' Purbeck Pilgrim ') PAGI 116 118 119 121 123 '75 229 264 27s 287 299 300 joo 308 310 312 313 313 3'3 31 + 315 3'5 316 317 317 ., . ,. . 318 •, „ .318 By Capt. Eustace R^uclvfff, J. P. , . . ^19 By the Rev. Pierce A. Butler ('Purbeck Pilgrim ') 320 By the Rev. E. E. Dorlino, M.A. . . . 322 By Miss M. M. Crick, B.A. (Dublin), Oxford Honours School of Modern History By C. H. \'ellacott, B.A. .... By Miss M. M. Crick, B.A. (Dublin), Oxford Honours School of Modern History By Miss M. M. Crick, B.A (Dublin), Oxford Honours Schoul of Modern History, andC. H. V'ellacott, B.A. ...... 325 331 34+ 353 360 362 363 366 369 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS PACE Dorchester. By William Hyde .......... Frontispiece Etclesiastic.ll Map of Dorset .......... ficing 45 Dorset Monastic Ssals : — Plate I . . . . . . . . . . full-page plate facing 62 Plate II „ „ „ 102 Map of Dorset shewing excess of Hamlets over Villages . ..... Jacing 126 Plan of Portland Harbour shewing New Breakwater .... full-page plate facing 226 EDITORIAL NOTE The Editor wishes to express his acknowledgements to Mr. J. Merrick Head and Sir J. Charles Robinson, C.B f.S.A., for notes and assistance on the section on Mining in the article on the Industries of the county, and to the Hon. Thomas A. Brassey for an illustration to the article on Maritime History. XIII A HISTORY OF DORSET ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY SAVE for the discovery of that early Christian emblem, the chirho, in a Roman pavement excavated at Frampton ^ there is no evidence to connect Dorset w^ith the early Roman-British church, or any proof that Christianity existed here before the later Roman mission.'' Nor can the ecclesiastical history of this county be said to commence in the seventh century with the conversion of the West Saxons at the preaching of Birinus their apostle and first bishop, who, on his landing in 635, found the inhabitants of the district ' most pagan ' {pagannissimos) according to Bede.^ Dorset, it should be remembered, formed no integral part of the West Saxon kingdom in which it afterwards became absorbed and no men- tion of it occurs under the earlier Wessex bishops whose seat was established at Dorchester (Oxford). While discarding an ancient record which names Cenwalch of Wessex, who died in 672, as one of the ' kings, founders of the church of Sherborne,' * an early foundation at Wareham may indicate previous fugitive attempts to draw Dorset into the channel of church organiza- tion in Wessex as it then existed by establishing a mission centre to its south-east, but it was not until the military subjugation of the county had been completed that it was swept into the main stream of national ecclesiasti- cal life by the establishment of a bishop-stool at Sherborne in 705 on the death of Bishop Haeddi and the division of the West Saxon diocese.' What the precise limits of the new see were is not easy exactly to define. The two sees formed out of the old Wessex diocese are described roughly as ' east and west of Selwood,' the large forest of that name which stretched between them constituting a convenient border line. The Anglo- Saxon Chronicle^ recording the death of Bishop Aldhelm in 709, says, ' this year died bishop Aldhelm : he was bishop of the west of Selwood.' * Henry of Huntingdon again states : ' Ine in the twentieth year of his reign divided the bishopric of Wessex which used to be one into two sees : that portion east of the woods Daniel held, that which was west of the woods was held by Aldhelm.' ^ According to William of Malmesbury the see ' west of Selwood,' the bishop-stool of which was fixed at Sherborne, included the counties ' Anh. Jout-n. xxviii (1872), 217-21. ' Mr. Moule, in his description of Old Dorset (pp. 50-51), comments on the absence of reference to this county in the Monumenta Historica Britannka, which focusses all classic authoritie? of the period. In refer- ence to the ancient British church in Wessex, the fact that St. Chad, afterwards bishop of Lichfield, was consecrated to the see of York by Wine, bishop of Wessex, assisted by two British bishops, seems to show that in that district the bishops who owed their ordination directly to Rome after the Roman Kentish mission were in communion with those of the earlier British school. Dioc. Hist, of Salisbury (S.P.C.K.), p. z8. ' Eal. Hist. lib. iii, cap. vii. * Cott. MS. Faust. A. ii, fol. 23. ' Wm. of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 375. The division of the Wessex dioceses into two sees, one e t.iblished at Sherborne and the other at Winchester, is usually attributed to King Ine, but has also been ascribed to synodal authority. Wharton, Jtiglia Sacra, ii, 20. ^ Anglo-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 38. ' Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), i, no. A HISTORY OF DORSET of Wilts., Dorset, Berks., Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall ; ' and we may per- haps conclude that the new diocese consisted at least of the whole of Dorset and Somerset, with a large part of Wiltshire, and probably included Devon and Cornwall. If there had been delay and difficulty in bringing this county into line with the rest of Wessex, Dorset certainly sprang, ecclesiastically as well as politically, into the front rank from the date of the constitution of the see. The saintly Aldhelm, kinsman and partner of King Ine in all schemes for the welfare and advancement of the kingdom, was elected and by Archbishop Berchtwald consecrated first bishop of Sherborne in 705.' As regards his previous connexion with this county, William of Malmesbury recounts how, prior to his departure for Rome to obtain from the pope various privileges for the monasteries he had established, Aldhelm visited his Dorset estate near Wareham and Corfe Castle and built a church two miles from the sea, * wherein he commended to God his going and returning.' According to the chronicler the church was still standing in his day — about the beginning of the twelfth century — and was regarded by the inhabitants of the country with singular veneration on account of the signs and miracles which had taken place there. The shepherds of the district, it was said, when storms broke over them, would fiy for shelter within its walls, where no rain ever fell though the roof had fallen and all attempts to cover it had failed.^" During the four short years of his rule the bishop worthily initiated the work of the church in Dorset. At Sherborne he built, or at least com- menced, his minster or cathedral church," to which was attached a house of secular canons, the ' familia,' or household, at that time always forming part of a bishop's seat. Another important religious foundation, dating not later than the formation of the episcopal see, was the house of religious virgins built by St. Cuthburga, sister of King Ine, at Wimborne, and specially referred to by Aldhelm in a letter, dated 705, giving liberty of election to the monasteries under his charge, as ' the monastery by the river which is called Wimburnia presided over by the abbess Cuthburga.' ^^ During the eighth century the fame of the nuns here and the report of the training and discipline of the abbess-founder and her successors spread even to the Con- tinent, and St. Boniface, the apostle of the Germans, sent over to make request that the sisters Lioba and Agatha might be allowed to proceed abroad to take charge of the monastery he had founded at BiscofFsheim in order that the same rule and discipline might be planted there.^* To enumerate briefly the succession of bishops of Sherborne in the eighth and ninth centuries : Aldhelm, on his death in 709, was followed by Forthere," who in 737 is said to have accompanied Queen Frythogith to Rome,^° and was succeeded by Herewald, consecrated by Archbishop Nothelm in 736,^* in whose time was held the council of Clovesho (747), at which ' Ges/a Pon/if. (Rolls Ser.), 175. ' Flor. Vi^orc. Ciron. (Engl. Hist. Soc), i, 46 ; Wm. of Malmesbury, Gafa Pontlf. (Rolls Ser.), 376. " Ibid. 363-4. " Ibid 378. " Birch, Carl. Sax. i, 168. " Cressy, Church Hist, of Brit. lib. xxi, cap. xviii. " Flor. Wore. Chron. (En^l. Hist. Soc), i. 47 ; Bede, Eccl. Hist. lib. v, cap. yi'iii. " Anglo-Sax. Ckron. (Rolls Ser.), 40. " Sim. of Durham (Twysden), 100. Herewald appears to have acted as suffragan to Forthere before the death of the latter, for in a charter dated 734-7, they both appear as bishop of the church of Sherborne ; Kemble, Codex Dipl. i, 82. 2 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY he assisted." ^thelmod, 766-78 ; Denefrith, consecrated by Archbishop yEthelheard in 793;" Wigberht or Wibert, who went with Archbishop Wulfred to Rome in 8 i 2.^' Ealhstan, a vahant soldier no less than bishop, and esteemed for his military prowess, took an important part in the conflicts of his time, and not only assisted King Egbert in the subjugation of the kingdoms of Kent and Essex, but afforded him and his successor material help as well as active encouragement in their struggle against the Danes.^° William of Malmesbury, who described the bishop as of singular power in secular matters and pre-eminent in counsel, but resented his action in having appropriated the abbey of Malmesbury to the episcopal see, declared that avarice, spite of his liberality in the national cause, was the besetting sin of Ealhstan, adding, however, that he left his church well endowed." Accord- ing to i\\Q Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Ealhstan died in 867, after he had held the bishopric of Sherborne ' fifty winters,' and ' his body lies there in the town.' "^ Bishop Heahmund, who subscribed 868—70, again recalls the fierce conflict going on with the Danes, for he, ' with many good men,' was slain in battle at Merton in 871 ; ''^ his successor, iEthelheah, subscribed 871—8 ; Wulfsige, ^Ifsige, or Alfsius, 883.'* Asser, chiefly remembered as the friend and biographer of King Alfred, signed acts in 900 and 904. He was in all probability made bishop of the western portion of the diocese, which at that time reached to Land's End, in the lifetime of his predecessor and succeeded to the whole on the death of Wulfsige ; this, at any rate, offers a solution of the fact that Asser is described by Alfred as ' my bishop ' at a date previous to 890, while Asser himself states that the king bestowed on him the charge of Exeter with the whole diocese that pertained to it in Saxony (Wessex) and Cornwall,^^ and disposes of the confusion resulting from the two bishops appearing as contemporary occupants of the same see.^° The beginning of the tenth century brings us to what has been described as 'the great ecclesiastical event of the reign of Edward the Elder,' " the second division of the West Saxon see, with the account of the consecration of the seven bishops at Canterbury. 'In the year 904 of our Lord's nativity,' writes William of Malmesbury — Pope Formosus sent letters into England by which he pronounced excommunication and malediction on king Edward and all his subjects, instead of the benediction which had been sent by Pope Gregory from the seat of St. Peter to the English people, because for 7 whole years the whole district of the West Saxons had been destitute of bishops. On hearing this king Edward assembled a council of the senators of the English people, over which Plegmund, archbishop of Canterbury, presided interpreting carefully the words of the apostolic message. Then the king and bishops chose a salutary council for themselves and their people and, according to the word of our Lord ' the harvest truly is plenteous but the " Wilkins, Condi, i, 94. " Wharton, Anglia Sacra, i, 79. " Flor. of V7orc. Chron. (Engl. Hist. Sec), i, 64. " Gesta Regum Angl. (Rolls Ser.), i, 109. King .(Ethelwulf is said to have had two excellent bishops : St. Swithun of Winchester, who directed the king in celestial matters ; and Ealhstan of Sherborne, who advised him in earthly affairs. »' Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 175-6. " Op. cit. 53. " Ibid. 62. The following year King .iEthelred, who received mortal injuries in the same battle, died and was buried at Wimborne (ibid.), his predecessors, .^thelbald and .(Ethelbert, having received burial at Sherborne; ibid. 58-9. " Wm. of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 177. " Petrie, Monumenia Hist. Brit. 4, 9. " Lingard, Anglo-Saxon Church, ii, 433 ; W. H. Jones, Early Annals of the Episcopate in Wilts and Dorset, 20-1. " Stubbs, William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum (Rolls Ser.), Introd. ii, p. liv. 3 A HISTORY OF DORSET labourers are few,' they elected and constituted a bishop to every province of the West Saxons and divided the district which formerly had two bishoprics into five. The council being dismissed, the archbishop went to Rome with many presents and conciliating the Pope with great humility recited the king's ordinance which gave the pontiff great pleasure. And returning home, in one day he consecrated in the city of Canterbury 7 bishops to 7 churches, namely, Frithstan to Winchester, .(Ethelstan to Ramsbury, Waerstan to Sherborne, Athelm to Wells, Eadulf to Crediton, also to other provinces he constituted 2 bishops, Beornege to the South Saxons (Selsey) and to the Mercians Ceolwulf whose see was at Dorchester.^* On critical examination many of the details in the above account are shown to be inaccurate.^' The story of the negotiations of Edward the Elder with Pope Formosus falls to the ground as his pontificate ended four years before the king's reign began, while the immediate successor of Asser, whose death is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under the year 910,'" was not Waerstan but ^Ethelweard, who as bishop of Sherborne attested a charter of King Edward in 909.*^ As to the tradition, dating from the eleventh century, of the consecration of seven bishops at Canterbury in one day, the story is said by its most eminent critic to contain ' no special improbability although it would be unwise to risk a positive identification of the persons consecrated.' ^^ The points to be retained are that the visit of Archbishop Plegmund to Rome in 908 '^ was followed by the division of the diocese of Winchester into two bishoprics,'* one remaining at Winchester as before, the other fixed at Ramsbury, and comprising the two counties of Wiltshire and Berkshire or such portion of them as belonged to the territory of the West Saxons ; and that subsequently the diocese of Sherborne, as it existed prior to 909, was divided into three bishoprics : Sherborne for the county of Dorset, Wells for Somerset, and Crediton for Devonshire.'^ To return to the succession of bishops of Sherborne after the division of the diocese : Waerstan, one of the seven prelates consecrated in one day by Archbishop Plegmund, was killed, according to William of Malmesbury, in 937, on the eve of the battle of Brunanburh ; '° his signature is not found attached to any genuine charter. An interpolation of Florence of Worcester states that ' on the death of Waerstan, iEthelbald succeeded,' " and his name follows in the list of bishops given by William of Malmesbury ; Sighelm, or Sigelm, subscribed 925-932 ;'* Alfred, 933— 943 '^^ ; Wulfsige, said to have been abbot of Westminster,*" signed 943, as Mlsius Dorsetensium Episcopus his death is recorded in the year 958 ; *^ his successor ^Ifwold, designated in the same manner,*^ died in 978 and was buried at Sherborne ; *' ^thelsige, 979—991, was present at the consecration of Winchester Cathedral in 981 ; ** Wulfsige, -'' Gesta Regum (Rolls Ser.), i, 1 40-1. ■' W. H. Jones, Early Annals of the Episcopate in Wilts and Dorset, 22-3. '" Op. cit. 77. '' Kemble, Codex Dipl. v, 1093. According to one account of William of Malmesbury the alms sent by King Alfred to St. Thomas of India and Christians beyond sea were conveyed by Sighelm, bishop of Sherborne, whom elsewhere he makes successor to Asser [Gesta Regum (Rolls Ser.), i, 130 ; Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 177]. But a bishop of the name of Sighelm does not occur until three successors of Asser had passed away, and it is hardly probable that the two should be identical. '' Stubbs, Reg. Sacrum Anglic. 23. '^ Petrie, Monumenta Hist. Brit. 519. " Wm. of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 20 ; W. H. Jones, op. cit. 24-5. " Wm. of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 178. '* Ibid. ■" Chron. (Engl. Hist. Soc.) i, 128, note I ; 133, note 2. '' Stubbs. Reg. Sacrum Anglic. 25. " Ibid. p. 26. " Wm. of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 178. " Flor. Wore. Chron. (Engl. Hist. Soc), 137. *- Ibid, i, 146. " Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 178. " Arch. Journ. (Winchester), 15. 4 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY Wulfsin or Wulfsy, 992—1001, was responsible for the reorganization of Sher- borne, monks being substituted for the secular canons who had occupied the house since its foundation in 705;*^ iEthelric, looi ; *" yEthelsige or ^Ethelsie,*^ 1012— 14 ; Brihtwy or Brihtwin, included in the list of bishops given by William of Malmesbury and Florence of Worcester, but whose name does not appear in any charters of that period ; i^lfmaer, 1017, whose succession is recorded under the year 1022 in the Decern Scriptores*^ ; Brihtwy, 1023, subscribed in 1044 as bishop of Sherborne to a charter of Edward the Con- fessor;*' iElfwold, 1045, to whom the Confessor addressed a charter testi- fying a grant to Ore or Orcus his minister, the founder of Abbotsbury, of the shore of all his lands/" In 1058 by the appointment of Herman 'the king's priest,' who already held the bishopric of Ramsbury, the two sees of Sherborne and Ramsbury which had been separated on the division of the diocese in 909, became again united under one bishop holding jurisdiction over the counties of Berkshire, Wiltshire and Dorset." The bishop's stool re- mained at Sherborne till the year 1075, when, by decree of the council of London ordering the removal of sees from small towns and villages to more populous centres, it was transferred to the city of Old Sarum,^^ and the head of the diocese, which had hitherto pertained to Dorset, passed finally away from the county. Glancing back over the three and a half centuries that elapsed between the foundation of the see at Sherborne and its transference to Old Sarum, the characteristic feature of this period as regards this county will be found in the rise and growth of those religious houses on whose pivot the whole ecclesiastical structure seemed to turn. To it belonged those great Benedictine houses that were at once the glory and the distinctive feature of Dorset. Sherborne, coeval with the bishopric itself ; Shaftesbury, linked in memory with the greatest of Saxon kings, the long line of whose abbesses commences in Alfred's daughter ; ^^ Milton, built by King iEthelstan about the year 953 to commemorate for the soul of the young Prince Edwin, or, as some monkish chroniclers insist, to expiate the crime of a brother's murder ; " Cerne and Abbotsbury, whose traditionary history goes back to the very dawn of Christianity in this island, and the early mission of St. Augustine"; the later dependent cells of Cranborne and Horton, which before the Conquest enjoyed the status of abbeys. The action of the claimant vEthelwold in seizing Wimborne on the accession of his cousin Edward the Elder to the throne in 901, and the declaration that here 'he would either live or lie,'^' illustrates the early importance that the town and church enjoyed as th^ residence and sepulchre of Wessex kings. Few counties of the size of Dorset can show such a list of wealthy and influential houses as are to be found here at the time of the Domesday Survey. " Leknd, Collect, iii, 150 ; Ititi. ii, 51-2. " Kemble, Codex Dlpl. iii, 708. *' Ibid, vi, 1302. *' W. Thome, De rebus Abbat. Cant. (Twysden), 1782. " Codex Dlpl. iv, 771, 774-5. His death is recorded in the Angl.-^ax. Chron. (Rolls Ser. 134) under the year 1043. " Codex Dlpl. iv, 871. " Wm. of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 183. " Ibid. 66-8. ■"' See Alfred's Charter of endowment. Birch, Cart. Sax. ii, 148. " Dugdale, Mon. ii, 348, Cbart. under Milton, No. iii. " Coker, Particular Surv. of Dorset, 30, 66. " Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 75. 5 A HISTORY OF DORSET These early foundations, as in other parts of the country, appear in the first instance to have been occupied by secular canons, or monks following no established rule. Following the monastic reforms of Edgar and Archbishop Dunstan we find in 904 the seculars at Milton replaced by monks under the rule of Abbot Cyneward." In 987 ^Elfric, the author of the famous Homilies, was appointed first abbot of Cerne, the inmates of which were ordered to follow the Benedictine rule." Bishop Wulfsige, or Wulfsy, in 998, as we have seen, substituted monks for the secular canons who had previously formed the community attached to the cathedral church of the diocese at Sherborne.^' The society of secular canons, established at Abbotsbury about 1026 by Ore or Orcus, steward of the household to King Cnut, was afterwards changed into a house of Benedictine monks by the founder, or by his widow after his death.*" On the other hand, Wimborne, originally ' a house of Holy Virgins,' was, on its restoration, converted into a house of secular canons, and continued as a royal free chapel under the govern- ment of a dean down to the Reformation." As regards the state of the church during the long and protracted struggle against the Danes, little can be positively ascertained save as it affected materially the religious foundations of the county. Wareham, one of the oldest monasteries in Dorset, is said to have been destroyed in an assault on the town in 876.** Horton, again, is supposed to have shared the fate of Tavistock, which was destroyed in the raid of 997—8.** A blank succeeds in the history of Wimborne after the reign of Edward the Elder, and the next mention of it records its restoration by Edward the Confessor.** Cnut, we are told, raided the counties of Dorset, Somer- set and Wiltshire in 1015," and plundered the monastery of Cerne of which he afterwards became a benefactor.** Ethelred ' the Unrede ' in the midst of the troubles and turmoils of his reign granted by charter, dated 1 00 1, to the nuns of Shaftesbury the vill and monastery of Bradford (Wilt- shire) that they might there retire as to a place which offered greater security against the attacks of the enemy. *^ It would be impossible to leave the tenth century, with its disconnected record of destruction and reconstruction, with- out referring to the events of 978— 80, which took place within the borders of Dorset and played so important a part in determining the future greatness of the abbey of Shaftesbury : the cruel murder of the young King Edward, if not by the actual hand, at least with the connivance of his stepmother ^Ethel- thryth or Elfrida, the daughter of Ordgar, earl of Devon, the founder of Horton; and the solemn translation of his body by Dunstan and the alderman Alfhere from Wareham to the conventual church of the nunnery which, originally dedicated to the honour of the Blessed Virgin, soon after appears under the popular designation of St. Edward's.** " Leland, Colkcl. ii, 1 86 ; iii, 72. " Cart. Antiq. D. 16. " Leiand, Itin. W, 51-2. '" Tanner, Notitia (ed. 1744), 105 ; Coker, Particular Surv. of Donet, 30. " Leland, Collect, i, 82 ; Itin. iii, 72. " Cressy, Church Hist, of Brit. lib. xxviii, cap. ix. " Matt, of Westminster, Flores Hist. (Rolls Ser.), i, 324. " Or 'King Edward,' supposed to be the Confessor ; Leland, Collect, i, 82 ; Itin. iii, 72. " Jngl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 121. ^ Leland, Collect, i, 66 ; iii, 67. " Had. MS. 61, fol. i. ^ Jngl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 234 ; Wm. of Malmesbury, Gesta Reg. (Rolls Ser.), i, 258 ; Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 202-3. The relics of the murdered Icing, who as early as the year 1001 was referred to as 'the Blessed Martyr' (Harl. MS. 61, fol. l), and whose festival was afterwards kept four times in the year, early attracted crowds of worshippers to his shrine. 6 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY The Domesday Survey of 1086 not only serves to show the ecclesiastical configuration of the county in the eleventh century, but confirms the im- pression of the wealth and importance already attained by the Church and the monasteries at that time. It has been pointed out that the great and dominant feature in the disposition of Dorset lands as there recorded is that more than a third of the whole county was in ecclesiastical hands at the time the Survey was taken, and that the patrimony of the church was greater than that of all the barons and greater feudatories combined/' Among the seventy-six tenants including the thegns, holding in chief of the king, are entered the names of five bishops, eleven abbots, four abbesses, the community of Sherborne, the chapter of Coutances, and four Saxon priests, whose lands are designated under the title terra elemosinariorum Regis ; the abbot of Marmontier, a sub- feudatory, is entered under the holding of the earl of Mortain. As regards the estates of the various ecclesiastics, the bishop of Salisbury, besides the nine manors assigned to the use of the monks of Sherborne,™ held by right of the bishopric, the manors of Charminster, Alton Pancras, Up Cerne, Yetminster, Beaminster, Netherbury, Chardstock, a carucate of land at Lyme, half an acre at Bridport, two houses in Wareham, one in Dorchester, and other lands obtained in exchange." Odo, bishop of Bayeux, half-brother of the Conqueror, had as his sole Dorset estate the manor of Rampisham ; ^^ Geoffrey, bishop of Coutances, who for his services at the time of the Conquest had been granted large tracts of land in different counties, held the manor of Winterborne Houghton;'" the bishop of Lisieux, Gilbert Maminot, had the manors of Tarrant Keynston and Coombe Keynes, with a hide of land in Tarrant Pres- ton ; ^* the small estate of Maurice, bishop of London, consisted of half a hide of land in Odeham.''^ The eleven abbots holding in chief include the superiors of Cranborne, Cerne, Milton, Abbotsbury, and Horton, all belonging to this county ; the superiors of Glastonbury, Winchester, Athelney, and Tavistock outside its borders ; and the Norman abbots of St. Stephen, Caen, and St. Wandragesil or Fontanel. The four abbesses were the superiors of Shaftesbury (Dorset), Wilton (Wiltshire), Holy Trinity Caen, and St. Mary of Montevillers. The holding of the Dorset religious houses was briefly as follows: — Cranborne held 2 carucates of land in Gillingham, the manors of Boveridge and Up Wimborne, Lestesford, half a hide in Langford, and the manor of Tarrant Monkton ; under the holding of the widow of Ralph Fitz Grip, the Norman sheriff, it is recorded that Hugh gave to the church of St. Mary of Cranborne half a hide of land in Orchard, ' and it is worth 20J.' ; ^^ Cerne held manors or estates at Cerne, Little Puddle, Radipole, Bloxworth, Affpuddle, Poxwell, East Woodsford, Heffleton, ' Vergroh,' Little '^' R. D. Eyton, Key to Domesday Surz>. of Dorset, 156. Thus, supposing the whole territory of Dorset to be divided into 265 parts, the iilng held nearly 36J such parts, the bishop of Salisbury followed with nearly 26, the abbess of Shaftesbury had more than i6i, the abbots of Cerne and Milton more than i 2 each, the abbot of Abbotsbury more than i\ ; ibid. " These included the manors of Sherborne, Oborne, Thornford, Bradford, Over and Nether Compton, Stalbridge, Weston, Corscombe, and Stoke Abbott. " Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 75-7. From the enumeration of estates in the foundation charter of the cathedral by Bishop Osmond in 1091 it is evident that many of the old endowments of the bishopric of Salisbury had passed over into the possession of the church of Sarum ; Reg. of St. Osmund (Rolls Ser.), i, 198. " Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 77. " Ibid. " Ibid. yjb. " Ibid. In the parish of Wimborne which it is conjectured he held in virtue of the deanery ; R. D. Eyton, op. cit. 113, note 3. " Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 84. A HISTORY OF DORSET Bredy, Winterborne Abbas, Long Bredy, Nettlecombe, Milton, Kimmeridge, Rentscombe, and Symondsbury ; " Milton at Sydling, Milton, Compton Abbas, Cattistock, Puddle, Clyffe, Osmington, Whitcombe, Lyscombe, Wool- land, Winterborne Hillfield, Ower, Stockland, Piddletrenthide, and Cerne ; Abbotsbury, the manors of Abbotsbury, Tolpuddle, Hilton, Portisham, 5 virgates of land at Shilvinghampton, 2^ hides at Wootton Abbas, half a hide in Bourton, and the manor of Stoke Atrum. To the abbey of Horton, besides estates in Devonshire, belonged the manor of Horton, the two best hides of which had been retained by the king in his forest of Wimborne, the little church (ecclesiold) in Wimborne, with the site of two houses, a church in Wareham with five houses paying a rent of 65^'., and a house in Dorchester.'* The abbess of Shaftesbury, the largest monastic landowner in the county, besides extensive estates outside Dorset, held here the manors of Handley, Hinton St. Mary, Stour, Fontmell, Compton Abbas, Melbury, Iwerne Minster, Tarrant Hinton, Fifehead, Stoke, and Cheselbourne, with a hide of land at Farnham." The chapter of Coutances in Normandy held the manor of Winterborne Stickland, which they retained in their possession down to the fourteenth century. As the object of the Survey was purely fiscal and it did not include within its scope the return of parish churches no clue is afforded as to the number of churches then in existence ; even in those instances where a reference to a church occurs, it is almost invariably in connexion with the endowment or lands belonging to it. The names of those actually given are as follows : — the four churches belonging to the Norman abbey of St. Wandragesil, viz. Burton Bradstock, Bridport, Whitchurch Canonicorum and St. Mary Wareham ; *" the six entered under the heading terra elemosi- narioritm Regis : Holy Trinity Dorchester, Bere Regis, Winfrith Newburgh, Puddletown, East Chaldown, and Fleet. *^ Under the estates of the abbey of Shaftesbury it is recorded that the king gave to the abbess the advowson of the church of Gillingham in exchange for one of the i 6 hides of the manor of Kingston, on which he built the castle of Wareham or Corfe.^" Besides the brief reference to the collegiate church of Wimborne Minster,*' the little church ieccksiola) belonging to the abbey of Horton in Wimborne" must not be forgotten, which, with the church in Wareham," completes the list. " Dcm. Bk. (Rec. Com.), -j-b, 78. '* As regards superiors outside this county holding land in Dorset, the abbot of Glastonbury held then, and in the time of Edward the Confessor, the manors of Sturminster Newton, Okeford Fitzpaine, Buckland Newton, East Woodyates, Pentridge, and three hides of land in Lyme Regis (ibid. ~~b) ; the abbot of St. Peter, Winchester, had only the manor of Piddletrenthide (ibid.) ; the abbot of Athelney (Somerset) the manor of Caundle Purse (ibid. 78^), still in the possession of the abbey when the Taxatio of Pope Nicholas was taken if ope Nick. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 185) ; the abbot of Tavistock the manors of Askenwell and Poorton (ibid.) ; the Norman abbey of St. Stephen of Caen held the manors of Frampton and Bin- combe (ibid.) : and the abbey of St. Wandragesil the churches of Burton Bradstock, Bridport, and Whit- church Canonicorum, with four hides of land appurtenant thereto, the church of St. Man-, Wareham, with one hide of land (ibid). '* Ibid 78. The abbess of Wilton had the manor of Didlington and 3^ hides of land in the parish of Wimborne St. Giles (ibid. 79) ; the abbess of Holy Trinity, Caen, the manor of Tarrant Launceston (ibid.); the abbess of St. Mary of Montevillers the manor of Friar Waddon (ibid.). *° Ibid. 78^. *• Ibid. 79. ^ Ibid. 78^. ^ Ibid. 75. " Ibid. 783. " Said to be that of St. Martin ; R. D. Eyton, op. cit. 44. Various references to priests imply at least the existence of churches elsewhere ; thus under the survey of the manor of Hinton, which had devolved to the crown through the death of Hugh Fitz Grip, besides a mention of two priests who had parcels of land in the time of Edward the Confessor, there is incidentallv a reference to the priest of the manor, who was probably the incumbent of Hinton (ibid. 75) ; while the further entry 'of this land' (the fourteen hides and one virgate ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY The addition of Norman and foreign superiors to those monastic bodies already holding property in Dorset marks the great dynastic and political change that had recently taken place, but so far as the older houses are concerned the Survey shows that it had had, with some excep- tions,** comparatively little effect in the loss or depreciation of their lands ; while in the case of Shaftesbury these had greatly risen in value. If the monks of Abbotsbury had reason to complain of the losses they had suffered under Hugh Fitz Grip, late Norman sheriff, and his widow," and the com- munity at Sherborne reported that William, son of the Conqueror, had seized three virgates of land in their manor of Stalbridge ' without the consent of the bishop and the monks,' ** the abbess and nuns of Shaftesbury had not forgotten their injuries at the hands of Earl Harold, while they placed on record that the Conqueror had, at least, restored to them the manor of Stour of which they had been deprived by the late earl though he still retained that of Melcombe.*^ But if the Conquest brought little territorial change to the mon- astic establishments of the county, the eleventh century witnessed various other changes that had a distinct bearing on the social and ecclesias- tical position of Dorset,'" An administrative scheme, rendered necessary by the Conqueror's action in separating the secular from the ecclesias- tical courts of justice, was the division of the diocese into districts and the appointment of an official hitherto known as the bishop's ' eye,' his deputy or archdeacon, who now became a territorial officer with definite functions, holding courts and presiding over a district for which he was per- sonally responsible to the bishop. The first mention of this newly constituted officer occurs in a copy of that original Institutio Osmundi, contemporary with the foundation charter of the cathedral of Salisbury in 1091, which, in elaborating and explaining the rights and duties of the cathedral dignitaries, orders that the attention of the archdeacon should be specially directed to the 'care of parishes and the cure of souls.' *^ The 'Consue- tudinary ' of the bishop states that in the church of Sarum are four archdeacons, one for Dorset, one for Berkshire, and two for Wiltshire.'^ To the archdeaconry of Dorset, sometimes called the Jirst {primus) arch- deaconry,*' was annexed the rectory of Gussage Regis, the valuation of which was assessed in the Taxatio of 1291 at £j2 ^^- 8^^-^* The Register of of" Hinton) 'holds another priest living in Tarrant one hide and a third part of a hide,' probably constitutes a reference to the incumbent of a church at Tarrant. A resident priest is mentioned under the manor of Roger de Belmont in Church Knowle (ibid. Son), and another priest is recorded in the manor of Long Blandford or Langton held by Edwin Venator (ibid. 84J). ** The exceptions are notoriously house property in the boroughs. In Shaftesbury, for example, of the 153 houses belonging to the abbess in the time of Edward the Confessor, 1 1 1 were left at the date the Survey was taken ; 42 had been altogether destroyed (ibid. 75 a). In Wareham of 45 houses standing in the demesne of the abbey of St. Wandragesil 1 7 were laid waste. The estates of the abbot of Glastonbury are another exception, but the lands of the abbey had recently been in the custody of the crown following the wasteful management of Abbot Thurston. R. W. Eyton, op. cit. 21. «' Dcm. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 78. *» Ibid. 77. ^' Ibid. 78^. '" The transfer of the bishop's seat from Sherborne to Old Sarum and the removal of the capital from Winchester to London naturally moved this county further away from the centre of activity and tended to place it outside the circle of influence it had once occupied. As regards this diminution of importance it has elsewhere been pointed out (H. J. Moule, Old Dmet, 51), that in the following centuries the position of Dorset, as compared with the advance of other counties, would more fitly be described as stationary. " Reg. of St. Osmund {Ko\h Ser.), i, 214. '' Ibid, i, 3. '" Valor EccL (Rec. Com.), ii, 72. '' Pope Nick. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 182^. 2 A HISTORY OF DORSET Bishop Osmund records the names of two of the earliest archdeacons of the county, Adam, about the year 1097, and John, about 1120.'^ Adelelm, archdeacon of Dorset, occurs in a charter of Bishop Roger of SaHsbury, 1130-35,'^ and WiUiam witnessed a deed of Bishop Hubert about 1190." Later on, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when the abuse of papal provision was at its height we find the archdeaconry constantly held in succession by Roman cardinals and ecclesiastics. In passing we may note that the strong wave of monastic feeling and sympathy which swept over the country in the twelfth century left its trace in Dorset in the number of foreign cells and dependent priories which then sprang into existence. The two centuries that elapsed between the Survey of 1086 and the Taxatio of 1291 witnessed the introduction of an alien community at Loders belonging to the abbey of St. Mary of Montebourg ; the grant of Povington to the abbey of Bee, Spettisbury and Stour Provost to the abbeys of St. Peter and St. Leger of Preaux, and of Winter- borne Monkton to the Cluniac priory of Wast or de Vasto ; the Norman abbeys of Tiron and Lyre were also among the ecclesiastical landowners of the county. As regards the older and pre-Conquest foundations, many of the changes brought about in the earlier part of the century were doubtless necessary modifications and adjustments in face of altered cir- cumstances.'' For information as to the spread of parish churches and the systematic organization and adjustment of parochial endowments in Dorset in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries one turns again to the Register of St. Osmund, as well as to the collection of deeds and charters relating to the cathedral of Salisbury with their many references to this county, as the most available source.'' The foundation charter of Salisbury in 1091 enumerates, among the endowments of the cathedral, the churches of Sherborne, Bere Regis, and St. George of Dorchester, the last generally identified with the church of Fordington which, united with the manor of Writhlington in Somerset, made up a prebend in Sarum.^"" The parish churches of Yetminster, Alton Pancras, Charminster, Beaminster, and Netherbury, the manors of which were also included among the possessions of the cathedral in 1091,'"' are afterwards found among the peculiars of the dean and chapter of Salisbury.^"' The Norman abbot of St. Wandragesil or Fontanel in 1200 released to the chapter the church of Whitchurch Canonicorum,^"^ already in his hands at "Jones, Fasti Eccl. Sarisb. 137. Le Neve quoting from the same register gives Adam as the firot archdeacon of Dorset ; Fasti Eccl. Angl. ii, 637. '' Reg. of St. Osmund (Rolls Ser.), i, 349. " Ibid. 241. '' Thus Bishop Roger of Salisbury endeavouring to restore the loss of status consequent on the removal of the see constituted Sherborne into an abbey and annexed to it as a dependent cell the former abbey of Horton, now evidently in a state of decay. The bishop's action in appropriating Abbotsburj' to the episcopal see 'as far as he could' does not on the other hand appear to have had a lasting effect [William of Malmesbury, Hist. Novella (Rolls Ser.), ii, 559]. Another modification took place in 1122 when the former abbey of Cranhorne was reduced to a priory and made subordinate to Tewkesbury, of which formerly it had been the head house. " The general scheme of organizing and adjusting the estates of the cathedral church at this period had the effect of adding many more churches to those already held by the cathedral chapter in Dorset. "" Reg. of St. Osmund (Rolls Ser.), i, 195. "" Ibid. '" Falor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, App. p. 458. " Of the four churches belonging to this Norman abbey in the Domesday Survey two were granted, Whitchurch Canonicorum, and Burton Bradstock by charter of the Conqueror to the abbey ' for the sake of Guntard my chaplain,' monk of the monastery ; Reg- of St. Osmund (Rolls Ser.), i, 231. 10 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY the time of Domesday, and was granted the prebend of Upavon in the cathedral which entitled him to a stall in the choir and a voice in the cathedral chapter."* The abbot of St. Mary Montebourg, who had a cell at Loders, likewise conveyed to the chapter about the year i 2 1 3 his churches of Powerstock. and Fleet,"^ and in return was allowed to retain the church of Loders and the chapel of Radipole as a prebend in Salisbury."* The church of Sherborne appears from the foundation of the cathedral to have constituted a prebend in Salisbury, held by the abbot in virtue of his office."' A dispute arising early in the thirteenth century respecting the claim of the dean of Salisbury to the church of Frome Whitfield, as attached to his prebend of Charminster, was peaceably settled by an agreement whereby the church itself was annexed to the prebend, but the patronage vested in William de Whitfield, Matilda his wife, and their heirs who, on a vacancy, should present a candidate for institution to the dean and his successors."* By an arrangement in 1225 certain pensions out of the churches of Tarrant Keynston, Combe, Somerford, and Lulworth were reserved to the priory of Merton, the church of Tarrant Keynston at the special request of the prior and canons being assigned to the perpetual use of the nuns of Tarrant, who in return for this grant were charged to offer special prayers every Sunday for the brethren of Merton as for their benefactors."^ In 1224 the church of Bishop's Caundle was made over to the ordinary by the prior and canons of Breamore,"" The churches of Stourpaine and Burstock were placed by the prior and convent of Christchurch (Twyneham) in 1 244 at the disposition of the bishop who the following year ordained that the church of Fleet, previously resigned by the abbot of St. Mary Montebourg, should be appro- priated to the convent of Christchurch, the church of Stourpaine to the chapter of Salisbury, while the church of Burstock was assigned to the maintenance of the bridge at Salisbury, all three churches being made exempt from the jurisdiction of the ordinary and the archdeacon, the bishop in his deed stipulating that they should be ' honestly ' and fitly served and the cure of souls in no way neglected."^ With reference to the question of parochial endowments, instances are not wanting to illustrate the liberty of large landowners to bestow tithes of their lands at will on one place or another. A deed of Ralph de St. Leger about the year 1217 recites that he has granted to Roger, chaplain of Petersham, within the parish of Wimborne, his oratory or free chapel of Todber, together with all tithes of his demesne &c., as an endowment. "'^ Sir Bartholomew de Turbervill, by deed in 1242, attached all tithes of his demesne at Winterborne Turberville, which he declared had been always bestowed by his ancestors and himself on whomsoever they desired, to the prebend of Charminster and Bere Regis, in consideration of which grant he obtained a licence for a private chantry or chapel for the use of himself, his household "* Reg. of St. Osmund (Rolls Ser.), i, 71. "" Ibid, i, 225. '°° Ibid, i, 226. The abbot of Bee, to whose abbey belonged a small cell at Povington reckoned as parcel of the priory of Ogbourne (Wilts.), held the prebend of Ogbourne constituted in the cathedral by Bishop le Poor in 1208 ; ibid, i, 189. ""Ibid. 249. '"'Ibid. 255. "» Ibid, ii, 26. "° Sarum Chart, and Doc. (Rolls Sen), 163-6. '" The canons of Christchurch were ordered to pay the sum of a mark yearly to the archdeacon of Dorset by way of compensation for the loss of jurisdiction involving dues ; ibid. 291-3. '"Ibid. 81. II A HISTORY OF DORSET and guests, and his heirs, to be served by a perpetual chaplain. ^^' Perhaps the most interesting case of voluntary endowrment was the one confirmed by Bishop Richard le Poor in 1218, w^herein seven parishioners of Mosterton bestowed various gifts of land for the establishment and maintenance of a chaplain who, with the consent of the rector of South Perrott, should make personal residence and serve a chapel there."* With the growth of parish churches there were springing up through the thirteenth century these dependent chapels whose claims impinging on parochial rights required constant readjustment, and were the cause of so many of the ecclesiastical disputes in the succeeding century."* During this period of parochial organization which marks the thirteenth century, the ordination of vicarages was not neglected. The practice which came into vogue after the Conquest of granting the presentation of churches and alienating the tithes to cathedral and monastic bodies had as a consequence lowered incumbents from the position of rectors, which they enjoyed, in primitive times, to that of curates forced to content them- selves with whatever remuneration they might be allowed. Various attempts were made to counteract this evil, which in addition left the spiritual needs of the parishioners at the mercy of rectors with whom their importance was not always paramount. In i 200 the council of Westminster directed that every vicar should be instituted by the bishop to whom he should be responsible for the discharge of his duties, and that he should be provided with a suffi- cient competence from the issues of the church."' The vicar's income in addition to a competent manse was usually reckoned at about a third of the total profits. The rector took the great tithe, viz., of corn, and the incidental charges such as synodals, and the archdeacon's fees were usually arranged be- tween the rector and the vicar in proportion to their respective portions. An €arlv instance of care in defining precisely the portion that should be assigned to the vicar occurs in a deed appropriating to the abbey of Sherborne the churches of Stalbridge and Stoke Abbott in 1191, The vicar of Stalbridge, according to this ordination, was to have all that estate [tenementuni) which Sewale had of the estate of the said church and all things pertaining to the church save the free land and those tithes, viz., of sheaves as well as small tithes, which should be assigned to the use of the sacrist of Sherborne ; in addition he should have free pasture and a horse and four beasts in the pasture of the abbot's demesne and should sustain all episcopal dues. The vicar of Stoke Abbott should have all things pertaining to the church which Gerrud used to have and should sustain all episcopal dues like- wise ; the remainder of the issues were to be assigned to the clothing of the monks of Sherborne."^ The dean and cathedral chapter confirmed the ordination of the vicarage of Fordington made by Lawrence of Saint ™ Sarum Chart, and Doc. (Rolls Ser.), 278-80. '" Ibid. 82-3. '" In some instances these chapels became further endowed and were eventually erected into parish churches, but after the Black Death they frequently became too impoverished to support a chaplain, and sank into disuse. "° The council of Oxford laid down the principle of providing a sufficient income, irrespective of the actual value of a benefice, by decreeing that the vicar's stipend should not amount to less than 5 marks, except in Wales. Wilkins, Concilia, i, 587. "' Sarum Chart, and Doc. (Rolls Ser.), 49. In 1238 the abbot and convent of Sherborne resigned to Bishop Robert Bingham of Salisbury and the chapter the appropriation of these two churches of Stalbridge and Stoke Abbott, reserving to themselves the advowson and certain issues ; ibid. 248-9. 12 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY Nicholas, canon of Salisbury, in 1222, wherein was assigned to Robert de Dorchester, chaplain, perpetual vicar, all obventions of the altar and ceme- tery of the church, all small tithes, and the sum of 24^. id. to be annually paid by the tenants of the said church ; to the canon and to his successors were assigned all sheaves of whatever kind of grain and wherever sown. The vicar was bound to serve the church personally and at his own expense, and to bear all charges incumbent on the vicarage."' The endowment of the vicarage of Alton Pancras was fixed in 1227,"' the ordination of the vicarage of Whitchurch, the church of which was appropriated to the chapters of Salisbury and Wells, in 1240 ; the vicar of the latter was charged to find a chaplain and clerk to serve the dependent chapels of Stanton and Chideock and another chaplain and clerk for the chapel of Marshwood, and the ordina- tion included the appointment of a chaplain to celebrate daily in the church for the benefactors and faithful departed of both cathedral chapters, and the assignment of a certain portion of tithes for his maintenance.^-" The chapter of Salisbury in 1242 confirmed the endowment of the vicarage of Bere Regis by Robert de Lexinton, canon of Salisbury, who by deed notified that he had granted to John de Dorchester, chaplain, the whole altarage of the church of Bere Regis and the chapel of Winterborne Regis with tithes of wool and lambs, and all small tithes and oblations, together with a messuage and two acres of land in the town of Bere Regis, which William the vicar had held in the name of a perpetual vicarage, reserving to himself and his successors all tithes of corn, hay and mills, with all the oblations of ' Win- debyre ' on the feast of the Nativity of the B.V.M. and the sum of 6 marks to be annually received in equal portions at the four terms.^^^ In 1255 the vicarage of the church of Powerstock with the ordination of its endow- ment was granted by the cathedral of Salisbury to Roger de Mere, chaplain, who as vicar was charged with all expenses incumbent on the dean and chapter for the said church and its chapels in keeping the roof of the chancel in repair, and in providing books, vestments, and other neces- saries for divine service, as well as with the annual payment of a mark to the abbot and convent of Cerne for the chapel of Milton in virtue of a former composition between the abbey and the chapter of Salisbury. ^"^ It will be noted that as a rule these early examples of ordination of vicarages relate to churches in the possession of the cathedral church of the diocese, but they may be accepted as fairly typical of the work then going forward in regulating and systematizing parochial endowments generally. The work of two centuries seems fitly crowned by that compila- tion of church property known as the taxation of Pope Nicholas IV which marks the close of the thirteenth century, and from it may be gathered a fairly comprehensive picture of the ecclesiastical organization of the county as it was then complete. Within the archdeaconry of Dorset, divided into the five deaneries of Shaftesbury, Pimperne, Whitchurch, Dorchester, and Bridport,^^^ are recorded the names of 171 churches exclusive "» Reg. of St. Osmund (Rolls Ser.), i, 322. '" Ibid, ii, 33. "" Sarum Chart, and Doc. (Rolls Ser.), 261-6. "' Ibid. 277. "" Ibid. 324. '^' Though rural deans are frequently mentioned in the ecclesiastical councils of the twelfth century (Wilkins, Concil. \, 388, 502, 505), the date when the territorial limits of the deaneries were fixed is uncertain. 13 A HISTORY OF DORSET of Wimborne Minster, which constituted a deanery in itself.^*'* The value of the spiritual property of the church in Dorset was assessed at ^1,418 16s. 5^.,^^^ the temporalities were valued at ^^1,929 os. 8;^^'.'^^ None of the benefices were of any great value, only nine amounted to jTao or more, thirty-seven were under ^5 a year with one not reckoned at all ; among the prebends Sherborne was assessed at ^(^40.'" Twelve other vicarages are recorded in addition to those vicarages established in connexion with these churches prebendal to Salisbury : Sturminster Newton in the deanery of Shaftesbury, the church of which was appropriated to the abbey of Glastonbury ; Blandford Forum appropriated to the priory of Christchurch, Cranborne to Tewkesbury, Horton to Sherborne in the deanery of Pimperne ; Canford appropriated to the priory of Bradenstoke, Stur- minster Marshall to the hospital of St. Giles of Pont Adomar, Puddle- town to the priory of Christchurch, Dewlish belonging to Tewkesbury and the vicarage of Buckland, all in the Whitchurch deanery ; in the deanery of Dorchester there was the vicarage of Coombe Keynes ; and the vicarages of Portisham and Abbotsbury, the churches of which belonged to the abbey of Abbotsbury, in the Bridport deanery. Of the twelve, Sturminster Marshall, valued at X^20, was the richest, Sturminster Newton came next valued at jTio, Canford was assessed at ^^6 ly. ^d., Horton, Puddletown and Dew- lish were worth ^^5 a year, Cranborne and Buckland, the poorest, ^4 6s. 8d. As regards chapels, at that period to be found annexed to nearly all large churches,^^^ the following are amongst those entered by name : Hinton St. Mary, in the parish of Iwerne Minster, and Wimborne St. Giles, now parochial churches ; Charlton Marshall annexed to the rectory of Spettisbury ; Studland now a rectory and parish church ; Broadway now a rectory annexed to Bincombe ; St. Aldhelm's chapel, Burton Bradstock, and Little Bredy now erected into parish churches. The blight even at that time affecting the spiritual side of monas- ticism, and the practical restraint placed on religious endowments on a large scale by the statute of Mortmain, are the causes no doubt that con- tributed to the particular form adopted by the pious donor of the thirteenth century for the expression of his devotional feelings. Instead of erecting fresh monasteries he endowed chapels attached to existing churches with priests to sing masses for his soul, the souls of his family and all the faithful departed. As the practice of endowing such memorial chapels or chantries spread the ranks of the beneficed clergy, in addition to the parochial chaplains, became further reinforced by the chantry priests to be found in all churches of any size officiating side by side with the parish priests. The conventual churches of the monasteries generally, and in Dorset of the Bene- dictine houses in particular, lent themselves readily to this develop- ment, and the popular nature of it as a means of religious expression is evidenced by its growth during the centuries that preceded and led up to its abolition. The trend of religious feeling may be clearly traced from the foundation of the earlier chantries, ordained simply for the performance '" Under the deanery of Shaftesbury 32 churches are recorded, 31 under Pimperne, 38 under Whit- church, 41 under Dorchester, 29 under Bridport ; Poj)e Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 177-80. '" Ibid. 180. "^ Ibid. 185. '" Ibid. 182. '" Gillingham with its numerous chapels is a striking example. 14 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY of prayers and masses for the benefit of the donor and his family, and friends, combined in most instances with almsgiving, and the establishment of such a chantry as that founded by the countess of Richmond and Derby in Wim- borne Minster, in the early sixteenth century, when education was beginning to be part of the popular religious creed, to which was appointed a priest ' ther to kepe continuall residence and teche frely gramer to all them that will come thereunto.' Of the number of these memorial chapels the return furnished by the commissioners of Henry VIII and Edward VI in the six- teenth century furnishes but a slight idea. Most of those connected with the monasteries appear to have vanished at the Dissolution, of the ten or a dozen founded in Shaftesbury Abbey, for instance, only three are given in the return ; and it is equally certain that many had ceased previously, owing to the difficulty in maintaining them during the financial difficulties of the four- teenth and fifteenth centuries. In spite of the advance in ecclesiastical organization the episcopal registers, the series of which commence on the eve of the twelfth century, show a considerable amount of neglect and irregularity then prevalent in the diocese : churches so defective that Bishop Simon of Ghent in a letter addressed to all his archdeacons in October, 1 299, after a recent visitation, remarks a year's income would hardly suffice to cover the cost of their repair; want of books, ornaments, and other necessaries for the celebration of divine service ; absentee rectors and vicars, incumbents who had neglected to take higher orders, benefices held in plurality and in the possession of those who could show no title. ^^' Measures were in the first instance taken with regard to those fabrics that had not yet been dedicated, and in 1298, soon after his promotion to the see. Bishop Simon wrote to the locum tenens of the dean of Salisbury calling his attention to this matter, citing in particular the church of Lyme Regis, and desiring that all the prebendal churches should be consecrated without delay.'"" A further examination brought the extensive nature of this neglect into such prominence that the bishop in April, 1302, wrote to the archdeacon of Dorset, ordering him to institute a special inquiry into the circumstances of those churches still uncon- secrated, of which he had heard an inordinate number {effrenatam multitudineni) still remained in the archdeaconry, and to warn all rectors and vicars ; ''*' this order was followed by a commission to the archdeacon's official directing him or the dean of Shaftesbury to summon the rectors of the following churches to provide everything necessary for the consecration of the edifices at the dates fixed in the inclosed schedule : Stour Provost on the Friday after the Feast of St. James the Apostle, Manston the Sunday following, Iwerne Courtney, Okeford, Stoke Wake, Bishop's Caundle, and Pulham on the days immediately succeeding as should be most convenient.'^^ The '" Sarum Epis. Reg. Simon of Ghent, fol. 23. In regard to the care of churchyards and cemeteries, regulations for which were passed in the thirteenth century, the bishop in 1 3 1 1 wrote to the dean of Shaftesbury denouncing the rough games and sports that were allowed in the inclosure {atrium') round the canventual church of Shaftesbury, and the pasturing of animals turned in to graze ' where the bodies of the faithful rest,' desiring that such practices should be put a stop to, and all neighbouring rectors and vicars warned to proclaim their abolition ; ibid. fol. I 34. '■* Ibid. fol. 5 d. "' Ibid. fol. 22. This refers, probably in every case, to re-consecration necessitated by structural alterations, and does not imply that the churches had not been duly dedicated at the time of their erection. ■'■ Ibid. 15 A HISTORY OF DORSET early part of the fourteenth century was probably marked by much activity in the building, or more probably the rebuilding on a larger scale, of churches in this county ; of the fifty-three dedicated by Robert Petyt, bishop of Enaghdun,^'^ in 1326, by authority of the diocesan, by far the greater number were in Dorset.^" As regards non-residence, the practice so frequently noted of granting licences to incumbents to absent themselves for purposes of study did much to nullify the earnest efforts of Simon of Ghent and his successors to enforce personal residence on the clergy ; ^'^ nevertheless, it must be remembered that the carelessness of patrons as to the age and qualifications of the candidates they presented for institution rendered such a measure the best guarantee for the spiritual welfare of parishioners that the ordinary could perhaps at that time enforce.''^ Another element of disorder was to be found in the increasing demands of Rome and the abuse then generally rampant of papal provision. That the bishops were keenly alive to these contributive causes is evident from various records in their registers. After a meeting of the chapter at Salisbury, 18 March, 1326, at which the bishop, dean, and others were present, a letter was addressed to Pope John XXII by Bishop Mortival, in which he stated that though there were in the church of Salisbury forty-one prebends, four digni- ties, four archdeaconries, and the sub-deanery to which he had the original right of collation, there were, nevertheless, at that time a dean, an archdeacon, and six prebendaries who had been appointed by the late pope, while the precentor, treasurer, one archdeacon, and seventeen prebendaries held their offices by provision of the present pope ; that hardly more than three out of that whole number ever resided in Salisbury, and finally that there were no less than eight who were waiting for vacancies, having been appointed as canons with the right '" Both Simon of Ghent and Roger de Mortival made use of suffragans to assist them in their diocesan duties, especially in such offices as the dedication of churches and altars, the reconciliation of churches, &c., which required the personal services of a bishop. The institutions of Bishop Simon in particular witness the bishop's readiness to grant a coadjutor to the parochial clergy in the case of sickness and disablement. "' The list includes the following : Wimborne St. Giles, Horton, Edmondsham, Winterborne Vyshath, Winterborne Tomson, Cheselbourne, Turners Puddle, Milborne, Ringstead, Poxwell, Winterborne Abbas, Winterborne Steepleton, Little Bredy, Tyneham, Chaldon Boys, Ham-by-Sturminster, Fifehead, Stafford, Bincombe, Stour Provost, All Saints Dorchester, Frome Whitfield, St. John Shaftesbury, Moreton, Povington, Minterne, Up Cerne, Batcombe, Yetminster, Ryme Intrinseca, Evershot, Stockwood, Pulham, Bishop's Caundle, Caundle Haddon, Fifehead, ' Tarrant-Abbates, Stower Wake, Stower Weston,' Gillingham, Caundle Purse, and Rarapisham [Ibid. Mortival, ii, fol. 185]. One of the first acts of Bishop Mortival on his promo- tion to Salisbury in 1315 was to issue a commission for the dedication of altars [Ibid. fol. i]. In 1317 he granted letters of indulgence for the altar in the conventual church of Shaftesbury, rebuilt and dedicated in honour of St. Mary and St. Edward, king and martyr. [Ibid]. '" Bishop Simon in 1 301 addressed a letter to his archdeacons bidding them summon all absent rectors. and vicars to make personal residence, understanding that many were at that time absent without licence [Ibid. fol. 17]. His successor, Mortival, wrote in December, 1319, to the archdeacon of Dorset denouncing all such incumbents as let their churches to farm, and did not make personal residence, desiring that their names should be sent in to him by a fixed date [Ibid. Mortival, lib. ii, fol. 95 if]. Bishop Wyville, in March,. 1343, forwarded to the archdeacon a schedule with list of offenders who were to be summoned to appear before the bishop or his commissary in the prebendal church of Chardstock the next law d.iy after the Feast of St. Edward, king and martyr, a strict inquiry was to be made into the issues of their churches which were to be sequestered, care being taken that the services of the church should not be neglected [Ibid. Wyville, lib. i]. After the losses and disorder occasioned by the Black Death the abuse of non-residence increased rather than diminished. '^ Licence to let his church to farm for the purpose of study being only in acolyte's orders was granted to the rector of Bentfeld ' in 1316 ; ibid. Mortival, ii, fol. 31 J. 16 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY of succeeding to prebends as they became void.^" For instances of this particular abuse in Dorset we need go no further than the archdeaconry. The papal registers record a faculty granted by Alexander IV in 1258 to the bishop of Salisbury to give the archdeaconry of Dorset, held by Martin Jordan, vice-chancellor of the Roman Church and notary apostolic, to Simon de Bridport, canon of Salisbury, or any other person by the consent of the said Jordan so soon as he shall have obtained a prebend of Salisburv to the value of 150 marks.^'^ Six years later this same Jordan, cardinal of Sts. Cosmos and Damian, and archdeacon of Dorset, received from Pope Urban IV a grant of one of the ' fattest ' prebends of Salisbury ' if one is vacant, and if not the reser\^ation of one.' '"'^ In 1300 the then archdeacon, Henry de Bluntesdon, received at the king's request a dispensation to retain the archdeaconry of Dorset, to which was annexed the church of Gussage All Saints, with the churches of Grittleton, Wootton Bassett, Hannington, Runwell, and Middleton in the dioceses of Salisbury, London, and York, which he had obtained without licence since the council of Lyons, together with canonries and prebends of Salisbury, Wells, Chichester, and St. Paul's London.^" Bertrand d'Eux, cardinal of St. Mark's, obtained in 1 347 an indult to visit his archdeaconry of ' Dorchester ' (Dorset) by deputy for five years, and to receive procuration not exceeding 30 silver tournois a day.^" The intrusion of these Roman ecclesiastics into English benefices was anything but welcome,^'' and a brawl arose towards the close of the same year on the occasion of the appointment of another cardinal to the treasurer- ship of the cathedral ; Thomas Hotoft, with other citizens of Salisbur)-^ and armed accomplices, upholding the claim of the then holder of the prebend, John de Breydon, attacked the sub-executor and proctor of the cardinal, saying they should lose their heads, and according to the report would have actually killed them had they not been restrained by one of the canons and one of the vicars.^^ In 1373 Robert of Geneva, cardinal of the Twelve Apostles, bishop of Tironane, and afterwards anti-Pope Clement VII, received as sub-dean of York and archdeacon of Dorset an indult to visit his archdeaconry by deputy for five years.^** The office was held by the cardinal of Naples about the year 1 379, the king in June of the following year granting a licence for any of the king's lieges to become the proctors of the cardinal of Naples and receive the profits of his archdeaconry of ' Dorchester,' the treasurership of Salisbury Cathedral, and prebend of Erpingham in Lincoln. ^*^ In 1410 John Mackworth, then in possession of the Dorset archdeaconry, obtained a dispensation to hold that office with the arch- deaconry of Norfolk, in respect of which he was already litigating in the apostolic palace, ' if he should win it.' ^*® The claims of the apostolic see, '"Cited from the bishop's register in the Diocesan Hiit. of Salisbury, 119, 120. Simon of Ghent, Mortival's predecessor, at fint refused to admit Reymund, a Roman cardinal to the office of the dean, to which he had been provided, on the ground that election to the same belonged to the chapter, and issued monitions to various of the cathedral digniuries to make residence ; ibid. 117. ■" Cal. Pup. Letters, i, 356-7. '^ Ibid, i, 41 1. '" Ibid, i, 5S8. "' Ibid, iii, 255. '" An entr)- in the patent rolls of 1347 (21 Ed.v. Ill, pt. I, m. 35) records that letters of protection were obtained from the king for Master Robert de Redynges, proctor of Bertrand, cardinal of the holy Roman Church and archdeacon of Dorset, an alien, and for his fellows. "' Cat. Pap. Letters, iii, 255. '" Ibid, iv, 188. '" Pat. 3 Ric II, pt. 3, m. 4. "* Cal. Pap. Letters, vi, 211. Mackworth aftenv.irds became dean of Lincoln, where he proved a veritable firebrand, and involved his chapter in almost endless dissension. See V.C.H. Lines, ii, 85-6. 2 17 3 A HISTORY OF DORSET which included a right to the reservation of benefices rendered vacant by the death of holders at the Roman Court, frequently led to conflicting appointments and protracted disputes. Thus in 1397 on the death of Adam, cardinal priest of St. Cecilia's, who held the archdeaconry of Dorset by grant of the papal court, the appointment was claimed by two candidates, Nicholas Bubwith provided by the pope, Michael Cergeaux nominated by letters patent of Richard 11.^" The latter prevailed, but two years later Bubwith again put forward his claim to the archdeaconry, void by the death of Cergeaux or Sergeaux, ' pretended ' archdeacon, and was again opposed, this time by Henry Chicheley, who claimed to have obtained the appointment by authority of the ordinary.^** A dispute ensued, and the case being referred for trial to John, bishop of Liibeck and papal chaplain and auditor, it was decided on a report that the late Michael had only held the archdeaconry by despoiling Adam, cardinal priest of St. Cecilia's, that neither litigants had any claim. The pope commissioned the judge if he found this to be the case to collate and assign the dignity to Henry Chicheley; he, however, adjudged it to Bubwith; Chicheley appealed without success, but on the strength of his former collation continued to intrude himself still in the archdeaconry, and the pope having imposed perpetual silence on Nicholas extinguished the suit."' In 1403 Nicholas Bubwith was collated to the archdeaconry of Dorset in the place of Henry Chicheley, who had been appointed to the archdeaconry of Sarum the previous year,^'" and finally became archbishop of Canterbury in 1408. Nicholas Bubwith was in 1406 elected to the see of London by the chapter of St. Paul's in ignorance of the fact that the pope had already made reservation of it for him."^ The papal registers throughout this period afford ample evidence of the extent to which papal provision was carried in this county as elsewhere. The prebends in the conventual church of Shaftesbury continually fell a prey to Roman usurpation, and Fuller instances the archdeaconry of Dorset as a flagrant instance of what, in a characteristic passage, he designates 'the greatest grievance of the land, namely, foreigners holding ecclesiastical benefices.' *" As for the kindred evil, the holding of benefices in plurality, the royal college and chapel of Wimborne Minster in this county again affords a "' Cal. Pap. Letters, v, 82 ; Pat. 20 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 8. Both were largely beneficed, Bubwith held canonries in Beverley, Lichfield, Ripon, and York, and the rectories of Brington and Naseby in the Lincoln diocese ; Cergeaux besides holding the rectory of Harrow was canon of Chichester, Exeter, Howden, Lichfield, and Wells. "' Besides the two there appears to have been a third claimant, Walter Medeford, nominated by patent letters of Richard II, 20 Aug. 1397; Pat. 21 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 21. '" Cal. Pap. Letters, v, 206. "» Le Neve, Fasti Ecd. Angl. ii, 539. '" Cal. Pap. Letters, vi, 82. '*' For at this time [says Fuller], the church of England might say with Israel ' Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.' Many Italians who knew no more English than the difference between a teston and a shilling, a golden noble and an angel in receiving their rents, had the fattest livings in England by the pope collated upon them. Yea, many great cardinals resident at Rome (those hinges of the church must be greased with English revenues) were possessed of the best prebends and parsonages in the land whence many mischiefs did ensue. First they never preached in their parishes : of such shepherds it could not properly be said that he leaveth the sheep and flee th, who (though taking the title of shepherd upon them) never saw their flock nor set foot on English ground. Secondly, no hospitality was kept for relief of the poor ; except they could fill their bellies upon the hard names of their pastors which they could not pronounce. . . . Yea, the Italians generally farmed out their places to proctors, their own countr)men, who instead of filling the bellies grinded the faces of poor people ; so that what betwixt the Italian hospitality which none could ever see and the Latin service which none could understand the poor English were ill-fed and worse taught. Church Hist, ii, 350-2. 18 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY striking instance. Presentation to the deanery was in the hands of the crown, and as a court appointment was always held by men holding other offices and frequently pursuing secular avocations/^* Of the new religious orders in the thirteenth century, to whose example so many bishops turned as a means of rousing the parochial clergy to a more lively sense of their responsibilities, little is heard till the following century. The Franciscans had a house at Dorchester founded according to Tanner by the ancestors of Sir John Chideock, but no reference to it occurs earlier than the reign of Edward 11.^^* Entries in the episcopal registers of Ghent and Mortival show that the friars were already making their presence felt throughout the diocese,"^ but their most effectual work in this county was due to the Dominicans, whose establishment at Melcombe Regis deserves special attention. The twin boroughs of Weymouth and Melcombe, com- posing the modern town of Weymouth, were at that time served respectively by the mother churches of Wyke Regis and Radipole in the parishes of which each lay. The register of Bishop Simon of Ghent records various unsuccessful attempts on the part of certain parishioners of Melcombe to obtain parochial rights for a chapel, to the detriment, it was complained, of the mother church of Radipole,^^' and Bishop Mortival in 1 321, granting an indulgence of thirty days for the parishioners of Wyke who should attend their parish church on Sundays and feast days, mentions a complaint that certain of the inhabitants were in the habit of attending a chapel at Weymouth"^ to the obvious injury of the said parish church. As time went on, and the importance of those two outlying districts increased there seems to have been — particularly on the part of the Melcombe parishioners — a constant struggle to obtain a right to a place of worship of their own, which was as often defeated by the authorities. The Dominicans in the meantime settled at Melcombe and a return made on 1 8 November, 1425, by John Morton, commissary and sequestrator-general to the bishop, respecting the erection of an altar at Melcombe Regis in a place ' profane and inhonest ' without the consent or authority of the ordinary, stated that the said altar had been erected for the celebration of mass by Edward Poliny and John Lok of the order of friars preachers, and that many of the inhabi- tants of Weymouth had assisted in its erection. For some reason not stated the friars thought fit to disregard the bishop's citation to appear before him or his commissary on the 21st of that month to explain their action, and '"Thus Martin de Patishull, appointed to the deanery in 1223, besides holding various ecclesiastical appointments, was a justice of the King's Bench, a justice itinerant and constantly employed as a judge. His successor, Randolf Brito, was in the year of his presentation to Wimborne appointed constable of Colchester Castle and warden of the ports of Essex (Pat. 1 3 Hen. Ill, m. 9). The deanery of Wimborne is not even mentioned in the list given by Matthew Paris {Chron. Maj.) of the many offices held by John Mansel appointed in 1247. In the case of John de Kirkeby, who had recommended himself to the court by his success- ful methods of collecting subsidies and taxes. Archbishop Peckham annulled his election to Rochester in 1285 on the ground of his notorious pluralism ; Reg. Efist. Peckham (Rolls Ser.), ii, 575. He appears to have held the deanery from I 265, while only in deacon's orders, being ordained priest the day before his consecration to Ely in 1286 [ibid, iii, App. 2, p. 1041]. Down to the suppression of the college under Edward VI 'the little deanery ' was frequently one of the main links connecting this county with current political events and personages outside its borders. '^* Tanner, Notitia, Dorset, x. '" The bishop in a letter to the archdeacon of Dorset in 1319 directed the names of all friars of the Franciscan and Dominican orders and of the order of the hermits of St. Augustine to be submitted to him before being licensed to hear confessions, and to absolve. Sarum Epis. Reg. Mortival, ii, fol. 94. '" Ibid. Simon of Ghent, fol. j d. 35 a'. 37. '" Ibid. Mortiv.il, ii, fol. 125. 19 A HISTORY OF DORSET among the last entries of Bishop Chandler, who died the following July> was a notification dated 7 May, 1426, wherein he interdicted Edward Poliny, John Lok, and John Lowyer, of the order of mendicants of St. Dominic, for their contumacy in disobeying his citation, and denounced their conduct in putting up an altar within the limits of the parish church of Radipole, extorting the oblations and devotions of the faithful in Christ flocking to them whom they had callously seduced. It was forbidden either to celebrate or to hear celebration in the place, and all those who had assisted, contrary to the bishop's admonition, were ordered to appear before him to give account of their conduct."^ The matter did not end here, for John Roger and Hugh Deveril, knt., and others came forward and stated that ' there was no place dedicated to God in the vill of Melcombe Regis,' that the parish church, distant by a mile and a half away, was not easy of access to the inhabitants of the town, their families, guests, and the merchants who visited the town by land and sea, so that the said inhabitants were notoriously rude and unlearned {•valde riides sint et indocti), that moved by the spirit of piety, and pitying the desolation of the vill they had begun a house for the perpetual habitation of the friars preachers, who had for no small time given themselves to the service of God and the salvation of men in the place where they laboured. The petitioners further begged the bishop's consideration of the following articles : (i) of the intention of the builders in beginning the work, (2) the fitness of the place to be dedicated as a church, (3) its endowment, (4) the apostolic and regal licence obtained for com- mencing the foundation, (5) the question whether the house of the friars' preachers could be dedicated without diminution of the episcopal jurisdiction and saving the rights of the parish church.'" The registers record no definite reply to this petition, but among the orders celebrated during the rule of Neville are entries stating that Richard, bishop of ' Caten,' held ordina- tions for the diocesan in the church of the Dominican friars of Melcombe on 22 May, Vigil of Holy Trinity, 1434, and on 25 May, 1437.'^° That terrible landmark of the fourteenth century, the visitation of the plague known as the Black Death, acquires a special interest in this county, inasmuch as nearly all contemporary writers are agreed that Dorset was the first district to be attacked, and Melcombe Regis is usually supposed to be the place where the disease first showed itself. ' In the year of Our Lord, 1348, about the feast of the translation of St. Thomas (7 July),' says the author of the Eulogium Historiarum, ' the cruel pestilence, terrible to all future ages, from parts over the sea came to the south coast of England to a port which is called Melcombe in Dorset, and sweeping over the southern districts destroyed innumerable people in Dorset, Devon, and Somerset.' '" Judging from the institutions of that time the epidemic did not fully manifest itself till the year had somewhat advanced, when it fell with fatal effect on the county, its ravages being especially marked on the coast where it first showed itself, and in the low-lying districts. One of the earliest victims '*^ Sarum Epis. Reg. Chandler, fol. 54, 55. ''' Ibid. Neville, fol. 3+. "* Ibid. Orders celebrated. "" Op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 213. The graphic account of Henry Knighton, canon of Leicester, says that at that time a lamentable pest penetrated into those parts nearest the sea by Southampton, and coming to Bristol there died of it as it were all the healthy folk of the town, taken away by sudden death, for few people kept their beds more than two or three days, and some only half a day, before death came to them at the set- ting of the sun, Leic. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 61. 20 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY was the superior of the alien priory of Wareham to whom the king appointed a successor on 4 November,'^^ and by the i8th the churches of Bridport, Tyneham in Purbeck, Lulworth, and Cerne were all vacant by death of their incumbents."* A table of the institutions for Dorset during this period shows that the mortality, beginning in October, was highest during the months of November, December, January, and February."* From 8 October, 1348, to January, 1349, the crown, it is said, presented to no less than thirty livings in the diocese of Salisbury, the greater number of which belonged to this county. "'^ In all probability, the regulars suffered no less than the secular clergy, though it is impossible to calculate in the same manner the number swept away. Following the prior of Wareham, the abbot of Abbotsbury was dead before 3 December for on that date the presentation to the vicarage, vacant also by death of the vicar, was in the king's hands by reason of the voidance of the abbey."' The warden of the hospital of St. John, Shaftesbury, fell a victim about the same time ; "^ on 7 February, 1349, John Firth received confirmation of his appointment as abbot of Sherborne."' The second visitation of the plague in 1361 was hardly less severe, the list of institutions for the last six months of that year being especially heavy."' The effect of these terrible scourges, accompanied by mortality among the cattle and followed by a scarcity of labour owing to the number of agricultural labourers who died, pressed very heavily on all landowning classes, and especially on the monks, whose difficulties, in the case of those living near the sea, and whose lands adjoined the coast, were much increased by a position which exposed them to inroads from sea marauders and foreign invaders, while their stores were eaten up by defenders sent to repel invasion."" The temporal decline of the monasteries, dating from the great pestilence, reached a climax towards the close of the century, when they sank to a spiritual level from which in a measure they appear to have been rescued before their final disappearance. As regards the local clergy the effect of the loss in their ranks was to accentuate many existing abuses ; in the scarcity of priests to fill the places of those swept away scruples as to fitness and capacity had perforce to go by the board.*" Licences to study increased in the absence "' Orig. R. 22 Edw. Ill, m. 4. '" Sarum Epis. Reg. Wyville, ii, fol. 90-191. '" Dr. Gasquet, from whom these figures are taken, estimates the number of institutions as follows : — Oct. 5, Nov. 15, Dec. 17, Jan. 16, Feb. 14, Mar. 10, Apr. 4 {The Great Pestilence, yg). He reckons the whole number of collations by the bishop in the diocese consisting of the three counties of Dorset, Wilts, and Berks, for the year beginning 25 Mar. 1348, and ending 25 Mar. 1349, at no less than 202, and at 243 for a like period the succeeding year. Ibid. 162. In Dorset it is reckoned that about half the number of benefices became vacant during the whole course of the visitation. '" Ibid. 78. Among other collations the patent rolls record the presentation to Blandford (Pat. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. 23), and to Spettisbury on 7 and 10 Dec. 1348, and on 4 Jan. 1349 (Ibid. m. 1 1, 16, 17). '^ Sarum Epis. Reg. Wyville, ii, Inst. fol. 192. "'Ibid. fol. 193. ""Ibid. fol. 199. ""' The cause of vacancy is not always stated in the institutions of 1 36 1, and as exchanges were at that time becoming very general it prevents such an accurate return being given of the number of deaths in that year. "" In 1397 Pope Urban VI ordered the church of Tolpuddle to be appropriated to the abbey of Abbots- bury on this account. Ca/. Pap. Letters, v, 77. '" So great, [says Knighton] was the scarcity of priests that many churches were desolate, being without divine offices. Hardly could a chaplain be got under j^io or 10 marks to minister in any church, and where before a chaplain could be had for 4 or 5 marks, or 2 marks with board, so numerous were priests before the pestilence, now scarce any would accept a vicarage of ^20 or 20 marks. But in a short time there came crowding into orders a multitude of those whose wives had died in the plague, of whom many were illiterate, only able to read after a fashion, and not able to understand what they read. Lek. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 63. 21 A HISTORY OF DORSET of a sufficiency of candidates who had attained the requisite orders. Bishop Wyville in a letter to the archdeacon in 1366 refers to a report of the number of absent rectors and vicars in the diocese and particularly in Dorset who let their churches to laymen, religious men "- being specially mentioned in this connexion."' Erghum, six years later, noting the neglect of divine service and hospitality and the danger to the souls of parishioners resulting from the practice of absentee incumbents making over their churches to laymen and unfit persons, desired to be certified as to their number in the archdeaconry, the period of absence and the names of those to whom bene- fices had been let."* Waltham, early in his episcopate, issued an order to his vicar-general in spirituals to enforce residence on the clergy, and punish those who did not comply."" The deaneries of Shaftesbury and Pimperne were visited by the bishop in 1393—4, the chief offences recorded in the list of presentments for the Shaftesbury deanery, visited in the church of Holy Trinity, Shaftesbury, appear to have consisted of moral lapses and the detention of tithes."* Many rural districts never fully recovered from the effect of the pestilence. There was a general fall in parochial endowments, and from the registers we learn of a number of churches, or moieties of churches, united on account of the insufficiency of the stipend to support an incumbent."'^ At the same time we find the bishops striving to restrain the ' insatiable rapacity ' of the clergy much in the same way as Parliament was endeavour- ing to put down the demands of the labourers."* Bishop Hallam in a monition (undated) addressed to his sons in general respecting a report of John Rygges, rector of Holy Trinity, Dorchester, that the church of St. Peter in the same town remains unserved denounces the refusal of any chaplain to accept a cure for a competent wage."^ Hallam's register contains frequent entries of licences for private oratories, and confronted by the difficulty of obtaining a sufficient supply of well-educated men to meet the growing demand it is evident that the bishops of that period turned for assistance to the use of licensed preachers.^ 180 '" i.e. men of the religious orders. '" Sarum Epis. Reg. Wyville, ii, fol. 225. '"' Ibid. Erghum, ii, fol. 8. '" Ibid. Waltham, fol. 15. '"« Ibid. fol. 72-7. ''' These include the union of All Saints and St. James, Shaftesbury, in 1424, the church of All Saints being very much reduced (ibid. Chandler, fol. 41 <2'.) ; the two moieties of Child Okeford on account of poverty (ibid. Neville, ii, fol. 2 Sarum Epis. Reg. Waltham, ii, fol. 31. '»' Ibid. Hallam, ii, fol. 16. '»' Ibid. Blyth, fol. 158. "' Rot. Norman, (ed. Hardy), i, 122-4. •'^ Close 3 Edw. II, m. 5 d. ced. ; 5 Edw. Ill, pt. \,xa.6d. 23 A HISTORY OF DORSET regarded as adherents of the enemy, their goods taken into custody and heavily taxed ; they escaped none of the burdens and enjoyed none of the immunities. From the commencement of the Hundred Years' War these foreign cells were, with brief intervals, seized into the hands of the king, who appointed custodians to farm their revenues. It was to the advan- tage of the head house abroad to get rid of their English dependencies, on as advantageous terms as possible but in any case to rid themselves of what involved merely responsibility, and the chapter of Coutances were fortunate in obtaining a purchaser for their manor of Winterborne Stickland in the earlier part of the French wars."' After a continued course of farming the spiritual duties that attached to these dependent cells became almost lost sight of ; at the close of the war the general verdict pronounced that charity and almsgiving had been withdrawn and divine service ceased in the case of the greater number of them, and it cannot be said that the country generally seems to have suffered much spiritual loss by their suppression. In Dorset their number and proximity to the coast, bringing them within easy reach of communication with the enemy, rendered their presence a very lively source of suspicion. The fear of invasion which marked the close of the reign of Edward II is reflected in the register of Bishop Mortival, which at that time teems with entries dealing with precautions for preventing any possible collusion between the foreigners domiciled in the country and the threatening force of invasion. ^*^ The return furnished by the bishop of those foreign beneficiaries who were ordered to appear before the council at West- minster and to give security for their good behaviour includes the names of Richard Gouch, rector of Toller Porcorum, Simon Avenel, rector of Winter- bourne Stickland, Ralph Moreb, rector of Spettisbury and canon of Salis- bury."^ In obedience to an order for the removal of certain religious men from their houses near the sea to others further inland, the bishop certified that he had transferred William Pyequier of Frampton and Ralph Pothyn of Loders to the abbey of Sherborne."' The final seizure of the cells and granges of alien houses in Dorset greatly enriched the English foundations to which they were granted as their leases fell in. Thus on its reversion to the crown in 1437 Henry VI bestowed the priory of Frampton in free alms on the dean and canons of St. Stephen of Westminster."" The cell of Loders was made over by Henry V to the nunnery of Syon (Middlesex) which he had founded, the grant being afterwards confirmed by Henry VI. "^ Muckleford, as parcel of the alien priory of Andwell (Hants), passed over to Winchester college,"^ Povington to Eton college,"' Spettisbury became the property of the Car- thusian priory of Witham (Somerset),"* Stour Provost, bestowed in the first instance by Henry VI on Eton College, was transferred by Edward IV to the provost and scholars of King's College, Cambridge."^ The prior of Wast or de Vasto succeeded in the reign of Edward II in letting his estate at Winter- borne Monkton and Bockhampton, and from that time the property remained in the hands of English tenants."' Wareham was granted by Richard II '^' Pat. 10 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 8. '*" Sarum Epis. Reg. Mortival, i, pt. 236. '^■^ Ibid. fol. 240a. '■' Ibid. fol. 27+. '» Pat. 16 Hen. VI, pt. I, m. 14. "' Ibid. 2 Hen. VI, pt. 3, m. 20. '" A. F. Leach, Hist. 0/ Wimhesler College, x, 144. '=« Falor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 206. '" Pat. 7 Hen. VI, pt. 1, m. 13. "' Ibid. Edw. IV, pt. 3, m. 23. "* Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 321. 24 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY in May, 1 399, together with the priories of Hinckley (Leicestershire) and Carisbrooke (Isle of Wight) and all other possessions of the Norman abbey of Lyre in England to the prior and convent of Mountgrace of the Carthusian order."^ Though these dependencies of foreign houses are often alluded to as ' reputed ' priories, only four of them can be proved to have maintained a religious community. It is difficult to summarize the religious position of the fifteenth century as it advanced, or rather it requires a summary from more than one point of view^. With an inevitable amount of dissatisfaction, and, on the part of the faithful, of discontent with the secular aims that animated most of the bishops and the higher ranks of the clergy, we have still to consider the evidence of the reality and movement of church life and the progress of religious aspiration. The chantries founded at that time and up to the Reformation are perhaps most significant of this advance, for, while the devout remained faithful to the form chosen by an earlier generation for the expression of their religious feelings, the introduction of other objects in their ordination testifies to the spread and growth of the ideal of education and enlightenment as a means to the amelioration of society. Again, indulgences are more frequently granted for purely secular objects. The register of Bishop Ayscough, 1439—50, records an indulgence for those assisting the building of a new haven at Bridport for the safety of merchants and mariners, to further the construction of which all the ecclesiastical authorities of the town banded themselves into a common association.^'^ Neither was diocesan visitation neglected. In January, 1503, in the midst of a visitation of the diocese by the bishop's vicar-general in spirituals, Bishop Audley wrote to the deans of Bridport and Shaftesbury respecting the excessive number of those begging alms and attempting to deceive the people by selling indulgences, denouncing all such traffic, forbidding the vendors to be allowed to preach in any of the churches of the above deaneries, and ordering the clergy to be warned against them ; this prohibition was not to apply to the nuncios of the order of St. John of Jerusalem in England."' The religious houses of Dorset appear to have reached their lowest level in the fourteenth century when their condition frequently called for interven- tion on the part of the king and ordinary and the appointment of custodians. Their poverty, the natural result of the economic pressure of that time, was in many cases greatly enhanced by the bad and inefficient rule of superiors, the effects of which lasted much longer than the actual period over which it extended. The troubles, for instance, of the Cistercian abbey of Bindon, whose history throughout the fourteenth century is one sordid record of debt, disorder, and dissension calculated to lower the tone of any community, came to a climax under the rule of John de Monte Acuto ; and his deposition in 133 i by order of the chapter-general of Citeaux -'"' by no means put an end to the embarrassments his government had done so much to foster. The difficulties again of the abbey of Shaftesbury, the extent of whose property gave rise to the proverb ' if the abbot of Glastonbury could marry the abbess of Shaftesbury their heir would hold more land than the king of England,' ""' were mainly '" Pat. 22 Ric. II, pt. 3, m. lo-il. '°* Sarum Epis. Reg. Ayscough, fol. 71. '" Ibid. Audley, fol. 1 14. '"' Close, 6 Edw. Ill, m. 3 !otes on Ch. 0/ Weymouth. *" Liber Fisit. Decani, 1628. 34 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY In 1635 occurs a name destined to be one of the greatest in the century succeeding : John Deane of Lyme Regis was presented ' for refusing to receive the communion of Mr. Westley.'^^* Elizabeth Bugler was in 1639 presented for breaking the sabbath, when summoned the widow confessed that upon the Sunday before Whitsunday upon urgent occasion she did for some of her customers grind in her mill at Sherborne certayne gristes for which she is heartily sorry .^*' For the most part presentments at this time were made for moral offences, drunkenness and violence in church, occasionally for non-attendance at church or communion ; in 1635, Marian Davies, wife of Jenkin Davies of Sherborne, 'for striking Ryw Palmers wife in ye church'; ^^^ in 1638, Joanna Kelleway, ' for not receiving the Communion at Easter last ' ''^ ; Thomas Thomas of Alton Pancras was presented ' in that he absented himself from his parish church at tyme of divine prayers and hath not received the Sacrament in all his life tyme he being of the age of 27 yeares ' ; this last acknowledged his fault, humbly submitted himself, and was ordered to frequent the church and receive the sacrament the next week.^*^ Meantime, in spite of the existence of hotbeds of Catholicism such as we have indicated, the tide of public opinion in this county flowed steadily in the direction of Puritanism. So strong was the hold it had already obtained here, that in 1634 Laud complained that there were Puritans in nearly every parish in Dorset.'"' Bishop Skinner of Bristol in an address to the clergy at a visitation held by him at Dorchester, 18 September, 1637, proceeds, after emphasizing the importance of sound doctrine, to plead the value of ancient custom with regard to the practice of kneeling at prayers, the use of the cross in baptism, and the observance of set feasts and holidays."" That the general desire of a reform in church matters was very strong is shown by the message presented by this county to Parliament by word of mouth of Lord Digby in the general petition of grievances in 1 640."' The influence of John White, appointed to Holy Trinity in 1606, probably had much to do with making Dorchester a stronghold of Puritan sentiment."^ The ' Patriarch of Dor- chester,' as he was termed, was instrumental in organizing a scheme for sending out a colony chiefly composed of Dorset men to settle at New Dorchester, Mass. At the beginning of the Long Parliament he took the covenant, and succeeded in inducing many of his fellow-townsmen to do the same."" He and his friend William Benn, rector of All Saints', who '" Liber Visit. Decani, 1635. This would be Bartholomew Wesley, the great-grandfather of the revivalist of the eighteenth century. '" Ibid. 1639. ^''Mbid. 1635. "'" Ibid. 1638. '^ Ibid. 1669. The Rev. C. H. Mayo has noted in Buckland Neuilon Parish Reg. how church discipline was still maintained in the later part of the seventeenth century. On 3 May, 1674, the register records that Mr. William Aarnold and Jone Lane were excommunicated in Bucidand church ; on the i6th of the same month that Martha Lane, the reputed ' dafter ' of Thomas Trew of Clinger, was baptized ; a few days after, on 31 May, ' Thomas Trew bore penance in Church ' (p. 10). Mr. William Arnold was again excommuni- cated on 4 Oct. 1685. ""^ W. Densham and J. Ogle, Congregational Ch. in Dorset, Introd. p. vii. ''" Speech of Dr. R. Skinner, Lord Bp. of Bristol, at the Visit, at Dorchester (published 1744). *" Shaw, Hist. ofCh. of Engl, during the Civil War, i, 9-12. "' According to Fuller {IVorthies, i, 340), his influence brought about great reforms in the condition of the town. Beginning as a moderate Puritan, his views were probably rendered more extreme by the persecution to which he was subjected. He was summoned before the Court of High Commission in 1625, to answer respecting certain papers that had been found in his study, but was eventually discharged and his informant reproved for ' twattling.' Cal. S.P. Dom. 1635-6, p. 513 ; 1638-9, p. 217. "^ Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 375. 35 A HISTORY OF DORSET seconded all his efforts to promote the Presbyterian cause in the town, were both among the triers deputed to examine the qualifications of candidates for the cure of souls under the Commonwealth, and two daughters of Mr. White married ministers who were among the ejected in this county at the Restoration: John Wesley and Benjamin Way. The recent publication of the minute books of the Dorset Standing Committee,"^ which came into operation shortly after the issue of the ordinance of i July, 1644, affords ample information as to the ecclesiastical working of the county during the Commonwealth. The ecclesiastical powers vested in the members of this committee enabled them to determine the delinquency, scandal, or malignancy of any incumbent, whether he had preached against the Parliament or joined the king's army,""' to enforce the use of the Directory, and to make appointment of other ministers to serve in the cures that had been sequestered, provided their names had been approved by those deputed to examine them. Besides these duties they are found ordering additions to small stipends, as in the case of the vicar of Abbotsbury,-'^ appointing lecturers,"" assigning stipends to schoolmasters,"" directing the pay- ment of fifths to which the families of ejected ministers were entitled out of sequestered benefices ; in many cases intruded ministers showed great reluc- tance to pay and the committee had to resort to threats in order to enforce payment. Among these was Bartholomew 'Westleye' of Charmouth, the great-grandfather of the revivalist, who in January, 1648, was ordered to pay the full fifths of the parsonage, or to show cause why he refused ; the follow- ing February came the order, ' whereas it is made known to us that Mr. Nor- rington who was outed from the church of Charmouth for scandal hath since obtained in the county of Wilts ^^3° P^"" annum for his livelyhood, Mr. Westley is released from payment of fifths, as the whole profits of Char- mouth only amount to about ^20.'"'' Among smaller matters of detail referred to the committee was the official custody of the church key,"*" which at Stoke Abbott had been detained by the ' outed ' incumbent."*^ Out of the lands, tenements, &c., belonging to any dean and chapter or impropriated personages within the county under sequestration, they advised the assignment of certain sums in augmentation of the living or the maintenance of a lecture in some fifty different parishes, the ministers or lecturers of which should first be approved by the committee before the extra payment should be made to them."*" On 6 January, 1646, Walter Fry and John Squibb, gent., were appointed to receive and distribute their payments out of the rents payable from the "* Dorset SlanJ. Com. ed. by C. H. Mayo, 1902. '" On 22 Dec. 1642, it was moved in Parliament that in the case of those ministers who had left their charges and joi-ned the king's forces the profits of their livings should be sequestered and their names presented to ' this House.' Lds. Journ. v, 516. '" Min. Bks. ofDonet ^tand. Com. 78. *" Ibid. 67. '"' At Beaminster and Dorchester. Ibid. 29, 85 "' Ibid. 491, 500-1. W.ilker's account of the fate of this outed minister is that ' he left his wife and Five Children as poor as Misery could make them,' and that ' his widow was at length constrained to beg the charity of the Corporation for Ministers' Widows by whom she was relieved ' ; Sufferings of the Clerg«' Add. MS. 8845. "' Walker, Sufferings of the Clergy, W, passim. '"^ Minute Bks. 58, 59. "» IbiJ. 67. "' Ibid. 130. ^" Ibid. 333. ^' Ibid. 234. »* Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. v, App. pt. i, 587. 37 93 A HISTORY OF DORSET ' having used his function of a minister in the town as a preacher to the garrison almost two yeares,' the mayor, aldermen, bailiffs, and burgesses were anxious to secure him as their pastor,"' and to this end sent a petition to- Parliament ' to settle some mayntenance on the towne for a minister, nothing arising out of the towne (being very poore and populous) but what the people please voluntarily to contribute.' A promise of >Ci°° P^f annum 'to be settled upon this and Radipole which is but one pastorall charge,' was obtained, and the townsmen generally promised to make a contribution according to their abilities and to provide a house, but Mr. Ince in the mean- time had been negotiating with the parishioners of Donhead in Wiltshire, and had promised himself as their minister. The ' souldiery and the townesmen ' were very much troubled and discontented upon receiving this news, and efforts were made to induce Mr. Ince to break, his promise to the people of Donhead. The matter was referred at last to the House of Commons who again referred the case to certain members of the Assembly of Divines, but their decision is not given. -'^ The confidence of the Puritan party in the sincerity of the promises contained in the Declaration of Breda, 1660, assuring ' liberty to tender con- sciences, and that no man shall be disquieted or called in question for differ- ences of opinion in matters of religion which do not disturb the peace of the kingdom,' "^ was speedily banished after the Restoration had become an accomplished fact. Of the 2,000 ministers — composing about a fifth of the entire number — who, in obedience to their consciences on the passing of the Act of Uniformity, laid down their offices ^^* some seventy or eighty belonged to this county.''^' The very date fixed for the Act in 1662 to come into operation (24 August) seems to have been designed with the object of making its severity most keenly felt, for it was appointed for a time when a whole year's tithe was due but not yet paid.'""^ Many of the ministers thus forcibly retired from their cures continued to reside in the places where they had officiated until they were driven from their homes by the Five Mile Act, holding services where they could in private houses and meeting with much persecution. Of these, Calamy notes Thomas Rowe, ejected from Lytchett Matravers, ' twice imprisoned with some other ministers tho' not above a fortnight either time. On the Five Mile Act he removed to Little Canford near Wimborne and preached several times in his own house without any persecution or disturbance, the reason of which was supposed to be the great number of Papists in those parts who lived under the countenance of a con- siderable knight of that religion, for they who were disposed could not for shame disturb him and leave them unmolested.''"^ Mr. John Weeks of Buckland Newton, for six months twice imprisoned for Nonconformity, during his confinement ' preached out of the prison windows to any that were disposed to hear him.' '"" Other ejected ministers were Mr. John Hardy of ''^ This was in November, 1646 ; the previous year on 11 March the authorities of the town sent a petition to the Standing Committee stating that ' being deeply affected with the necessity of having an able godly preacher of the Word to be settled amongst them, and a sufficient mayntenance for such a minister, doe conceive itt their duty to present their petition to that end unto youre high Court of Parliament ' ; ibid. "* Ibid. 588-9. "" Clarendon, Hist, of the Rebellion, xvi, 193. *" Calamy, Nonconformist Memorial, vol. i, Pref. iii. **' Calamy records some 64 or 65 (ibid, ii, 115—76). W. Densham and J. Ogle in an appendix to their valuable work Congregational Churches in Dorset (407—15) give a list with some nine more. *" Ibid. Introd. x. "" Nonconformist Memorial, ii, 133. '" Continuation, i, 415. 38 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY Symondsbury, who preached in Westminster Abbey on the Day of Thanks- giving for the Restoration ; ^^ Mr. Timothy Sacheverel of Tarrant Hinton, great-uncle to the famous Doctor Sacheverel of Queen Anne's time/"* who, with three other ministers, Mr. Ince, Mr. Hallet of Shaftesbury, and Mr. Bampfield, was arrested for preaching publicly, and indicted at the assizes 7 August, 1663, for 'a riotous and unlawful assembly held at Shaftesbury 23 July ; ' they were all found guilty and fined 40 marks each.'°^ But the most interesting of the sufferers of ' the fatal Bartholomew ' ^"^ are the Wesleys, Bartholomew and John, great-grandfather and grandfather respectively of the eighteenth-century Reformer. The former, who had been ' intruded ' by Parliament in the place of Mr. Norrington, ' outed ' minister at Charmouth, was in his turn ejected from his cure there. He continued to reside at Charmouth until driven away by the passing of the Five Mile Act, as his abode lay within two miles of the town.'" The final record of him states that ' he lived several years after he was silenced, but the death of his son made a very sensible alteration in the father, so that he declined apace and did not long survive him.''"' John Wesley, his son, sent in 1658 to preach at Winterborne Whitchurch on leaving Oxford, appears to have become early a marked man in the county. It was reported to the bishop of Bristol, Gilbert Ironside, when visiting the diocese on his appointment in 1661, that Mr. Wesley refused to read the Book of Common Prayer after the passing of the Act of Uniformity, and the bishop sent for him to question him as to his views and the legality of his orders. At the close of an interview, which in its real kindness and consideration on the part of the bishop is in marked con- trast to the one held by his successor, James Butler, in 1739, with the great revivalist,"" Ironside, finding the preacher deaf to all arguments, dismissed liim with the words ' I will not meddle with you, and will do you all the good I can.''^" But John Wesley was evidently a man to inspire animosity in those who differed from him and were not, like Bishop Ironside, able to appreciate the rigid honesty and sincerity of purpose that underlay his obstinacy. At the instigation, it is said, of some ' persons of Figure ' in the neighbourhood, he was seized on the Lord's Day as he was coming out of church early in 1662 before the Act had come into effect, carried off to Blandford, and committed to prison.'" He was afterwards released, but bound over to appear at the assizes, where he triumphantly asserted himself, and '"' Continuation, 414. "' Nonconformist Memorial, ii, 157. '"^ Continuation, \, 449. '* The 24 Aug. was St. Bartholomew's Day, and the date fixed for the Act of Uniformity to take effect is often alluded to as ' the second Bartholomew.' ™' Beal, Biog. Notices of the Wesley Family, 13. ' Forbidden by law,' says Calamy, ' the Nonconformists ■of the south-west of Dorset stole away to the solitudes of Pinney, and there in a dell between rocks like the Covenanters elsewhere they worshipped their God. The place has ever since been known as Whitechapel Rocks.' Continuation, i, 429. ™* Ibid. '"" The bishop of Bristol in his famous interview with John Wesley charged the Methodists with ' a horrid thing, a very horrid thing,' namely, with pretending to extraordinary revelations and gifts of the Holy Spirit and concluded by telling the reformer he had no business in the diocese, and advising him ' to go hence. Wesley's Works, xiii, 470. "° Calamy, Continuation, i, 439. Kennett in his account of the interview says ' the bishop was more civil to him (Wesley) than he to the bishop.' A son of Ironside succeeded his father as rector of Long Bredy in Dorset ; he is said to have been ejected from his benefice by the Long Parliament, and reduced to the utmost poverty ; Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 149. '" An entry in the Cal.S.P.Dom. (1660-1, p. 504), under date 5 Feb. 1661, records information laid against John Wesley, vicar of Winterborne Whitchurch, ' for diabolically railing in the pulpit against the late iing and his posterity, and praising Cromwell.' 39 A HISTORY OF DORSET though bound over to appear again ' came joyfully home,' and continued tO' preach every Lord's Day till 17 August, when he gave a final address to a ' weeping auditory ' from Acts xx, 32. On 26 October the place was declared vacant and an order given to sequestrate the profits, ' but his people had given him w^hat was his due.' Wesley then established himself with his family at Melcombe Regis, but the corporation made an order against his settlement there, imposing a fine of ^(^20 upon his landlady and 5J. per week upon him. These proceedings forced him out of the borough and he went to Bridg- water, Ilminster, and Taunton, where he met with great kindness from the three denominations of Dissenters, and was almost daily employed in preaching. At length a gentleman living at Preston, two or three miles from Melcombe, offered him the use of his house as a residence rent free. The offer was- accepted ; he removed thither,'^' and his son Samuel, the father of the Revivalist, is said to have been born at Preston. But the Five Mile Act subsequently drove John Wesley from this refuge. After being concealed for some time he ventured to return again to his family, was seized,, imprisoned, and finally died before his father."' At Dorchester, always a lively centre of Puritan feeling, it was reported at the close of 1664 that out of nine Nonconformist ministers four had been lately arrested on suspicion of being privy to the plot.'^* Six ministers and seventy others were now in prison for Nonconformity, ' the town is most factious and has daily conventicles.' '^° The proclamation of an Indulgence for Nonconformists in 1672 was quickly followed by applications for licences to hold Nonconformist services in the following places : Beaminster, Bettiscombe, Bothenwood, Bradford Abbas, Bridport, Broadwindsor, Cerne, Dorchester, East Morden, Fordington, Hawk- church, Lyme, Marshwood, Milton Abbas, Morden, Motcombe, Over Compton, Quarleston Stickland, Stalbridge, Shaftesbury, Stour Provost, Tarrant Monkton, Thornhill, Wareham, Weymouth, Wimborne, Winterborne King- ston, Winterborne Zelstone, Wootton Fitzpaine ; "^ and a ' thankful address ' signed by thirty-eight dissenting ministers in Dorset was presented to the king thanking him for his clemency and promising continually to pray for ' Your Royal Person, familie, Councill and Government as Dutie obligeth us your loyal subjects and ministers of the Gospel.' "^ In all the principal towns in this county Nonconformity can show an honourable succession of dissenting ministers, many dating from the ejection of St. Bartholomew's Day, 1662, and subsequent persecutions. ''' Before quitting a period which closes with the passing of the Act of Toleration in 1689, a word must be said of the Quakers, of whom a consider- ''- Calamy, Continuation, i, 448. The borough records of Weymouth during 1665-6 record a number of people of Melcombe Regis and the neighbourhood convicted of meeting to hold services other than those allowed in the liturgy of the Church of England. Most of these meetings appear to have been held in the house of Henry Saunders, mariner of Melcombe Regis and Dorothy his wife, the latter being convicted several times. For a first offence they were fined, on a second conviction committed to the town gaol ' for the space of 3 months and a day.' In all probability John Wesley was present at some of these meetings. Beal, Fathers of the Wesley Family, 96—8. '" Ibid. Blog. Notices of Wesley Family, 31. ^" In 1663 it was reported that a rising was daily expected in Somerset and Dorset ; Cal. S.P. Dom. 1663-4, P- 150- ^'^ Ibid. 1664-5, p. 130. "« Ibid. i67i-2,p. 664. ^" Ibid. 527. The Indulgence was withdrawn the following year. '" Somerset and Dorset N. and Q. ; Nonconformist Succession In Dorset, vols, i, ii, passim. 40 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY able number were formerly to be found in Dorset."' The sect of the Society of Friends, which sprang up towards the middle of the century and to whom the term Quaker was first applied in 1650/^" appears to have suffered equally under the regime of the Parliament and the Acts passed on the Restoration.*^' The tenets of their persuasion, their refusal to pay tithes or to be chargeable for the rates and assessments of churches whose worship they disapproved, exposed them to much contempt and dislike, while their objection to taking an oath in a court of justice or to remove their hats seems to have been universally misunderstood. In Dorset, between 1650 and 1660, some fifty-six names are recorded of those committed to prison, and sixty-six from 1660 onwards ; '"^ there is evidence of meeting houses at Bridport, Dorchester, Hawkchurch, Sherborne, Evershot, Corfe, South Perrott, Poole. At the beginning it must be admitted many convictions were due not only to adherence to the above unpopular views, but also to ' speaking to the people in the steeple-house,' or ' declaring truth,' &c. Thus on 1 6th of the 9th month (1656) Jasper Bett being at the steeple-house in Weymouth (Melcombe Regis) when the Priest had clone asked him whether he was a ?ninister of Christ ? The Priest answered / am, and went away ; but the People fell violently upon Jasper beating and abusing him sorely and then hailed him to prison where he lay several days.'-^ As persecutions became severer these officious testimonies to the ' truth ' were dropped, offenders were ' set in the stockes,' ^"* several on their way to attend meetings were ' whipped and put outside the town under pretence that they were vagabonds.' ^~' In 1657 six were committed to gaol for ' uncourtly behaviour before the justices,' i.e. refusing to uncover.*^' Quaker meetings were always subject to interruption, and those attending them to insult, even in the open street.^" An Act was passed in 1661 with special reference to their refusal to take an oath,'"' and the following year it is stated there were about 200 Quakers imprisoned in Dorset for wearing their hats in court, not swearing, and opening their shops on 29 May and 12 June, days appointed to be observed as a fast for fine weather. '*-" Non-juring at the close of the century seems to have confined itself mostly to the Roman Catholics, or ' popish recusants ' as they were still called,^'*" who, after the 'Unnatural Rebellion' of 17 15, were obliged to register their names and estates. The return furnished of those ' Roman Catholic Nonjurors and others in Dorset, who refused to take the oaths to king George ' gives fifty- '" In response to an inquiry in the Somerset and Dorset Notes and Queries as to Dorset Quaker burial grounds a list is there given (i, 1 53) showing their existence at Bridport, Cerne, Corfe, Dorchester, Hawkchurch, Lyme Regis, Marnhull, Poole, Ryme Intrinseca, Shaftesbury, Sherborne, and Weymouth. ^'° The year succeeding the imprisonment of George Fox at Nottingham. '*' Besse, Abstract of Sufferings of the Quakers, i, Introd. vi, vii, viii, ix. "» Ibid. 530-1 ; ii, 463-4. "3 Ibid, i, 75. '-'' Ibid. 77. '« Ibid. "« Ibid. 79. '=' Ibid. 80-81. ^'» Ibid, ii, Pref pp. xi-xv. *" Cal. S.P. Dom. 1661-2, p. 426. Persecutions did not cease till the passing of the Act of Toleration, 1689, and members of this sect continued to be presented at the assizes at Dorchester for adherence to their opinions. 'A powerful factor,' says Bejse, ' in granting warrants for distresses in 1674 for holding meetings, amounting to ^^97 9/. lod. was Justice Culliford, who much transgressed the Bounds of his office in kicking Deborah Coleman an innocent woman on her Belly and other parts of her Body and striking her with his Dog- whip ' ; Collections of Sufferings of Quakers, i, 1 70. "" Oberton's list of clerical and lay non-jurors who refused to take the o.ith of allegiance to William and Mary in 1689 and again in I 70 1-2 and 1 7 14, only gives the name of one clergyman in the Bristol diocese who can be claimed for Dorset : W. Flud, Fludd, or Flood, vicar of Halstock ; The Nonjurors, 478. 2 41 6 A HISTORY OF DORSET eight names, of whom many, like the Arundels, Sir John Webb of Great Canford, and Humphrey Weld of Lulworth Castle, are already familiar/'^ After the turmoil and struggles of the seventeenth, the eighteenth century with its moral and spiritual destitution, its ' colourless indifferentism,' comes as a period remarkable chiefly for its stagnation and lack of effort generally in the church. '^^ The abuses, pluralism, and non-residence, that marked the clergy in the mass, the poverty of the greater number of them, the great social difference that showed itself between their different ranks '^^ were probably as much present in Dorset, with its rural districts comprising many small and ill-paid benefices, as in other parts of the country. From the churchwardens' accounts of Ashmore, says the historian of the parish, to some extent we can trace the degradation of the church. It was found at three vestry meetings held in succession in 1 80 1-2 that the roof of the church was dangerous to worshippers, the pulpit and altar rail rotten, that the gallery, the steps into it, and the seats both in gallery and body of the church were in need of repair. The Holy Communion, it appeared, was celebrated three times a year — Christmas, Easter and Whitsunday — till 1 79 1, afterwards quarterly for a considerable number of years.'^* As regards those flourishing Nonconformist communities that the previous century had done so much to establish and organize, though there may have been, as has been said, an awakening among them contemporaneous with Wesley's great work,''^ it has also been shown what a disintegrating in- fluence Arianism had especially in the west of England where it seized on the younger and more highly educated generation of ministers.^'* ' Non- conformity went into the controversy united and strong,' say the authors of the Story of Congregational Churches in Dorset, ' having the adhesion of a large number of the most influential and even aristocratic families in the country. It came out of it disunited and impoverished.' '" That Nonconformist suc- cession in Dorset, to which allusion has been made, in many cases shows the manner in which congregations split up and seceded over this controversy. As far as the work of John Wesley actually in Dorset is concerned the Joi/rna/ shows that, with the exception of Shaftesbury, he visited the county where his name was already so familiar but rarely. At Shaftesbury he stopped frequently on his way to and from the west. On the first of these occasions, recorded in the Journa/, 31 July, 1750, he preached in the evening in a house accommodating from four to five hundred people, ' it was soon filled from end to end . . . none stirred, none spoke, none smiled, many were in tears and many others were filled with joy unspeakable.' ^'^ Return- ing from Cornwall Wesley called again at Shaftesbury, and the day after his ^^' Return transmitted to the Commissioners (printed 1 745). ''' The bishopric of Bristol — the poorest in England — was throughout the century held in succession by men who obviously only accepted it as a stepping-jtone to higher things. Thomas Gooch, 1737-8, stayed so short a time 'as never to have visited his diocese.' Joseph Butler accepting the offer of the bishopric in 1738 could not help remarking that it was ' not very suitable either to the condition of my fortune or the circum- stances of my preferment, nor as I should have thought to the recommendation with which I was honoured,' referring to the queen's interest {Diet. Nat. Biog. viii, 69). Bishop Newton, 1761-82, 'plaintively' enumerates the various preferments he was called on to resign on his promotion to Bristol, 'the prebend of Westminster, the precentorship of York, the lectureship of St. George's, Hanover Square, and the genteel office of the sub-almoner.' '^ Overton, EngL Ch. in Eighteenth Cent. 287. ^' E. W. Watson, Hist, of Parish of Ashmore, 92. "' W. Densham and J. Ogle, Congl. Churches in Dorset, Introd. xiv. ^= Ibid. App. +24-6. *" Ibid. ''^ fount, ii, 167. 42 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY arrival ' preached at noon in the most riotous part of the town where four ways met ; but none made any noise or spoke one word while I called the wicked to forsake his way.' ^'^^ The civic authorities, however, took alarm, and ' after I was set down a constable came and said, " Sir, the mayor dis- charges you from preaching in the Borough any more," ' whereupon Wesley replied, ' While King George gives me leave to preach I shall not ask leave of the mayor of Shaftesbury.' "° Wesley's impressions of the town underwent many changes in the years succeeding. In 1755, after preaching to ' sleepy ' congregations at Reading, he reported ' a much more lively people at Shaftesbury,' '" but on the occasion of a visit, 28 September, 1766, described the town as ' cold, uncomfortable Shaftesbury . . . spoke exceeding strong words.' '''^ The previous 29 August he had opened the new chapel here.'*'' In 1 771, stopping at Shaftesbury on his way to Portsmouth from Bristol, the 'Journal records ' preached to a numerous congregation but wonderfully unconcerned. I scarce know a town in England where so much preaching has been to so little purpose.' '** The indifference and coldness of which Wesley complained at Shaftesbury may possibly be explained by a reference to another town not far removed : Frome, ' dry, barren, uncomfort- able place.' '*^ ' In this town,' says Wesley, ' there be such a mixture of men of all opinions, Anabaptists, Quakers, Presbyterians, Arians, Antinomians, Moravians and what not. If any hold to the truth in the midst of all these surely the power must be of God.^*^ His last reference to Shaftesbury, how- ever, is more encouraging, 'I preached,' says the yoi^r/7rt/, 15 August, 1785, ' at Shaftesbury at nine to such a congregation as I had not seen there before. I was glad to see among them the gentleman who thirty years ago sent his officer to discharge me from preaching in his borough.' '*^ The spiritual awakening in the Church, which towards the middle of the nineteenth century resulted from the Oxford Movement, dates in Dorset from the year 1836, when by an order in council the whole county forming the archdeaconry was detached from the diocese of Bristol and became again united to that of Salisbury. In such dioceses as Salisbury under Bishops Denison, Hamilton and Moberly you trace, says the ecclesiastical historian of this period, the peculiar stamp of the Revival in what was done.'*^ The charge delivered in 1855 by Bishop Kerr Hamilton in which he outlines the changes initiated by his predecessor Bishop Denison, 1837—54, gives some idea of the practical work accomplished in the parishes and in the diocese at large.'*^ Beginning with confirmation, the late bishop's first care, he says : The old custom in this diocese before the present century was, I believe, to confirm only at the few places at which visitations were held. This number had been afterwards a little increased, but the year in which Bishop Denison began his ministry he formed, with the assistance of the archdeacons, a much enlarged scheme for holding 28 confirmations in Dorset and 29 in Wilts. At his last tour of confirmations this number was increased to 45 in Dorset and to 40 in Wilts, and he also arranged that there should be an annual confirmation in the chief towns of that part of the diocese where the general confir- mation was not held.^^° S39 ' Journ. ii, 172. "" Ibid. "' Ibid. 305. '" Ibid, iii, 351. '" Ibid. 217. '" Ibid. 451. Another entry records that Wesley preached at Melcombe and Shaftesbury on 15 Sept. 1779. Ibid, iv, 169. ^" Ibid, ii, 264. "■ Ibid, iii, 351. '" Ibid, iv, 327. "* Overton, The Anglican Revival, 2 1 8. "' Charge to the Clergy of Diocese of Salisbury at his primary visitation. '^ Ibid. 13. 43 A HISTORY OF DORSET Sixteen years ago (continues the bishop) out of the 556 churches and chapels in the diocese there were 2 sermons on Sunday in only 143. There are now 2 sermons or lectures in 426, that is to say 214 out of the 298 churches and chapels in Dorset. Of the 84 churches and chapels in Dorset where there are not 2 services and 2 sermons the account is as follows : in 16 parishes where there are 2 churches there is only I service and I sermon, in 33 parishes where there is one church there is one sermon, and in 24 only one service. In 35 parishes held in plurality there is but one sermon, and in 33 parishes similarly circumstanced one service.^^' Bishop Kerr Hamilton, 1854-69, threw himself strenuously into the work of church building and restoration. The number of churches con- secrated during his episcopate amounted to 84, of those restored, to 104.*" Under his successor Bishop Moberly, 1869—85, the number of churches restored in the diocese reached a figure of 160.^" The nineteenth century was prolific in church building ; to take the largest town in Dorset, Wey- mouth, no less than five churches have been built within the borough since its commencement : St. Mary's church, the foundation stone of which was laid in 1 8 1 5 by command of Princess Charlotte of Wales ; Holy Trinity, erected 1836 ; St. John's, 1854 ; Christchurch, built in 1874 as a chapel of ease to the parish of St. Mary ; St. Paul's of Westham, formerly within the parish of Wyke Regis but formed in 1902 into an ecclesiastical parish under the name of St. Paul's Weymouth, was opened in 1896.'°* In Dorset, as elsewhere, the duty that confronts the Church is not only to carry on the work and organization so well begun but to grapple with the difficulties presented by the different circumstances that have arisen since the earlier part of the last century. That this is well understood may be seen from the objects and purposes of the Queen Victoria Clergy Fund, to which the Salisbury Diocesan Board has been affiliated since its incorpora- tion in 1897, which aims at raising the value of poor benefices, with popula- tions of not less than 150, to an income of _^200 per annum, while a move- ment has been set on foot in the diocese for the union of small benefices and the re-arrangement of neighbouring parishes enabling them to be worked by one incumbent.'*^" In this manner it is hoped to meet the difficulties of the present agricultural decline, the diminishing number of candidates who offer themselves for ordination, and to ensure the fulfilment of the Apostolic injunc- tion that they which 'preach the Gospel ' shall also 'live of the Gospel.' '^' Charges to the C/ergy of Diocese of Salisbury at his primary visitation, 14, 15. The bishop in 1842 in his charge spoke of an improvement in the observance of Ash Wednesday and Holy Thursday, ' of late almost universally neglected ; ' but by the returns made in 1854 Ash Wednesday was still disregarded in 1 1 2 churches and chapels in Dorset, and in 133 the Feast of our Lord's Ascension was still not kept. Ibid. 15. As regards the practice of morning and evening service daily, Bishop Hamilton, at least in later years, took occasion to uphold their being said in prii'ate if not in public according to the directions of the Prayer Book. H. P. Liddon, Walter Kerr Hamilton, Bp. of Salisbury : A Sketch, 57. In 185 S there were twenty-six churches in the whole diocese where daily services were held, in 1861 there were thirty-nine. ^'^ Ibid. App. 126. '*' Though some smaller works may be included in this list. John Wordsworth, Bp. of Salisbury, Four addresses to clergy and churchwardens of diocese of Salisbury at his primary visitation. "' Handbook for Church Congress at JVeymouth, 1905 ; Rev. S. Lambert, Notes on Ch. of JVeymouth, 75-81. "' Report of the Board to the Diocesan Synod, Salisbury Diocesan Gazette, April, 1906, 67. 4+ UJ 3 O O Z. I UJ CE 0} UJ 3 to _l UJ £ < A? z ^ — < z >, id z c "w 3 5 3 s 2 o < ^ ■= K i^ - Z £ z 'i: z = < s lit- 5" > ^ I-i- c^^g-^g s~ i-o ■ „-^-=^ §*> -Ss"- « ■ - ^ r: ^ X — S_* .XXCD'«« 2S_- ' c s i. ■:; ^ a at ; ^ „ ^ §= £ a il ll-il = 11 Hi- £• ^o 6 2 si Sr a i; a: a. -3 xi 9, "■ H I H s £0 f^ kJ in UJ V5 in O rD >n <; n X ^ 0. !0 o m 0 < 2 H o -J < -1 < w a: c -J 4) I UJ O -J 0 CO O z < UJ y in -1 (J P Q -J < "1 Ul a: 1 O 1 u •0 oj ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY APPENDIX ecclesustiCjIL divisions of the county The conversion of Dorset, as has been already described, was finally accomplished by the establishment in 705 of a bishop-stool at Sherborne, the see of which, described roughly as lying ' west of Selwood,' was carved out of the old Wessex diocese on its partition at the death of Bishop Haeddi. For more than three centuries — and in spite of many fluctuations — the head of the diocese pertained to this county, but in 1075, following the decree of the Council of London which ordered the removal of sees generally to more populous centres, it was transferred to Old Sarum and subsequently to Salisbury to the diocese of which Dorset was attached down to the sixteenth century. In 1542 this county, then forming the archdeaconry of Dorset, was severed from Salisbury and annexed to the new see erected at Bristol under which it remained until the year 1836, when by an order in council it was again united to the Salisbury diocese. The thirteenth-century compilation of church property, known as the Taxation of Pope Nicholas IV, gives the five rural deaneries into which the archdeaconry of Dorset was then divided, namely, Shaftesbury, Pimperne, Whitchurch, Dorchester, and Bridport, and records the names of 171 churches besides Wimborne Minster — a deanery in itself — and several dependent chapelries. The Survey of 1340, recording the value of the ninth of corn, wool, and lambs which had been granted to Edward III, shows a marked increase in churches, which then numbered 218. The f^ahr Ecc/esiasticus, which Henry VIII ordered to be taken in 1 535, shows a further increase to 234. At the present time no addition has been made to the number of deaneries, but each deanery has been subdivided into two, three, or four portions. The names of the difiFerent parishes under their several deaneries and portions are as follows : — Deanery of Bridport Jhhotshury Portion : Abbotsbury, Long Bredy with Little Bredy, Cattistock, Chilfrome, Compton Abbas or West Compton, Langton Herring, Litton Cheney, Maiden Newton, Portisham, Puncknowle, Swyre, Winterborne Abbas with Winterborne Steepleton. Bridport Portion : Allington, Askerswell, Bothenhampton, Bradpole with St. Andrew's Chapel, Bridport, Burton Bradstock with Shipton Gorge, Chilcombe, Loders, Powerstock with West Milton, North Poorton, Rampisham with Wraxall, Symondsbury with Eype and Broad Oak, Toller Porcorum, Walditch, Wytherstone. Lyme Portion : Bettiscombe, Catherston Leweston, Chardstock St. Andrew, Chardstock All Saints, Chideock, Hawkchurch, Lyme Regis, Monkton Wyld, Pilsdon, Thorncombe, Wam- brook, Whitchurch Canonicorum with Marshwood and Stanton St. Gabriel, Wootton Fitzpaine. Bearnimter Portion : Beaminster with Trinity Chapel, Broadwindsor with Blackdown and Drimpton and Burstock, Cheddington, East Chelborough or Lewcombe with West Chelborough, Cors- combe, Halstock, Hooke, Mapperton, Melplash, Netherbury with Solway Ash, South Perrott with Mosterton, Stoke Abbott or Abbotstoke, Toller Whelme. Deanery of Dorchester Dorchester Portion : Bradford Peverell, Broadmayne with West Knighton, Charminster with Stratton, Compton Valence, Dorchester St. Peter, Dorchester Holy Trinity with Frome Whitfield, Dorchester All Saints, Fordington, West Fordington, Frampton, Frome Vauchurch, Moreton, Stafford, Toller Fratrum with Wynford Eagle, Whitcombe, Winterborne Monkton, Winterborne St. Martin, Winterborne Came, Woodsford. JVeymouth Portion : Bincombe with Broadway, Buckland Ripers, West Chickerell, Fleet, Melcombe Regis with Christchurch and Radipole, Osmington, Owermoigne, Portland St. George with Southwell St. Andrew, Portland St. John, Portland St. Peter, Preston, Upway, Warmwell with Poxwell, Weymouth St. John, Weymouth Holy Trinity, Weymouth St. Paul, Wyke Regis. 45 A HISTORY OF DORSET Purheck Portion : Branksea, Chaldon Herring, Church Knowle, Coombe Keynes, Corfe Castle, East Holme, Kimmeridge, Kingston, Langton Matravers, East Lulworth, West Lulworth, Steeple with the Grange Chapel and Tyneham, East Stoke, Studland, Swanage with Herston, Winfrith Newburgh with Burton, Worth Matravers, Wool. Deanery of Pimperne Blandford Portion : Ashmore, Blandford Forum, Chettlc, Farnham, Handley with Gussage St. Andrew, Langton Long Blandford, Pimperne, Shapwick, Steepleton Iwerne, Stourpaine, Tarrant Crawford, Tarrant Gunville, Tarrant Hinton, Tarrant Keynston, Tarrant Monkton with Tarrant Launceston, Tarrant Rushton with Tarrant Rawston. Wimborne Portion : Alderholt, Chalbury, Colehill, Cranborne with Boveridge, Long Crichel with Crichel Moor, Edmondsham, Gussage All Saints, Gussage St. Michael, Hampreston, Hinton Martell, Hinton Parva or Stanbridge, Holt, Horton with Woodlands, West Parley, Pentridge, Verwood with West Moors, Wimborne Minster, Wimborne St. John, Wimborne St. Giles, Witchampton. Deanery of Shaftesbury Shaftesbury Portion : Bourton, Buckhorn Weston, Fifehead Magdalen, Gillingham with East and West Stour and Milton, Kington Magna, Marnhull, Motcombc with Enmore Green, Shaftesbury St. James, Shaftesbury Holy Trinity with St. Peter, Shaftesbury St. Rumbold or Cann, Silton, Stour Provost with Todber. Stalbridge Portion : Long Burton with Holnest, Bishop's Caundle, Caundle Marsh, Purse Caundle, Stourton Caundle, Folke, Haydon, Holwell, Lydlinch, Stalbridge, Stock Gaylard, North Wootton. Sherborne Portion : Batcombe, Beer Hackett, Bradford Abbas with Clifton Maybank, Castleton, Over Compton with Nether Compton, Hermitage, Leigh, Lillington, Melbury Osmond and Stock- wood with Melbury Sampford, Oborne, R.yme Intrinseca, Sherborne, Thornford, Yetminster with Chetnole. Sturminster Newton Portion : Compton Abbas, Fontmell Magna with West Orchard, Hammoon, Hanford, Hinton St. Mary, Iwerne Minster, Iwerne Courtney with Farringdon, Manston, Melbury Abbas, Child Okeford, Okeford Fitzpaine, East Orchard with Margaret Marsh, Sturminster Newton, Sutton Waldron. Deanery of Whitchurch Bere Regis Portion : AfFpuddle with Turners Puddle, Athelhampton with Burleston, Bere Regis with Winterborne Kingston, Cheselbourne, Milborne St. Andrew with Dewlish, Melcombe Bingham, Piddlehinton, Piddletrenthide, Puddletown, Stinsford, Tincleton, Tolpuddle. Poole Portion : Aimer, Arne, Bloxworth, Branksome All Saints, Branksome St. Clements, Canford Magna, Charborough, Corfe Mullen, Hamworthy, Heatherlands, Kinson with Talbot Village, Longfleet, Lytchett Matravers, Lytchett Minster, East Morden, Parkstone, Poole St. James, Poole St. Paul, Sturminster Marshall, Wareham, Winterborne Anderson, Winterborne Tomson, Winterborne Zelstone. Cerne Portion : Alton Pancras, Buckland Newton with Plush, Cerne Abbas, Fifehead Neville, Frome St. Quintin with Melbury Bubb and Evershot, Godmanstone, Haselbury Bryan, Hillfield, Mappowder, Minterne Magna, Nether Cerne, Pulham, Sydling St. Nicholas, Up Cerne, Wootton Glanville. Mi/ton Portion : Blandford St. Mary, Bryanston with Durweston, Hilton, Ibberton with Belchal- well, Milton Abbas, Shillingstone, Spettisbury with Charlton Marshall, Stoke Wake, Turnworth, Winterborne Clenston, Winterborne Houghton, Winterborne Stickland, Winterborne Whitchurch, Woolland. 46 THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES OF DORSET INTRODUCTION Dorset enjoyed a unique pre-eminence for the number and importance of its religious houses founded during the Saxon period. No fewer than nine monastic establishments are known to have existed in the county prior to the Norman Conquest ; of these the great houses of Sherborne, Shaftesbury, Abbotsbury, Cerne, and Milton continued after that epoch to rank as Bene- dictine abbeys ; the two abbeys of Cranborne and Horton survived as priories, dependent respectively upon the abbeys of Tewkesbury and Sherborne ; the famous early nunnery of Wimborne was converted into a college of secular canons, while at Wareham, where an early house of nuns is said to have been destroyed by the Danes in 876, a small priory sprang up as a cell to the Norman abbey of Lire. The reformed Benedictines of the order of Cluny had a small priory at East Holme, and the Cistercians an abbey at Bindon, both founded before the end of the twelfth century. The Cistercians had also a house of nuns of much celebrity at Tarrant Kaines ; and it is probable that the ' Camesterne,' where, according to the Mappa Mundi^ compiled at the close of the twelfth century, certain ' white nuns ' were established, is a corruption of Kaines Tarrant. It is remarkable that the canons of the Austin and Premonstratensian ! rules, so numerous elsewhere, had no foundations within this county, unless perhaps the obscure ' priory ' or ' chantry ' of Wilcheswood in Langton Wallis belonged to the canons regular. It seems, however, more probable that Wilcheswood should be considered as a small collegiate church, of which class the other example in Dorset was Wimborne Minster. The Templars were unrepresented, but the Knights Hospitallers had a preceptory at Friar Mayne. The Dominican Friars are mentioned at Gil- lingham in 1267; their other settlement, at Melcombe Regis, was of far greater importance, and is remarkable as being the last house of the order established in England. The Franciscans settled at Dorchester, and the Carmelites had a short-lived settlement at Bridport. During the fourteenth century unsuccessful attempts appear to have been made to introduce Car- melites at Lyme, and Austin Friars at Sherborne. A remarkable ' priory ' Gervase of Cant. Op. Hist. (Rolls Sen), ii, 422. On the other hand, it has been suggested (Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 289) that this was a settlement at VVinterborne Came. Leland's statement that .the nuns were Benedictines (Jtin. viii (2), 62) is presumably a slip, as the latter wore black. 47 A HISTORY OF DORSET hermitage ' at Blackmoor, although stated to have been under the rule of St. Augustine, does not seem to have belonged to the Austin ' Friars Hermits,' nor yet to have become a house of Austin canons, as was sometimes the fate of such hermitages. Some twelve hospitals are known to have existed in this county, but they were mostly small, and some were apparently unendowed lazar-houses. A considerable amount of property was held in Dorset by alien houses, and in five or six cases the parent house established a cell or small priory upon its estates. These instances were at Frampton (the abbey of St. Stephen of Caen), Loders (St. Mary of Montebourg), Spettisbury (the abbey of Preaux), Wareham (the abbey of Lire), and possibly Povington (the abbey of Bee Hellouin). The latter is only called a priory in 1467, more than fifty years after it had been separated from the Norman abbey, and it is probable that it was never more than a grange or estate managed by the abbey's chief English cell, the priory of Ogbourne. In the same way the lands given by Roger de Beaumont in Stour Provost to the nuns of St. Leger of Preaux, and those in the neighbourhood of Winterborne Wast bestowed upon the Cluniac priory ' de Vasto,' near Boulogne, were never the site of any cell and priory. At Muckleford, which estate was granted with the advow- son of Bradford Peverell to the Norman abbey of Tiron," a cell was said to have been established,' but it is clear that the estate was really under the control of the abbey's cell of Andwell in Hampshire.* Similarly, the sup- posed cell of the Carthusian priory of Sheen at Shapwick ' was clearly no more than a grange. HOUSES OF BENEDICTINE MONKS I THE ABBEY OF ABBOTSBURY In the above account we have the name of the founder of Abbotsbury as generally accepted : Coker states in his Survey of the Countte of ' Sir Ore ' or Ore, Orcus, Orcy or Urce, steward Dorset, quoting the register of the monastery, un- of the palace of King Canute and Tola or Thola fortunately destroyed with the mansion-house of his wife. The date of their foundation however the Strangeways at Abbotsbury in the civil wars varies with different historians. Reyner, in his of Charles I, that here history of the Benedictine order in England, ..... • ■ r • r.".L • .- •.• . gives the year 1026,* Tanner states that about was built in the verie mfancie of Chnstianitie amongst ^ r^ ^ • ■ ■, ■ r i the Britains a church to St. Peter by Bertufus an ;°26 Orcus instituted a society of secuar canons holie priest unto whom the same saint had often ap- ^ere which he or Tola his widow changed to peared and amongst other things gave him a charter » monastery of the Benedictine order in the written with his owne Hande, reign of Edward the Confessor ' Again, accord- ing to Coker, the monastery was built by Orcus professing therein ' to have consecrated the church in 1044 and ' stored ' with Benedictine monks himself and to have given it to Name Abodes- from the abbey of Cerne.* It would seem from byry.' Afterwards the rules drawn up by Orcus for his gild or King Canute gave to Sir Ore his Houscarle this Maternity of St Peter at Abbotsbury' that a Abotsbury as alsoe Portshara and Helton ; all which society existed here previously which was later the said Ore and Dame Thole his wife having no issue converted into a monastic establishment, gave unto the church of St. Peter at Abotsbury, longe , , before built but then decayed and forsaken by reason , ^M'l^l' Benedict. T.^ct n, sec. v,, m. 3. the Rovers from the sea often infested it.' , /"""^ (^^- ' 74+). Donet, 105 Orcus the steward 01 King Canute having expelled secular canons in- ' Ca/. Doc. France, 358. troJuced monks. He was buried here with Thola ' Hutchins, Hijt. of Dorset, ii, 536. his wife. Leland, Collect, iii, 254. * Arch. Journ. ix, 250. ' Surv. of Dorset (1732), 30. ' Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iii, 166. ' Dugdale, Mon. (Charters under Abbotsbury,. ' Particular Surv. of the Ccurtie of Dorset (1732), 30. No. iii), iii, 35. 48 RELIGIOUS HOUSES Canute by charter dated 1024 bestowed Por- tisham on his servant Orcus.^ Tola or Thola, the wife of Orcus, and a native of Rouen, Nor- mandy, purchased Tolpuddle, and with her husband gave it to the monks together with Abbotsbury, Portisham, Hilton and 'Anstic.'' Edward the Confessor by one charter gave to Orcus, who was his housecari as he had been Canute's, the shore in all his lands and all wrecks of the same,* and by another charter notified Her- man the bishop and Harold the earl that he had granted a licence to Tola the widow of Orcus to bequeath all her land and goods to the monastery of St. Peter of Abbotsbury, accord- ing to an agreement that on the death of husband and wife their possessions should pass to the house, of which the king now declared himself the guardian and protector.' William the Conqueror testified by his charter to the same bisiiop and Hugh Fitz Grip, the Norman sheriff, that, for the love of God and the soul of his kinsman King Edward, he had granted to the abbot and brethren of Abbotsbury their land as fr-;e and quit as it was held in the time of his predecessor together with the right of soc, sac, tol, team, infangnetheof and wreck of the sea, and he desired the abbey should lose nothing unjustly but should be honourably treated.'" In the Domesday Survey the abbey held the following manors : Abbotsbury, Tolpuddle, Hilton, Portisham, Shilvinghampton, Wootton Abbas, Bourton and Stoke Atram. The monks complained at the same time that a hide belong- ing to the manor of Abbotsbury, which had been assigned to their living in the time of Edward the Confessor, had been unjustly reft from them by the Norman sheriff Hugh Fitz Grip, and that his widow had taken six ; in the same manner they had been deprived of a virgate of land in Portisham. ^^ In a letter to the king about his assessment in the year 1 166 Abbot Geoffrey deposed that Roger the bishop when he had the custody of the abbey gave to Nicholas de Meriet 2 hides of land at Stoke Atram for the marriage of a niece, the deed being contrary to the wish of the convent.'^ By an inquisition before the king's escheator John le Moyne, and Andrew Wake sheriff of Dorset, at Uggscombe, Wednesday before the Feast of St. Simon and St.Jude (28 Oct.), 1268, as to the rights and privileges of the abbey, it was declared that the abbot and his predecessors had all liberties and free customs with soc, sac, tol, team and infangnetheof within their lands in the hundred of Uggscombe but not in their * Dugdale, Mon. (No. ii), iii, 55. ' Ibid. (No. i), iii, 54. « Ibid. (No. iv), iii, 36. " Ibid. (No. v) ; Kemble, Codex Dipt, iv, 841. '» By inspex. Ch.irt. R. 8 Edw. II, No. 5. " Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 78. " Red Bk. of the Exch. (Rolls Ser.), i, 2 1 1. William of Malmesbury records {Gesia Regum [Rolls Ser,], ii, 2 49 other lands at Hilton, Tolpuddle, * Oth,' and Wootton Abbas ' which last is in the hundred of Whitchurch,' that they were free of the suit of that hundred by grant of Robert de Mande- vile, formerly lord of the hundred, except that their villeins were bound to come thrice a year to la lagh-day to present the pleas of the crown with- out hindrance. The abbot and his predecessors were discharged from all military service to the king by the service of one knight;'' wreck of the sea was said always to have belonged to them, and they had always enjoyed it. The jury further declared that the abbey had acquired grants of land in the following places : Cran- ston, Wytherstone, ' Deneham,' ' Poeyeto,' Bex- ington, Shipton, Poorton, East and West Chaldon, Morebath, Wraxall, Winterborne Steepleton, Wareham, Upway, Broadway, Lang- ton, Bridport, Dorchester, ' Brigge,' Preston in co. Somerset, and Hornington." Henry III by charter dated 15 November, 1269, inspected and con- firmed the charters previously granted to the abbey by his predecessors the kings of England, William the Conqueror, Henry I, Stephen, and Henry II, with all privileges and gifts.'* The convent obtained from the king two years later a grant enabling them to hold a weekly market and yearly fair in their manor of Hilton.'^ Edward I gave them leave to hold a market at Abbotsbury." Edward II in 13 1 5 confirmed anew their right to wreck of the sea in connexion with a whale {crassus piscis) cast up on the coast.'* Edward III confirmed their right of free warren over their lands at Abbotsbury, Portisham, Granston, Wootton Abbas, Wytherstone, Hilton, Tol- puddle, Ramsbury (Dorset), and Holwell (Som- erset." Edward IV in the first year of his reign, 1 46 1, made a grrnt to the abbot and convent of St. Peter's, Abbotsbury, of the hun- dred of Uggscombe, with view of frankpledge and all issues pertaining thereto, rendering the true yearly value at the exchequer."" According to the Taxatio of 1 29 1 the spiri- tualities of the abbey amounted to j^i3 gs. ^.d.^ 559) that Bishop Roger appropriated Abbotsbury to the bishopric so far as he was able. '^ The abbot was returned for the service of one knight's fee under Henry II {Red Bk. of the Exch. [Rolls ^e.r.\ passim), Richard I, John, Henry III (Pat. I Hen. Ill, m. 8), and Edward I (Close, 16 Edw. I, m. 3). " Chan. Inq. p.m. 53 Hen. Ill, No. 40. " The original of this charter according to Hut- chins, who cites it {Hist, of Dorset, ii, 733), was inj the possession of the earl of Ilchester, 1867. '" Chart. R. 56 Hen. Ill, m. 3. " Ibid. 9 Edw. I, No. 55. " Chart. R. 8 Edw. Ill, No. 5 ; Pat. 8 Edw. If, pt. 2, m. 6, 19 a'. In 1388 the owner of a cargo com- plained that his merchandise had been seized by the abbot and others as though it had been wreck, although thirteen of the crew had escaped. Ibid, i 2 Ric. II, pt. I, m. II ^. " Chart. R. 10 Edw. Ill, No. 41. '"Pat. I Edw. IV, pt. 3, m. 19. A HISTORY OF DORSET including ^\1 from the church of Tolpuddle assigned to the pittance of the monks; their temporahties were valued at ;^8i lOi. lod. in the deanery of Bridport including ^31 7/. id. from Abbotsbury with ' Luk ' and Langton, j^3 If. from the deanery of Dorchester, ^^36 7^. td. from the deanery of Whitchurch and ;^i 6j. %d. from the deanery of Shaftesbury, the whole income of the convent being assessed at ;Ci35 15^- \^^^ At the beginning of the thirteenth century, the abbey in common with other ecclesiastical appointments was kept vacant by John who, in the meantime, enjoyed the proceeds or bestowed them on his followers. We read that in April, 1212, the king presented to the church of Hilton, the abbey being void and in his hands. "^ The January following, the custody of the house was granted during pleasure to Roger de Preauton ; it was not until 15 July, 1213, that an order was directed to the prior and convent to send certain men out of their number whom they should choose to the king for an abbot to be appointed."'' A few days later the custodians of the abbeys of Abbotsbury, Milton and Sherborne were notified that the king had sent to them eighteen cart-horses and seven sick palfreys, and that all charges both for them and the men accompanying them should be accounted for at the exchequer."'' Abbotsbury escaped none of the burdens in- cidental to a religious house of any importance and under the royal patronage. In 1244 Henry Lombard was sent to the abbot and convent with a request that they would find him the necessaries of life in their house.^' Edward II in 1309 sent Norman Beaufiz to receive main- tenance, and a robe or 20i. yearly.-^ During the period of the Scotch wars the abbey received the usual requests for aid, and a little later for shelter for disabled warriors."' William Spyney, crossbow- man, was transferred here in January, 1 317 ; "' William Deyvill was sent in August, 1331, to receive such maintenance as Norman Beaufiz, deceased, had had ; "' and six years later a re- quest was made that the abbot and convent would give maintenance to John de Sancto Albano.^" It is evident that demands of this kind were not welcomed by the different re- ligious houses. On 20 April, 1 339, the abbey of Abbotsbury was ordered to receive and pro- vide maintenance for two hostages of the town of " Pope Nkh. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 183-5. " Pat. 13 John, m. 3. " Close, 14 John, m. 3 ; 15 John, m. 7. " Ibid. m. 4. " Ibid. 22 Edw. I, m. 11 d. '" Ibid. 2 Edw. II, m. 13 a'. " Ibid. 3 Edw. II, m. sd.; S Edw. Ill, m. 5 . (Tvvysden), p. I 54. Dugdale quotes an account of the foundation from a register of I the abbey, no longer in existence, which states that the house was built in the tenth year of .(Ethelstan's reign, which began in 824 {Mon., Chart, of Milton, No. 3, vol. ii, 348). This is palpably a mistake, as is also the date given in the foundation charter. Birch, Cart. Sax., ii, 452-3. ■ According to the account given in the above- mentioned register ^thelstan, upon false suggestions that Edwin was concerting a plot against him, caused testifying (without reference to the above inci- dent) that for an endowment he had granted for the good of his soul, and the souls of his successors, the kings of England, to God, St. Mary, St. Sampson, and St. Branwalader the following lands : — 26 hides at Milborne, 5 at Woolland, 3 at Fromemouthe, viz. : 2 in an island and one at Ore (Ower), 3 hides at Clyffe with a meadow, 3^ at Lyscombe, i at Burleston, i at Little Puddle, 5 at Cattistock, 6 at Compton Abbas, 2 at Whitcombe, 5 at Osmington, 6 at Hoi worth — in all 67 hides; a weir on the Avon at Twyneham (co. Hants), all the water within the shore at Weymouth and half the stream out to sea, 12 acres of land for the support of the weir and the person in charge of it, and 3 thaynes in Sussex and a saltern by the weir, 30 hides of land at Sydling for the maintenance of the monks, 2 at Chel- mington, 6 at Hillfield, and 10 at Ercecombe (Stockland).^ The king further bestowed rich gifts on the abbey wherein he buried the body of his mother, together with numerous relics procured from Rome and Brittany, including the arm and bones of St. Sampson, archbishop of Dol, and the arm of St. Branwalader the bishop.^ In the reform of monasticism under Edgar and Dunstan the secular priests here were replaced in 964 by monks under an abbot, Cyneward.' At the time of the Domesday Survey besides twelve acres of land in Hampshire, held of the abbey by the sheriff Edward,^ the church of Milton had manors or estates in the following places : — Sydling, Milton, Compton Abbas, Cattistock, Puddle, Clyffe, Osmington, Whit- combe, Lyscombe, Woolland, Winterborne, Hillfield — the rent of which was £2 and a sextary of honey — ' Ora ' (Ower), Stockland — the prince to put out to sea in an open boat with a single attendant. The prince in despair threw him- self overboard and was drowned, his squire with great difficulty managed to swim to shore at Whitsand with his body. The king repenting of his deed is said to have confined himself seven years at the monastery of Landport (Somerset) as a penance, and to have founded the two abbeys of Michelney and Milton. Dugdale, Moti., Chart, of Milton, No. 2, ii, 34S ; Will, of Malmes. Gesla Regum (Rolls Sen), i, 156 ; Lel.md, Coll., ii, 252 ; iii, 71 ; Stowe MS., 104.6, fol. 24. ^ Birch, Cart. Sax., ii, 452-3. The version given by Kemble {Coii. DipL, ii, 245) omits the grant of the ' water at Weymouth,' but it is included in what is called the Middle English version of the same charter (v, 235), though left out in the confirma- tion charter of Henry I. Dugdale, Mon., Chart, of Milton, No. 7, ii, 350. ■■ Ibid. Chart, of Milton, No. 5, ii, 349 ; Will, of Malmes., Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 186, 400-1 ; Leland, Coll., iii, 71. ' Ibid, ii, 186; iii, 72. Jngl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 94. '^ Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 43^. 58 RELIGIOUS HOUSES which belonged to the demesne of the monks, and was assigned towards the expenses of their living and clothing — and Piddletrenthide/ Henry I, reciting the charter of i^Lthelstan, king of England, the founder, confirmed to the abbey of Milton and the monks serving God there their possessions therein enumerated with all liberties, free customs and acquittances, the right of soc, sac, tol, team, and infangnetheof, waif, assize of bread and ale, gallows, pillory, and all other appurtenances.* From Henry III the abbot and convent obtained a charter in 1252 for the right of free warren over all their demesne lands in Dorset, provided they should not be within the king's forest, with a licence to hold a weekly market at the monastery within the manor of Milton on Thursday, a yearly fair there on the vigil, feast, and morrow of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and a yearly fair in their manor of Stockland on the same three days.^ The Taxatio oi 1 291 gave the abbey spiritualities amounting to ^Tg i8j. id. from the churches of Sydling, Puddletown, Tolpuddle, Dewlish, Whitcombe, and Hol- worth, Stockland, Cattistock and Compton ; '" and temporalities valued at £,i2b 9^." in the deaneries of Bridport, Dorchester, and Whit- church, the total income from both sources being assessed at ;^I36 yj. id. The abbot was assessed for his holding at two knights' fees in the reign of Henry 11;'^ in 1 155-6 he paid 40J. scutage." He certified the king by charter in 1 166 that originally the abbey owed no knights' fees either .of the old or new feoffment, but that Roger, bishop of Salisbury, on the occasion when he took the abbey into custody on its voidance at the command of Henry I, enfeoffed one knight of a tenement, viz. 2 hides held by Robert de Monasteriis, and another knight of another tene- ment, viz. 2^ hides which William Fitz Walter held. Afterwards R., the predecessor of the present abbot, had returned these fees to their original state, and the knights constituted by the bishop had been made censunrii, and held thus in the time of the aforesaid R., as did their heirs at the present time : William de Monasteriis and William Brito." In the year 11 84 Osbert de Dorchester and Robert de Godmanston rendered ' Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 78. ' Dugdale, Mon., Chart, of Milton, No. 7, ii, 350-1- ' Chart. R. 37 Hen. Ill.m. 16. Edward II, in his subsequent exemplification of the possessions and liberties of the monks previous to their disastrous fire of I 309, declared that these markets and fairs were originally granted by their founder ^thelstan. Pat. 5 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 17. '"Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 179. " Ibid. 183-4. '' Red Bk. of the Exch. (Rolls Ser.), i, 15, 26, 33. 54- "Ibid, ii, 678. " Ibid, i, 211. an account to the Exchequer of the farm of the possessions of the abbey for half a year.^* An account for three terms was rendered in 1213,^* and on July of that year John intimated to the custodians of the abbeys of Abbotsbury, Sher- borne, and Milton that he was sending down a number of sick horses to be placed in their charge.'' Edward I, in the first year of his reign, granted to the prior and convent on pay- ment of a fine of fifty marks the custody of their abbey, void by the death of Abbot William de Taunton.'* The convent, in common with other ecclesiastics, received in 1294 a grant of protection for a year in consideration of the money which they had contributed towards the royal subsidy. '' A great misfortune befell the community in 1309 ; on the night of 2 September the wooden belfry of their church was struck by lightning in the midst of a violent thunderstorm and gale ; the building took fire, and in its destruction perished the bells, ornaments, and vestments of the monks, together with all their books, char- ters, and muniments.^" The bishop of Salisbury immediately granted an indulgence of forty days in aid of the restoration of the church ; -' and with the object of replacing the title deeds which had been lost Edward II ordered a com- mission to inquire as to the lands and rents held by the abbot and convent previous to the destruc- tion of their charters,"' by his own charter two years later reciting the return made by the in- quisition and confirming to the brethren all gifts and privileges granted to the abbey by King jEthelstan, his predecessor, and all subsequent benefactors.^' The abbot and convent received a licence from the king in 131 5 for the appro- priation of the church of Sydling to their own uses, the issues being charged with a sum of 20 marks, to be paid yearly to the chapter of Salisbury towards the maintenance of the chantry and obit of Nicolas Longespde, sometime bishop of Salisbury, in the cathedral;"'' and in 1332 Edward III gave permission for the convent to appropriate the church of Stockland, 'said to be " Madox, Hist, of the Exch. i, 310. 'Mbid. 312. " Close, I ; John, m. 4. ■« Pat. I Edw. I, m. 1 7. " Ibid. 22 Edw. I, m. 8. " Sarum Epis. Reg. Simon of Ghent, i, fol. 86 ; Txw&XX, Annah (Rolls Ser.), ii, 7 ; Walsingham \Htst. Angl. (Rolls Sen), i, 126] erroneously dates this fire in 1311. "' Sarum Epis. Reg. Simon of Ghent, i, fol. 86. " Pat. 3 Edw. II, m. 32. ■^ Ibid. 5 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 17. This confir- mation was in 1393 inspected and confirmed again to the monks by Richard II. Ibid. 17 Ric. II, m. 27. ■* Ibid. 8 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 31 ; Sarum Epis. Reg. Mortival, ii, fol. 49 ; see Col. Pap. Letters, iv, 207 d. 59 A HISTORY OF DORSET of their advovvson.' " In 1324 Robert de Faren- don alienated to the community loox. rent from a messuage and land in Upper Sydling for the provision of a monk to celebrate daily in the chapel of St. Mary Milton for his soul and the souls of his ancestors ; -'^ and in 1329 a further grant was made by Nicholas de Weye and William de Wydecombe, chaplain, in aid of the maintenance of a monk who should celebrate daily in the abbey for their souls and those of their ancestors and successors.^' In 1336 the convent were permitted to purchase the manor with the advowson of the church of Winter- borne Stickland from the chapter of Coutances in Normandy ; at the same time it was ordained that 10 marks should be paid annually out of the same, and other lands in Milton and Osmington, to the chapter of Salisbury for a chantry estab- lished in the cathedral for the kings of England and Simon of Ghent, late bishop ; another 5 marks for a chantry in the church of Mel- combe Regis for the soul of Edward III, and 5 marks for a chantry in the church of Milton for the good estate of the king. Queen Philippa his consort, and their children, and for their souls after death. -^ A carucate of land in Bryanston was conveyed to the convent in 1344 for the yearly observance, on 31 January, of the anni- versary of William de Stokes."" In 1392 the brethren, on payment of a fine of 100 marks, obtained from Richard II licence to acquire various parcels of land in Hunsworth, Langford, Milton, and Bedeshurst to be assigned towards the yearly maintenance of the anniversaries of Roger Manyngford ^° and Margaret his wife, and other works of piety. Henry IV, on 22 October, 1400, inspected and confirmed an agreement made in 1386 between the abbot and convent and Nicholas Langford, whereby the former consented to re- ceive the latter into their confraternity so that in life he should participate in all the spiritual benefits of the monastery and order, should receive a weekly corrody of bread and ale, a robe with fur every year, a 'good chamber' within the abbey with fuel and litter, stabling, and keep for his horse, and a yearly rent of 40s., and after death that his name should be sent round with the names of other dead monks throughout England ; in return for these benefits it was stipulated that he should assist the community in their business with his counsel.'' The abbey was spared none of the charges im- posed on houses of any standing belonging to the " Pat. 6 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 16. *' Ibid. 18 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 28. " Ibid. 2 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 29. »■* Ibid. 10 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 8 ; 15 Edw. Ill, 'pt. 3, m. 6 ; 21 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. 31. " Ibid. 1 8 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 9. "' Ibid. 16 Ric. II, pt. I, m. 30. ^' Ibid. 2 Hen. IV, pt. I, m. 35. Benedictine order and of the royal patronage.'" Pensioners were bestowed on the house with un- failing regularity by Edward II and Edward III," and on the appointment of a new abbot they did not fail to present a clerk for the pension due at the royal nomination.'* In 1332 the abbot was requested to contribute towards the subsidy raised on the occasion of the marriage of the king's sister ; '* and two years later to give a tenth towards the expenses incurred by the Scotch war.'^ The community, which is said to have origin- ally numbered forty,'' was considerably reduced in numbers in the latter part of its existence, the change being attributed in the first place to the loss incurred by the fire of 1309." Other causes were not wanting, and the strain on the resources of the abbey became marked during the rule of Richard de Maury, 1331-52.'' On 24 April, 1344, the king ordered the chancellor of Salisbury, John de Tylvyngton, Thomas Gary, and John Maury to take the house, now in a state of great depression and indebtedness owing to dissen- sions between the abbot and convent, into their " With the exception of the year following its loss by fire, when Milton w.is omitted from the list of abbots who were requested to aid the king with victuals for the Scotch war ; Close, 3 Edw. II, m. 5 J. " Close, 8 Edw. II, m. I l Close, 7 Hen. Ill, m. 28. " Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 96. ^' Pat. I Edw. I, m. I 7. He is probably identical with Walter de Corfe, to whom the temporalities of the abbey were restored 17 June in the same year ; ibid. m. i 5. " Ibid. 19 Edw. I, m. 16. *' Ibid. 8 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 9. " Ibid. 5 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 2, 32. ^ Ibid. 26 Edw. Ill, pt. 3. " Ibid. 6 Ric. II, pt. 1, m. 16. "^ Ibid. pt. 2, m. 23. " Sarum Epis. Reg. Chandler, fol. 1 1. "" Ibid. Neville, fol. 11. " Ibid. Beauchamp, i, fol. 50. " Pat. 21 Edw. IV, pt. I, m. 7. " L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv (l), I 291-1424 ; xiv (l), 500. " B.M. Seals, xl, 3. neath a trefoiled arch the Virgin is seated, crowned, the Holy Child with nimbus on her left knee, in her right hand an orb. Under the arch of each of the side towers a mitred abbot or bishop, full-length. In the foreground an embattled wall. In the field over the roof two demi-angels issuing from the heavens, each swing- ing a censer, and on the left a cross. Legend : — + SIGILL' : CONVEN .... AN ... . MID- ELTONENSIS : E . . . . l'iE The reverse represents the abbey church from another point of view. Under two trefoiled arches in the centre, the Annunciation of the Virgin. In the triangular pediment above is a bust. Legend : — [porta : sa]lvtis : ave : .p : te : patet : e[xitvs : A : ve] [venit : ab : eva :]ve : ve : Q : tollis : ave A fine fragment of the same seal is found attached to a deed dated 131 5," and to the sur- render deed of the abbey in 1539.^° 4. THE ABBEY OF SHERBORNE The foundation of the abbey of St. Mary is usually attributed to Bishop Aldhelm at or about the time of the establishment of the episcopal see at Sherborne in 705,^ and though, according to an ancient record mentioning a grant to the house of 100 hides of land at ' Lanprobi ' by Cenwalch, king of the West Saxons, who died in 672,' it might be said to claim even greater antiquity, this is the date popularly accepted. Among the grants enumerated in a list of the names and benefactions of the ' kings, founders of the church of Sherborne,' ' are lands, many of which figure later in the possessions of the monks on the reconstruction of the house originally built for secular canons, and must have formed its earlier endowment : 5 hides of land at Oborne the gift of King Edgar ; 5 hides out of 36 at Bradford, ' Cerdel,' Halstock, and Yetminster, with Netherbury and ' Ethelaldingham ' granted by King iEthelwulf (Athulfus) ; King Athertus gave the liberty of 140 hides, and in Up Cerne 12 hides, in Tavistock 8, in Stalbridge 20, in Compton 8 ; King Kenewulf gave 5 hides at Affpuddle and I hide in Lyme ; King Cuth- red 12 hides in ' Lydcne,' ID in Corscombe, 25 at 'Menedid'; King Kenewulf 6 hides in Chard- " Harl. Chart. 86 A. 43. " Deeds of Surrender, No. 153. ' Wm. of Malmes. Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 375-8. Leland states that it was founded by King .^Ethelred \c. 870], but probably confuses its foundation with its. reconstruction ; Coll. i, 66 ; Tanner, Notitia, Dorset XXV. ' Cott. MS. Faust. A. ii, fol. 23. ' Ibid. Sherborne Abbey Tarrant ICaines Abcey Cerne Abbey ^"i^^T^. Abbot of Cerne (Fifteenth Century) m^:^.i Clement, Abbot of Sherborne (ii6^) Dorset Monastic Seals : Plate I RELIGIOUS HOUSES stock, 8 in Toller Whelme, in ' Wegencesfunte ' and Alton 30 hides, in ' Crutesdune ' 36 hides and ' Wytecumbe ' and ' Wluene ' ; King Offa Potterne with its appurtenances ; King Egbert 10 hides near Cerne, &c.; King Sigeberht 5 hides in ' Boselington ' and 7 in EastCann ; King Ine gave 7 hides near ' Predian ' and in ' Conbus- burie ' 20 hides ; King Geroncius gave 5 hides in ' Macnir by Thamar ' ; King JEthehed gave * Atforde ' and ' Clethangre,' and gave and re- stored Corscombe in ohlatum, which Canute afterwards restored.* It is recorded in addition to these grants ' that King ^thelstan by charter gave to the famil'ia at Sherborne land at Brad- ford Abbas on condition that they should say psalms and masses for the redemption of his soul on the feast of All Saints,^ and at Weston with the stipulation that they should pray for his soul and the soul of Beorhtwulf the earl ; ' about the year 903 King Eadred granted to Bishop Wulf- sige 8 carucates of land at Thornford, with the reversion of the estate on his death to the monastery.* In the ninth century the abbey seems to have shared with VVimborne the honour of giving burial to the kings and bishops of Wessex. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states that King iEthel- bald was buried here in 860, and jEthelbert, who succeeded him, in 866." Leland, writing in the sixteenth century, says the two kings were buried ' yn a place behinde the highe altare of S. Marie chirche, but ther now be no tumbes, nor no writing of them sene.' " In 867, after he had held the bishopric ' fifty winters,' died Bishop Ealhstan, ' of great power in worldly affairs and eminent in counsel,' who took a per- sonal share in the wars of Egbert, and by his example and generosity inspired king and people to continue the struggle against the Danes ; " •'his body lies in the town.'^^ * Cott. MS. Faust. A. ii, fol.23. ' The charters of the monks include one by Cenwalch of Wessex, 643-72, granting various privileges to the pontifical see at Sherborne and the community there ; it is witnessed, however by Laurentinus, archbishop of Canterbury, who died in 619, and of more than doubtful authenticity ; Birch, Cart. Sax. i, 46. ' Ibid, ii, 392. ' Ibid, ii, 394. ° Ibid, iii, 52. Hutchins in addition cites (Hist, of Dorset, iv, 228) two charters by King .(Ethelwulf, the first dated in 841, reciting a grant in perpetual alms of I 5 cassates of land in the place c.illed ' Halganstoc ' (Halstock) ' for the honour of God and love of St. Michael the archangel, whose church remains in the said little monastery, to Eadberth the deacon for his faithful service there; the other recording the grant in 844 of 2 cassates of land in a place called ' Osanstoc ' for the redemption of the soul of King ^thelwulfand the souls of his sons ./Ethelbald and ./Ethelbert. ' Atigl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 129, 130. '° Itinerary, ii, 48. " Jngl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 1 20-1. " Ibid, i, 132. The reconstruction of the house and the sub- stitution of monks for the secular canons, who had occupied it for nearly two centuries, took place in the reign of jEthelred by the agency of Bishop Wulfsige, 992-1001." The king's charter, dated 998, recites that by the persuasion of Archbishop JEAfric and the advice of his nobles he has licensed the bishop to ordain and institute a rule of monks in the monastery of Sherborne according to the constitution of St. Benedict, and enacts that none of the bishop's successors should in consequence usurp the tem- poral possessions of the monks, but as shepherds, and not tyrants nor with wolfish rapacity, should govern according to pastoral authority and for the benefit of the community, while any question creating discord between the shepherd and the flock should be referred to the archbishop, who should advise the king as to any necessary amend- ments ; and whereas it was not usual to consti- tute an abbot in the episcopal see, the bishop in virtue of his office should be abbot and father to the brethren, who should be obedient to him as sons and live as monks, in chastity, humility, and subjection.^* The charter of Bishop Wulf- sige declares that having expelled the clerks in pursuance of the king's order, he has ordained and constituted worthy (sapientes) monks in their place in the church of St. Mary of Sherborne, and restored to them the lands and possessions or those who from the beginning served in this holy place to the praise and glory of God, to- gether with a carucate of land in the vill of Sherborne, the tithe of the bishopric and every tenth field in the whole of the said vill, and 24 cart-loads of wood yearly.^* On comparing the estates confirmed to the reconstituted house by King jEthelred, at the close of the tenth century, with the lands in the possession of the monks in the return of io86, it will be found that the monastery had passed through the social and political changes follow- ing the Norman Conquest without incurring any serious territorial loss or deprivation.^^ The possessions enumerated in the confirmation charter of .^thelred in 998 consist of a hundred fields in a place called Stockland in Sherborne itself, with the estate {praedium) of the monastery as Bishop Wulfsige had inclosed it with hedges and ditches ; 9 cassates of land in a place called ' Holancumb,' 15 in Halstock, 7 in Thornford, 10 in Bradford, 5 in Oborne, 8 in Weston, 20 in Stalbridge, 10 in ' Wulfheardingstoke,' 8 in Compton, 2 in ' Osanstoke,' and a manor near " Leland, Coll. iii, 150. " Ibid. //;■«. ii, 51, 52. "Ibid. "^ The omission of Halstock in the Domesday Survey is curious, as it was one of the earliest posses- sions of the house, and is entered in the bull of Pope Eugenius III in 1 14;, and remained in the possession of the abbey down to the Reformation ; Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iv, 403. 63 A HISTORY OF DORSET the sea-coast called 'At Lyme.''' The nine manors specifically assigned to the living of the monks, apart from the ' land of the bishop of Salisbury,' in the Domesday Survey are returned as follows : — Sherborne with 9^ carucates of land valued at £b lOJ., Oborne with 5 hides, Thornford with 7, Bradford with 10, Comp- ton with 6 hides and 3 virgates, Stalbridge with 20 hides, Weston with 8, Corscombe with 10 hides less I virgate. Stoke Abbas with 10 hides ; the value of the whole amounting to ,^63 lOJ.** It was reported that 3 virgates of land in the manor of Stalbridge, held by Man- asses, had been taken from the church by W. the king's son, without the consent of the bishop or the monks. The loss of influence and position that might have been expected to follow the removal in 1075 of the episcopal see from Sherborne to Old Sarum was in a great measure obviated by the readjust- ments initiated by Roger of Salisbury in the suc- ceeding century. The bishop in 1 122, with the consent of Henry I, united the former abbey of Horton to Sherborne as a dependent cell, and raised the latter house, of which he as diocesan was titular head, to the dignity of an abbey, '^ Thurstan being consecrated the s.ame year its first abbot. ^ Various other arrangements and agree- ments on the part of successive abbots and the bishop and chapter of Salisbury followed this change. Clement, then abbot, quitclaimed tojoce- lin the bishop and the cathedral church of Salis- bury, about the year 1 1 60, the castle of Sherborne, formerly built by the great Roger of Salisbury ; -' and the same bishop by his charter recited and confirmed the rights and privileges of the abbot as holder of a prebend in the cathedral, consti- tuted by Bishop Osmund from the parish church of Sherborne and its tithes and chapels, which entitled the superior of the abbey to a stall in the cathedral choir and a place in the chapter, the grant expressly stipulating that on the decease of an abbot no portion of the profits of the prebend should fall to the communa because it was con- ferred on the monastery itself and not expressly on the abbot." The patent rolls record that on 22 July, 1386, the abbot and convent leased their house in the cathedral close in favour of John de Cliilterne, canon of Salisbury.-' In " Leland, Itin. ii, 51, 52. '* Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, fol. 77. " Jnn. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), i, 10. William of Malmes- bur}', who mentions other changes, by mistake ascribes it to the fourth year of King Stephen, 1 139 ; Gesta Regum (Rolls Ser.), ii, 559. ™ Cott. MS. Faust. A. ii, fol. 2 5 a'. " Reg. St. OsmunJ. (Rolls Ser.), i, 235. " Ibid. 250. The abbot is mentioned among those prebendaries present at the framing of the New Constitution {Nofa Constitutio) in 1214 (ibid. 374). The prebend was assessed at ^40 in the Ta.xatio of 1 291. Pope Nick. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 182. " Pat. 10 Rich. II, pt. I, m. 35. 1191 the monks made over the churches of Lyme and Halstock to the bishop and chapter to constitute a prebend in the cathedral church of Salisbury to the honour of God and the 'glorious virgin,' "^ and on the same date received a grant appropriating the church of Stalbridge and Stoke to the use of the abbey — saving a reasonable sus- tenance to be provided for the perpetual vicar ministering in the aforesaid churches — and a licence to receive 2 marks annually from the church of Corscombe when it should next be- come vacant.-' Though by no means incon- siderable, the rent-roll of the abbey of Sherborne was comparable at no time to that of Shaftes- bury, and even at this early date ' the poverty and narrowness of means of the house of Sher- borne ' are alluded to in the bishop's grant. In 1238 a composition between the convent and the bishop of Salisbury released to the former all amercements of the assize of bread and ale in the hundred of Sherborne and Beaminster which had been claimed against them, in return for which they agreed to pay the bishop and his successors half a mark annually at Easter.-'' The bishop claimed the right to instal all superiors on their appointment ; and in or about the year 12 1 7 Philip, abbot of Sherborne, acknowledging that he had incurred the displeasure of the diocesan by entering on the abbacy without his authority, pledged himself that no abbot in future should be enthroned save by the bishop of Salisbury or by his special mandate.^' The cathedral chapter, too, had their prerogative, and in 1242 the prior and convent were required to certify that the rights of the church of Salisbury should not in future suffer infringement because the abbot-elect, John de Hele, had recently received the benediction at Ramsburyon account of the ill health of the diocesan instead of in the cathedral.-* The bull of Pope Eugenius III in H45 recites that at the request of the monks he has con- firmed to the monaster)' of St. Mary of Sherborne^ which he has taken under the protection of St. Peter, the following possessions : — The monas- tery itself with all its lands, rents, and liberties conferred by the kings of England and the bishops of Salisbury ; the church of Stalbridge and of Horton with its chapels of Knowlton and ' Chesilberie ' ; the chapel of Oborne ; the church of St. Mary Magdalen by the castle with its two chapels and appurtenances ; the church of St. Andrew in Sherborne ; the churches of Brad- ford, Halstock, Corscombe, and Stoke with the chapel and all its appurtenances ; the churches of Lyme and Fleet (Dorset), Littleham and Carswell (Devon), and ' Cadweli ' or Kidwelly in Caer- " Reg. Rubrum, fol. 335. '^ Ibid. fol. 333-4. "^ Ibid. fol. 158. " Reg. St. Osmund. (Rolls Ser.), i, 265. " Reg. Rubrum, fol. 160. 64 RELIGIOUS HOUSES martlienshire/" cell to Sherborne ; the towns of Stalbridge, Weston, Oborne, Thornford, Brad- ford, Wyke, and ' Hloscum ' with all their ap- purtenances ; Compton with Over and Nether Compton, ' Propeschirche ' and Stockland with woods, meadows and two mills ; the street before the monastery in Sherborne, extending as far as the church of St. Andrew, with the mill by the monastery and the mill by St. Andrew's church ; three taxable houses in Sherborne with other houses belonging to them, the taxable houses round the court [atrium) of the monastery with their orchards and appurtenances ; all the taxable houses in the burgh of Wareham with the chapel of St. Andrew ; the towns of Horton, King- ton, Halstock, Coringdon, Corscombe, Stoke, Bromley, ' Laurechestoc,' Fleet, Beer, and Seaton with their salt-pits and other appurtenances ; the fisheries of Fleet, Beer, and Seaton ; Littleham with its fisheries, meadows, woods, &c. ; Carswell and Bromley ; various tithes with three cart-loads of hay yearly in Bere, and one cart-load from the demesne of the bishop ; the sepulture of the place free for those who should desire to be buried there, except for such as should die excommuni- cated and saving the rights of the mother church. On the death of the abbot or any of his successors no one should be set over them except by the common consent of the brethren or the counsel of the wiser of them.^" The bull of Alexander III, with some additions, confirms to the abbey in 1 163 the possessions enumerated in the bull of 1 145." Th&Taxat'io oi 1291 gives the abbot and convent pensions amounting to f^() I2s. 6d. from the churches of Stalbridge, Holy Trinity Ware- ham, and Corscombe in the diocese of Salisbury;'^ their temporalities assessed at ;^I26 15J. 2d. in- cluded lands and rents valued at £2^ ^s. Sd. in the diocese of Exeter '' ; £^ in the diocese of Bath and Wells ^* ; and ^^66 2s. 2d. in the deanery of Shaftesbury in the Salisbury diocese.'^ The possessions of the abbey rendered it liable to various services and taxations, and the demands incidental more especially to houses of the Bene- dictine order and of the royal patronage. The abbot in 1 1 56 and 1160-1 acquitted himself to the king for the holding of two knights' fees.'' In 1 166 the fees ot the house were certified by charter thus : — Richard Fitz Hildebrant holds of the abbey half a knight's fee, Thomas de Has- weria one fee, Jordan de Netherstock half a fee, " Roger, bishop of Salisbury, gave a carucateof land at Kidwelly and ' the mountain called Salomon's ' ; the churches of Pennalt, Kidwelly, and Penbray were granted to the abbey by Richard Fitz William. Dug- dale, Mon. i, 424. ™ Leland, liin. ii, 53, 54 ; Dugdale, Mon. i, 335. Chart, of Sherborne, No. v. ^' Ibid. No. vi, i, 339. »- Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 178-9. '" Ibid. 151. " Ibid. 203. " Ibid. 184-5. ^ Red Bk. of the Exch. (Rolls Ser.), i, 15, 27. Geoffrey de Stokes one-fifth of a fee, the above constituting fees of the old feoffment ; of the new feoffment Simon de Cherd holds two parts of a fee, Walter Fitz Hugh one-fifth, Robert de Thorncombe one-fifth.'' From that date the abbot appears to have rendered service for two knights' fees and a fifth part of a fee.'' In the course of the war with Scotland he was sum- moned by writ to send his service against the Scots, and in 1324 was requested to raise forces in defence of the duchy of Aquitaine;'^ his tenure entitled him to a seat in Parliament,^" and he leceived the usual notifications to attend. The convent on frequent occasions received requests or orders from Edward II and Edward III to supply maintenance in their abbey for boarders of the king's nomination,*' and in accordance with the usual custom, were expected to provide a pension for a clerk whenever a new abbot was appointed.*^ An order was issued to the escheator in July, 1 3 10, respiting until Michael- mas a demand of a palfrey and a silver cup from the abbot of Sherborne by reason of the last void- ance, the abbot protesting that he was not chargeable, as his predecessors had been quit of this special payment * from time out of mind.'*' On more than one occasion the monastery was used as a depository for taxes and subsidies col- lected in the county,** a strong and suitable room being requisitioned within the abbey in I 334 for the reception of the moneys collected in Dorset for the tenths and fifteenths voted to the king for the expenses of the war, with free ingress and egress to be permitted to the collectors, who were bound to answer for the amount." The history of Sherborne, from the date of its elevation in the twelfth century to the dignity of an abbey down to the stirring incident which led to the destruction of the church by fire in the fifteenth century, is very uneventful, and con- sists chiefly of small disconnected incidents. Henry II, by one charter, confirmed a composition " Ibid. 213. " Ibid. 34, 64, 80, loi, 125, 166 ; ii, 344. " Pari. Writs (Rec. Com.), i, div. viii, 1427-8. '» Ibid. " In I 309 William Beausamys was sent to the abbey to receive maintenance for himself, a horse and groom (Close, 2 Edw. II, m. 12). Hugh Cade was sent in I 3 1 5 to receive such allowance as Richard le PoLiger had had (ibid. 8 Edw. II, m. 1 1 d^. From the man- ner in which on the death of one boarder another was sent to take his place, it would seem that two was the number maintained at a time (ibid. 10 Edw. II, m. izd. \ ibid. 1 1 Edw. II, m. 9 54 SIGILLV • SCE • MARIE • SCYRBVRNENSIS A broken example of the above seal is to be found attached to the surrender deed of the abbey in I539."> The pointed oval seal of Abbot Clement (circa 1 160) represents St. Benedict, half-length, holding in his right hand a scroll inscribed : VERTITE FiLii AVDiTE ME. In bars under two round-headed arches are two half-length monks looking upward. '^^ The legend is defective owing to the edge of the seal being rubbed. . . . EMENTIS DE BVRN .... The seal of Abbot Laurence de Bradford (1246-59), pointed oval, the impression very imperfect, gives the abbot standing on a carved corbel, in his right hand a pastoral staff, in his left a book. The background diapered lozengy with a reticular pattern and small annular de- pression in each space. On the left is a counter- sunk quatrefoil containing a monk's head, the subject on the right corresponding is broken away.'^^ RNI A small pointed oval seal, with very fine im- pression but imperfect, represents on a church with pinnacled turrets at the sides the Virgin, half-length, holding the Child on the right arm. In base, under a trefoiled arch, is an abbot with pastoral staff, half-length, in prayer.^^* The legend, which is defective, runs : — CRA DEI MEM The signet of Abbot John de Flixton, attached to an indenture dated 1347, small, oval, chipped at the top, represents in a finely-carved and pointed quatrefoil St. Margaret standing on a dragon and piercing its head with a long cross held in her right hand."' The legend is partly defective : — .... [vJiRGO • VERMEM • J'VO[c]aNDO • VICIT • INER[mEM] The signet of Abbot John Frith attached to a deed dated i 37 1, red, represents in a finely-carved and pointed quatrefoil a dog sitting between two trees. 126 '» B.M. Seals, Ixii, 53. '" Deeds of Surrender, No. 112. '" B.M. Seals, Ixii, 54. '" Add. Chart. I 3969. "• B.M. Seals, Ixii, 55. "' Add. Chart. 6082. Ibid. 6083. 69 A HISTORY OF DORSET The green pointed oval seal of William the prior, attached by a woven cord of red silk strands to a document dated 1242,^°' represents the prior full length, holding in his right hand a pastoral staff, in his left hand a book. The legend runs : — li« SIGILLVM • WIl'i • PRIORIS : SIREBURNE 5. THE PRIORY OF CRANBORNE The monastery of Cranborne is said to have been founded as an abbey for Benedictine monks about the year 980.' The chronicle of Tewkes- bury describes its foundation and early connexion with the more widely-famous abbey in Glou- cestershire in the following manner : About the year 930, in the reign of King Athelstan, flourished a certain noble knight sprung of the illustrious stock of Edward the Elder and known by the name of Haylward Snevv on account of his fairness. And being not unmindful of his end, he built for him- self and yElfgifu his wife in the days of King Ethelred and St. Dunstan the archbishop a small monastery to the honour of God and Our Lord Jesus Christ, His Mother, and St. Bartholomew the Apostle, and endowed it with lands and possessions. And having assembled there brethren to serve under the obedience of an abbot according to the rule of St. Benedict, he made Tewkesbury, of which he was patron, wholly subject to it. These things were done about the year 980. And Haylward, having died and received burial in the church which he had built, was suc- ceeded by ^Ifg.ar his son, the father of Brihtric, who according to the vow of his parents ' amplified ' the church which they had begun.' ' Subsequently,' pursues the chronicle — William Duke of Normandy acquired England, bring- ing with him Robert Fitz-Hamon, lord of Astremar- villa in Normandy, and Matilda the wife of the Conqueror hated the said Brihtric Snew or Meaw because when sent abroad on an embassy for the affairs of the realm he refused her hand in marriage. She afterwards married William, and h.iving sought opportunity stirred up the king's wrath against the Saxon nobleman so that he was seized by the king's order in the manor of Hanley (Worcestershire) and conveyed to Winchester, where he died and was buried leaving no heir.' '"Add. Chart. 20372. ' Cott. MS. Cleop. C. iii, fol. 220. Dugdale mentions a tradition of a still earlier foundation, con- tained in an MS. in the Ashmolean Museum, ' de abbatiis et abbatibus Norman, et eorum fundatoribus,' which states that a college of six monies was built here in memory of the Britons who had here been slain. Mon. iv, 465. ' Cott. MS. Clerp. C. iii, fol. 220. Freeman dismisses this pedigree with the remark that as ' a piece of chronology it attributes a wonderfully long life to the persons concerned ; ' Norman Cotiq. iv, App. T. p. 763. ' Cott. MS. Cleop. C. iii, fol. 220. Freeman commenting on this ' legend,' which comes from the continuator of Wace and may be found in Ckiomqucs His estates were granted to Queen Matilda and subsequently to Robert Fitz Hamon, who, in the year 1 102, 'led by the Holy Spirit' and at the instigation of ' his good wife Sybil ' and of Ceroid, abbot of Cranborne, greatly enlarged the church of Tewkesbury and endowed it with further possessions ; and finding that the place enjoyed a more agreeable site and a more fertile soil he transferred the whole community from Cranborne thither, leaving only a prior and two monks that the memory of its founders might be held for ever in remembrance, and so, trans- forming the former abbey into a priory, he made it entirely subject to the abbey of Tewkesbury.* The regulations for the newly-constituted abbey drawn up by Abbot Ceroid in the year 1105, when the transference to Tewkesbury seems to have been finally completed, assigned the manor of Tarrant (Monkton) towards the improvement of the monks' food, the churches 'which had belonged to Robert the chaplain' towards their clothing, and the manor of Chettle in Dorset for almsgiving.' Previous to this removal the Domesday Survey of 1086, which separates the estates of Cran- borne from those of Tewkesbury, states that the church of St. Mary here held 2 carucates of land in Cillingham valued at 60;. in Edward the Confessor's time, but then worth 20J., Boveridge and Up Wimborne, both of which had been and were then worth iooj., Lestisford, half a hide in Langford in the parish of Framp- ton, and the manor of Tarrant Monkton, which had fallen in value from ;^I2 to £\0.^ Under the holding of the widow of Hugh Fitz Crip it is recorded that Hugh gave the church of St. Mary, Cranborne, a hide of land in Orchard for the good of her soul, and ' it is worth lOiJ A charter of Roger, bishop of Salisbury, confirmed to the abbey of Tewkesbury the gifts of Robert Fitz Hamon and his knights in the year 1109, including the church of St. Mary of Cranborne with all its appurtenances, and certain churches which had belonged to R[obert] the chaplain, viz., Pentridge, Ashmore, and Frome, with other tithes.* The Taxatio of 1 29 1 gives the abbey spiritualities valued at j^i I2j. from the churches of Belchalwell, Pentridge, and Langton Mat- ravers ;' those of the priory of Cranborne, amount- ing to £2 IS., consisted of a pension of Js. from the church of Sturminster Newton, 12s. from the church of Edmondsham, 25. from that of Wim- borne Karentham, and ;^i from the vicarage of Anglo-'Normandes (i, 73), says 'it has this much of corroboration from history that a portion of the lands of Brihtric did pass to Matilda'; Norman Conq. iv, 166. « Cott. MS. Cleop. C. iii, fol. 220. ' Cott. MS. Cleop. A. vii, fol. 94^. The Annates of Winchester and Worcester are wrong in giving 1086 as the year in which the removal of Tewkes- bury took place. Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 34 ; iv, 373. ° Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 77^. ' Ibid. 84. ' Cott. MS. Cleop. A. vii, fol. 75*. ' Po^e Nici. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 178^, 179. 70 RELIGIOUS HOUSES Dewlish.'* The temporalities were all entered under Tewkesbury, and realized ^^25 I2j. 6d}^ From the date of its subjection to Tewkes- bury the history of the cell is all but entirely merged in that of the larger house, and save on one or two occasions, when the abbot is shown as keeping a watchful eye on his estate here lest any of his rights should be infringed by his powerful neighbour, the earl of Glou- cester,'^ references to it are brief and rare. We read that the body of Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester, who died abroad in 1230, was con- veyed home for burial, and stopped at Cranborne on its way to Tewkesbury. '' The church was rebuilt in 1252 and dedicated to St. Mary and St. Bartholomew.'* Occasionally the prior acted as proxy or attorney for the abbot, as in 1 3 14 when he was appointed to do suit and service to the abbot of Glastonbury for lands held in his manor of Damerham (Wiltshire)." In the course of a dio- cesan visitation by the bishop in 1379 he was ordered lo appear in the church of Sonning the second Thursday after the Feast of St. Barnabas, prepared to exhibit the title deeds of the abbot and convent of Tewkesbury for their possessions in the Salisbury diocese.'^ Among tlie expenses charged on the priory in the Fa /or of 1535 is an entry of ~s. lod. due to the bishop of Salisbury for the triennial visitation of the church of Cranborne.'' In the course of the Hundred Years' War the prior was required, together with the abbots of Sherborne, Cerne, Bindon, and Abbotsbury, &c., to move nearer the sea-coast for the purpose of repelling invasion, under peril of being regarded as rebels and favourers of the enemy.'* Edward III in 1329 'out of affection for Peter de Broadway, prior of Cranborne,' granted a licence for the abbot and convent of Tewkesbury to acquire in mortmain lands not held in chief to the value of j^io ; three years later the prior of the subject-cell was induced to surrender this grant and another was obtained more specifically in favour of the parent house.'^ '" Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 178, 178^, 179. " Ibid. fol. 183, 18+. " Cott. MS. Cleop. A. vii, fol. 96-8 ; Jnn. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), i, 140, 144. '^ Ibid, i, 76. " Ibid, i, 149, 150. " Hoare, Modern Wilts. Hund. of S. Damerham, 30. "" Sarum Epls. Reg. Erghum, fol. 29. " Valor Ecd. (Rec. Com.), ii, 485. In 1433 a royal writ was issued desiring to be certified as to whether the prior and convent of Cranborne held and hold the parish church of Cranborne, what was the portion of the prior therein, and at what was it assessed in all clerical subsidies. The return stated that the church of Cranborne, with the chapel of Archnal, was appro- priated to the prior and convent, and taxed at 25 mariis, the vicar of Cranborne was taxed at (}\ marks. Sarum Epis. Reg. Chandler, fol. 1 14. " Rymer, Foed. (Rec. Com.), ii, (2), 1062. " Pat. 3 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 21 ; 6 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. 4. According to the Valor of 1535 the gross in- come of the priory at that time amounted to ^55 6j. \d.; the expenses to £\-i i6f. 8i., including ^10 paid to the vicar of Cranborne for his stipend 'according to the composi- tion made by the ordinary,' and a yearly dis- tribution of lOj. in bread to the poor, for the soul of the founder ' Ailward Mayewe'; Henry Bromall was then prior.-" At the Dissolution the cell shared the fate of the abbey, which was surrendered to the king's commissioners 31 January, 1540. William Dydcottc, who in 1335 held the office of sacrist of Tewkesbury, received a pension of ^^lo as ths last prior of Cranborne." The manor of Cranborne Priory, pertaining; to the late abbey of Tewkesbury and rated at £\\ 13^. id.., was sold in the reign of Philip and Mary to Robert Freke at seventy-four years' purchase ; the manor, rectory, and advowson of the vicarage in the first year of Elizabeth were granted to Thomas Francis for life. Sub- sequently they were given by James I to Robert Cecil, earl of Salisbury, in the possession of whose family they still remain.'^ Priors of Cranborne Gerold, abbot of Cranborne, transferred the abbey to Tewkesbury i io2 ^^ Adam de Preston, died 1262^* Walter de Appleleigh, occurs 1314-' Peter de Broadway, occurs 1329 and 1332 ^^ Henry Bromall, occurs 1535^'^ William Dydcotte, last prior 1540 ■* 6. THE PRIORY OF HORTON (Cell to the abbey of Sherborne) The foundation of the Benedictine abbey, afterwards priory, of Horton is generally attribu- ted to Ordgar or Orgar, earl of Devon, the founder of Tavistock, who flourished in the reign of King Edgar and died in the year 971.' =" Valor Ecd. (Rec. Com.), ii, 485. " L. and P. Hen. VIII, xv, 49. " Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iii, 382-3. '^ Jnn. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), i, 44. '* Ibid, i, 169. " Hoare, Modern Wilts. Hund. of S. Damerham, 30. '" Pat. 3 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 21 ; 6 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. 4. " Valor Ecd. (Rec. Com.), ii, 485. " L. and P. Hen. VIII, xv, 49. ' Hutchins gives the date of Horton as 961 {Hist, of Dorset, iii, 149), the same year in which Ordgar founded Tavistock according to Matthew of West- minster {Flores Hist. [Rolls Ser.], i, 508). Ordgar will always be remembered as the father of the notorious Queen Elfrida, who, after disposing of her first hus- band, became the wife of Edgar, and whom tradition has charged with the murder of her step-son Edward the Martyr. 71 A HISTORY OF DORSET The account, however, of William of Malmes- bury, from which all subsequent accounts are drawn,' seems rather to imply that the abbey was the work of Ordulph or Edulph, son of Ordgar, and should consequently be dated a little later ; possibly the two accounts may be reconciled by supposing that it was begun by the elder man and carried on to completion by the younger in deference to his father's wishes. Horton, dedicated to St. VVolfrida, the mother of Edith abbess of Wilton, was situated, like Little Malvern and other foundations of that age, in the midst of forest ; ' centuries later Leland writes of the abbey as four miles distant from Wimborne ' much by woody ground.' * The earlier chronicler relates some of the stories that have been handed down anent the enormous strength and prowess of the younger founder, the giant Edulph,' but adds ' spite of this matchless physical strength death carried him off in the flower of his age, and he ordered that he should be buried at Horton.' Abbot Sihtric of Tavistock, however, foreseeing the advantage that would thence accrue to the smaller foundation, stepped in and ' by violence ' caused the body to be transferred to his own church where Earl Ordgar already lay buried. In all probability Horton shared the fate of Tavistock, which was destroyed in the Danish raid of 997.° To return to the account of William of Malmesbury, Abbot Sihtric added to his crime in robbing Horton of the body of Edulph by turning pirate in the reign of William the Conqueror, whereby he ' polluted religion ' and 'defamed the church.'^ At the time of the Domesday Survey the abbey was in possession of the manor of Horton, which was taxed at 7 hides and valued at £4., ' the king holds two of the best hides in the forest of Wimborne.'* The church would go with the possession of the manor as was then the custom and the monks held at the same time a little church or chapel {eccUs'iola) in Wimborne and land with two houses, the church of Holy Trinity, Wareham, and five houses paying a rent of 65 Ibid. W.iltham, fol. 24. "" Pat. 18 Ric. II, pt. l,m. 10. directed the bishop to signify the royal assent without delay to the choice of the community.'"' In November of the same year Richard Pittes, canon of Salisbury, John Gowayn, and Thomas Bonham were appointed to examine and take charge of the abbey, to inform themselves as to its condition, the withdrawal and waste of its goods, as well as to make allowances for the maintenance of the nuns and their household, holding the remainder of the revenues in charge until further orders. According to the letters patent of this commission the king had been forced to abrogate the grant made by himself and his predecessors to the prioress and convent of the temporalities of the abbey during voidance, as by fraudulent means an election had been obtain- ed of an unfit person, who, with the object of securing confirmation of her appointment, had repaired with an excessive number of men to places remote, to the waste and destruction of the possessions of the community.'"' Richard II, after an interval of more than six months had elapsed since the death of abbess Joan Formage, wrote to the bishop, April, 1395, desiring him to pro- vide a fit person to the abbey, which by this time had lapsed to his collation.'"* The choice fell on Egelina de Counteville ; the pope, at the king's special request, confirmed her election as abbess, ' although Lucy Fitzherberde has the greater number of votes,' '"' and so the matter ended. Bishop Hallam in 1 410, on a report that the nuns were given to frequenting places outside the monastery, addressed a letter of admonition to the abbess and convent, bid- ding them consider the punishment that overtook Dinah the daughter of Jacob for yielding to the desire to go abroad.'"' In the same year the bishop issued an indulgence for those who should visit the monastery on the principal feasts of St. Edward, King and Martyr, from the time of the first to the second vespers.'*" In 141 2 letters of indulgence were published for those visiting the shrine of St. Edward on the feast of his translation, 20 June.'"* There are no visita- tion reports of Shaftesbury during the fifteenth century, and few references during the remainder of its existence save those recording the election of superiors and the admission of the profession of nuns.'"' The last abbess ot Shaftesbury, Elizabeth Zouche, hoped doubtless by a conciliatory attitude to secure from the court party some measure ot consideration for her house. Sir Thomas "' Ibid. m. 5. "» Ibid, x" Ibid. 18 Ric. II, pt. 2, m. 15. 102 78 Col. of Pap. Letters, iv, 524. Lucy Fitzherberde was probably the 'unfit person' elected on the first occasion. '°* Sarum Epis. Reg. Hallam, fol. 29. "" Ibid. '»» Ibid. fol. 56. "" In 1442 the profession was received by the bishop of fifteen of the nuns, and in 1453 of fourteen ; ibid. Aiscough, fol. 97 ; Beauchamp, i (2), fol. 150. RELIGIOUS HOUSES Arundel, in a letter to the ' visitor-general of monasteries,' in 1536, states that by the advice of the writer the abbess and convent have given him (Cromwell) the next presentation to the parsonage of Tarrant, for which he had expressed a desire, adding, ' my lady is right glad to do you pleasure.' "° The transfer to Shaftesbury in the same year of the prioress and nuns of the small Benedictine priory of Cannington (Somerset), dissolved by the earlier Act of suppression,'" may have encouraged the poor lady to continue her efforts, and nerved her to hold out longer than was the general disposition in this county. At any rate. Sir Thomas Arundel, writing again to Cromwell in December, 1538, informs him that, contrary to advice, the abbess of Shaftesbury refuses to follow the 'moo' (majority), and resign, and offers the king 500 marks and Crom- well ;rioo for her house to be allowed to stand.'" The offer was fruitless ; the fate of Shaftesbury was sealed, though the house, owing perhaps to the abbess's spirited endeavour, was the last to fall in this county. With the surrender of Elizabeth Zouche and her fifty-six nuns on 2 March, 1539,"' ends the long line of abbesses headed in the ninth century by Alfred's daughter. Abbesses of Shaftesbury Elfgiva or jEthelgeofu or Algiva, first abbess about 888"* iElfthrith, occurs 948 "^ Herleva, occurs 966,"* died 982"' Alfrida, occurs 1 00 1 or 1009"* Leueua, occurs temp. Edward the Confessor"' Eulalia, appointed 1074 '■" Eustachia'^' Cecilia, appointed 1 107 ''^ Emma, occurs temp. Henry I '"' Mary, occurs 1189 '^ J., elected 1216'^' Amicia Russell, elected 1223''' "» L. and P. Hen. VIU, xi, 1340. '" Ibid. 1450. '" Ibid, xiii (2), 1092. "^ Ibid, xiv (i), 586. To Elizabeth Zouche was assigned on her surrender a pension of ^^133 6/. id. ; the prioress received a pension of ;^20, the sub- prioress £j, and the remainder of the sisters yearly sums ranging from £6 13/. i^d. to 56/. %d. ; ibid. "* Will, of Malmes. Gesta Regum (Rolls Ser.), i, 131 ; Flor. Wigorn. Chron. (Engl. Hist. Soc), i, 104. '" She is mentioned in a charter of King .i^dred, Harl. MS. 61, fol. 4. "* Gale, Rerum Angl. Script. \, 45. '" Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 103. '" Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iii, 27. '" Dugdale (Mow. ii, 473), from Exon. Domesday. '^'' Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 30. '-' Dugdale, Mon. 11, 473. '-' The third daughter of Robert Fitz Hamon, who elevated Tewkesbury to the dignitv of an abbey. Ibid, ii, 473. '^'Hari. MS. 61, fol. 23. '■' Ibid. fol. 26. '" Pat. I Hen. Ill, m. 16. '-'« Ibid. 7 Hen. Ill, m. 3. Agnes Lungespee, elected 1243'" Agnes de Ferrers, elected 1247 '-* Juliana de Bauceyn, died 1279 '^' Laurentia de Muscegros, elected 1279,'^" died 1290 Joan de Bridport, elected 1290,"' died 1291 Mabel Gifford, elected 129 1 '" Alice de Lavyngton, elected 1 302,'^' died 1 3 1 5 Margaret Aucher, elected 13 15,"* died 1329 Dionisia le Blunde, elected 1329,'" died 1345 Joan Duket, elected 1345,"^ died 1350 Margaret de Leukenore, elected 1350'" Joan Formage, elected 1362,"* died 1394 Egelina de Counteville, appointed 1395"' Cecilia Fovent, occurs 1398,'*° died 1423 Margaret Stourton, elected 1423,"' died 1441 Edith Bonham, elected 1441,'*^ died 1460 Margaret St. John, elected 1460 "' Alice Gibbcs, died 1496'" Margaret Twyneo, elected 1496,"' died 1505 Elizabeth Shelford, elected I505,'"died 152S Elizabeth Zouche or Zuche, elected 1529, surrendered her abbey, 1539 '*' The round thirteenth-century seal attached to the surrender deed of the abbey gives on the obverse an elaborate design of the church. la the doorway St. Edward, King and Martyr, full- length, with the name s' edw — ardvs upon the string-courses at the sides.'** Legend : — Sa[lUE :] STELLA : MARIS : TU : NOBIS : AVX [iLIARIS :] [gemma :] PVELLARIS : regia : DONA : PARIS The reverse shows within a carved quatrefoil the Coronation of the Virgin. Overhead the Dove ; at the sides two candlesticks, crescents, and other emblems. In base, under a trefoiled arch, an abbess, half-length, holding a pastoral staff, is in prayer.'*' Legend : — 1^ sigill' : scE : marie : et : sci : edwardi : [reJgis : et : martiris : schef[tonie] Ibid. m. 16. '-' Ibid. 27 Hen. Ill, m. 2. ''' Ibid. 31 Hen. Ill, m. 8. ''' Ibid. 7 Edw. I, m. 21. "' Ibid. 18 Edw. I, m. 34. '" Ibid. 19 Edw. I, m. 3. '^' Sarum Epis. Reg. Simon of Ghent. "* Pat. 9 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 14. '"Ibid. 3 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 13. "' Ibid. 19 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 13. '" Ibid. 24 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 21. "' Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iii, 27. '" Pat. 18 Ric. II, pt. I, m. 10. "" Sarum Epis. Reg. Mitford, fol. 105. '" Pat. 2 Hen. VI, pt. l, m. 22. '" Sarum Epis. Reg. Aiscough, fol. 10. '" Ibid. Beauchamp, i, fol. 37. '" Ibid. Blyth, fol. 95. "' Ibid. "'■ Ibid. Audley, fol. 1 26 a". "' L.andP. Hen. Fill, iv, 5290 ; xiv (i), 586. "'Deeds of Surrender, No. 211. See also B.M. '" Ibid. 50. Se.ils, 1x11, 49. 79 A HISTORY OF DORSET HOUSE OF CLUNIAC MONKS 8. THE PRIORY OF HOLNE OR EAST HOLME The priory of Holme, or Holne as it was anciently called, a cell of the Cluniac priory of Montacute in Somerset, was founded towards the middle of the twelfth century ' by Robert de Lincoln, the son of Alured de Lincoln. The founder, in his charter for the endowment of the new establishment, recites that ' moved by divine instinct to build a house of religion in honour of God ' he has given to God and the church of St. Peter of Montacute and the monks serving God there his land which is called Holne,' in perpetual alms for the maintenance of thirteen monks, the gift being made with the concurrence of Bcuza his wife and Alured his son, by the counsel and consent of the bishop of Salisbury, in the presence of the prior and monks of Montacute, and of Gilbert the monk, 'to whom I afterwards personally gave the place,* for the souls of King Henry, of the donor's father and mother, of himself, his wife, and children, relations, and friends. The original endowment also consisted of three virgates of land at Weston Worth (JFrda) in Purbeck, a tithe of the bread, meat, and fish provided for the use of his house- hold {de dlipema domus met) and that of his heirs, a salt-pan of the salt works adjacent to his manor of Langton, with tithes of his demesne at Oke- ford Fitzpaine, at Winterborne Whitchurch, Langton near Abbotsbury, and Corton in Porti- sham, besides tithes of the demesne at Chesel- bourne and Watercombe, the gift of Bardolph * my knight.' ' Alured, the founder's son, added to the gifts of his father and confirmed all former grants, stating that they were bestowed in free alms, quit of all suit and service save of celebrat- ing divine offices for the soul of the founder, of his ancestors and successors, and of all the faith- ful departed.* An inquisition, held in June, 1 28 1, as to the lands and tenements of the prior of Montacute in the isle of Purbeck reported that these were extended to the value of j^i6 6j. 2d., and in- cluded, besides the advowson of the church of Holme, valued at 60J., a garden and curtilage with 34 acres of arable land, 40 acres of meadow, a turbary, fish-pond, fixed rents {reddii' assis') of the villeins, their works, pleas, perquisites, fines of land and heriots within the manor of Holme.* The Taxatio of 1 29 1 gives the priory an income only of ;^5 10;. 8<^., the spiritualities, amounting to j^2 13J. 8i/., derived from pensions from the following churches : — Puddletown,' Warmwell,' Corton, Langton Herring, and Powerstock ; * the temporalities were valued at £^2 I'js., of which £2 IS. id. came from Weston Worth in Purbeck.' As a cell subordinate to an alien house, Holme was constantly in the hands of the crown during the Hundred Years' War. On 8 October, 1324, the farm of the lands of the prior of Mon- tacute in Holme and Plush was committed by Edward II to Walter Beril and Roger de Blokkes- worthe until the superior had found sufficient security to satisfy the king, after which they were ordered to amove their hand.'" Edward III, shortly after his accession, made a general restoration to the abbot of Cluny of all his lands and possessions in England, '^ but they were sub- sequently re-seized, and in 1337 the prior of Holme was ordered to pay a fine of six marks and 40;. for the custody of his priory." In 1339 ' It cannot be hter than the twelfth year of Henry II, as in that year Alured, the son of the founder, was in possession of the paternal estate. ' In a charter of Henry I, the king testifies to Roger bishop of Salisbury and Warin the sheriff that he has granted a licence to Alured de Lincoln to hold the land of Holme, which he has obtained by purchase of ' Grimaldus medicus ' in fee. See early account of Holme Priory by Thomas Bond (Hutchins, Hilt, of Dorset, i) inserted between pp. 552-3. This Alured has sometimes been identified with the Alured de Lincoln who held estates in Lincolnshire at the time of the Domesday Survey, and in all probability they came of the same family. The Dorset branch is subsequently found in possession of nearly the whole estate held in this county at the time of the Survey by the widow of Hugh Fitz Grip {Dom. Bk. [Rec. Com.], i, 83^), which they probably obtained by marriage ; Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, i, 552-3- ' Ibid. * The charter of the founder and his son are given by Thomas Bond in his early account of the priory, ibid, i, 552-3. Among other grants, Alured, son of the founder, conferred on the monks land at Plush, with the right of pasturing ten oxen, one heifer, and 250 sheep there with the cattle of the abbot of Glastonbury. ' Inq. p.m. 6 Edw. I, No. 47. ^ Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 179. ' Ibid. 1793. The charter of Alured, the founder's son, records the grant of the church of Warmwell to the monks by 'Gunfridus my man.' • Ibid. 180, 182*. ' Ibid. 1833. '° Mins. Acts. bdle. I 125, No. 7. " Rymer, Foedera, iv, 246-7. " Close, 1 1 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 36. The prior, in 1332, was requisitioned for a contribution towards the expenses incurred by the king for the marriage of his sister ; ibid. 6 Edw. Ill, m. id d. 80 RELIGIOUS HOUSES Edward III granted to William de Montacute, earl of Salisbury and his heirs the advowson of the priory of Montacute, with the custody whenever it should be seized into the king's hand by reason of the war with France, and at the earl's petition the following year he added on similar terms the advowson and custody of Carsweli, Holme, St. Carrie, and Malpas, cells pertaining to the said priory ' from the time of which memory does not exist.' '' One of the earliest acts of Henry IV on his accession was to restore, among others, the alien priory of Montacute with its subject cells, remitting the farm lately paid to the king and his heirs or, by virtue of a former grant, to the earl of Salis- bury and his heirs, and reserving only the payment of the ancient ' apport,' paid in time of peace to the head house. The prior in 1407, by the payment of a sum of 300 marks, ob- tained a charter of denization for his house, which made the priory, with all its posses- sions, advowsons, &c., indigenous of England, and provided that its superior should be elected by the convent without collation or institu- tion of the abbot of Cluny.'* Holme continued up to the Dissolution as a dependent cell with a prior 'dative and removable' by the head house.'* Though ordained by the founder for the maintenance of thirteen monks, there appears from early times to have been a considerable decline from the original design. The inquisition held in 1281 declared that the prior of Monta- cute held the church and manor of Holme subject to the charge of finding four monks to sing for the soul of Alured de Lincoln, his progenitors and successors." Two years previous to that the priors of Mont Didier in France and Lenton in England, appointed by the abbot of Cluny, in 1279, to visit English houses of the order, found here two monks and a prior,'' while a fifteenth-century description, probably drawn up from visitation reports of 1298, 1390, and 1405, stated that the community consisted of a prior and two monks.'* Leland, in the sixteenth century, said that the four cells belonging to Montacute had only two monks each." " Pat. 14 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 7. Notwithstand- ing this grant the prior of Holme was summoned before the council at Westminster with other aliens to answer for his charge in 1341 and 1347. (Close, 15 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. 6 ; 2 1 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 6d.) On the conclusion of a peace in 1 361 Edward III restored their possessions to Montacute and nine other alien priories. Rymer, Foedera, vi, 311. " See inspeximus charters of Henry IV to the priory of Montacute. Pat. 12 Hen. IV, m. 37. '* Valor Ecd. (Rec. Com.), i, 196. " Inq. p.m. 9 Edw. I, No. 47. " Duckett, Chart, and Rec. of Cluny, ii, 136. " Ibid. 213. " Collect, i, 8 I . With regard to the internal condition and management of the house, the visitors appointed in 1279 reported that the inmates lived well and commendably according to the rule, fulfilling their religious duties as far as the exigencies of the place permitted and the limited num- ber of the community.^" The prior, who had been in office for three years, had taken over the house burdened with a debt of twenty marks, which he had managed to pay off, and it was now free of debt.^' The buildings and church were in good repair, and there was a sufficient store to last till the follow- ing harvest. The Cluniac order being exempt from episcopal jurisdiction and visitation by the ordinary the Salisbury registers throw no light on the history of the house, but various references are made to it in other records. In January, 1331, a commission of oyer and ter- miner was issued on the complaint of the abbot of Bindon against John de Montacute, some- time abbot of Bindon, who, both before and after his deposition, proved such a source of trouble to his house ; in his quarrel with his own community he seems to have enlisted the active support of the then prior of Holme, Walter de Welham, at all events the two, with others, were accused of breaking into the abbey by night, driving away cattle, and carrying off books, vessels, and ornaments of the church, together with the conventual seal, which they further proceeded to append to various docu- ments to the prejudice of the community.-^ In 1348 a certain Ralph de Midelneye was charged with having acquired from the same prior, Walter de Welham, then deceased, certain premises in Winterborne Wast, Bockhampton, and Swanage, and having entered on the same without obtaining a licence of the king.^' Edward III, in 1344, directed the mayor and bailiffs of Dover to permit Gerard de Noiale, prior of Holme, to cross the Channel in order to visit the Roman court ' for the correction of his soul.' 2* The Valor of 1535 states that John Wales was then prior of this cell, valued at £16 9J. 4^.,^* and on the surrender of Mon- tacute Priory, 20 March, 1539, the same John was appointed to serve the cure of Holme witii a stipend of £?> ; in the event of his being ' im- potente and lame ' and past work he should receive a pension of ^5 ly. 4^.-" The house and site of the dissolved cell were granted by Henry VIII to Richard Hamper for a term of '» Duckett, Chart, and Rec. of Cluny, ii, 136. " Ibid. " Pat. 4 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 7 •348. and 1352 enroll acknowledge- ments of debt, loans, &c., on the p.irt of the abbot. On the reappointment of custodians in I334andi335 the patent rolls reiterate that owing to its condition the works of piety with which the house was charged could not be maintained, and the monks were likely to be dispersed unless a remedy could be found. Pat. 8 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 20 ; 9 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 34. " A complaint of trespass was again lodged by the abbot in 1335. Ibid. 8 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 6 J. ; 9 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 25 J. *' Close, 22 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 30,^. the same year protection was granted to the abbey with the appointment of Hugh de Courtenay, earl of Devon, and Hugh his son as custodians ; we may note that at this time the reason hitherto alleged for its poverty-stricken condition — the bad rule of abbots — had given place to another — ' the frequent visits of the king's enemies coming upon us unawares.' *'' Richard II on 8 July, 1392, on payment of a fine licensed John Dygon and Gilbert Martyn to alienate ten messuages, with lands and rents in East Burton, to the abbot and convent in aid of their maintenance.*' The only entries in the course of the fourteenth century that do not relate to the material condition of the abbey occur in 1317, when the abbot and convent obtained leave to acquire lands and rents to the yearly value of ;^io for the provision of a chaplain to celebrate daily in the abbey for the soul of Edward I and of all good Christians, and for the good estate of the king and of Roger Damory;" and again in 1325, when Thomas Crubbe of Dorchester was licensed to alienate two messuages and loj. rent in Dorchester in augmentation of the mainten- ance of a chaplain to celebrate daily in the abbey for the soul of the said Thomas, his ancestors, and all the faithful departed.^" The history of the abbey during the fifteenth century is practically a blank, and, as a house of the Cistercian order and ' exempt,' there are no references to Bindon in the episcopal registers which throw light on its later condition. '* Henry IV, in the first year of his reign, made over to his servant, John Crosby, the ;^20 which the convent had paid yearly to the late earl of Salisbury from the issues of the manor of Lul- worth," and in 1401 he made a life-grant to the abbot of a butt of wine yearly from the port of Melcombe." In 1485 John, then abbot of Bindon, was licensed to accept an ecclesiastical benefice with or without cure." There are various references to Bindon in the reign of Henry VIII. In 15 12 a grant of a corrody in the monastery was made in survivor- ship to William Wycombe on its surrender by Robert Thorney." In 1522 the abbot con- tributed j^66 13J. 4d. towards the grant by the spirituality for the expenses of the king in re- covering the crown of France.'^ He was sum- moned to convocation in 1529." On the abbey " Pat. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 9. " Ibid. 16 Ric. II, pt. I,m. 19. " Ibid. II Edw. II, pt. I, m. 19. »» Ibid. 18 Edw. II, pt. 2, m. 29. " In the middle of the fifteenth century the poor religious of the monastery of Bindon were declared ' exempt ' by ancient custom from the payment of tithe. Sarum Epis. Reg. Beauchamp, fol. lij J. " Pat. I Hen. IV, pt. 5, m. 9. " Ibid. 3 Hen. IV, pt. i, m. 23. '* Sarum Epis. Reg. Langton, fol. 231/. " L. and P. Ht-n. nil, i, 3567. '^ Ibid, iii, 2483. " Ibid, iv, 6047. 85 A HISTORY OF DORSET becoming void in 1534 the duke of Richmond wrote to Cromwell requesting him to grant the monks liberty to elect their own abbot, ' as the convent intends to take care of my deer ' in certain lands adjoining the monastery.'' In January the following year, the abbot of Ford, by virtue of the royal commission, was authorized to visit the Cistercian houses of Bindon and Tarrant," but no report has been found as to his 'findings.' The Valor of 1535 gave the abbey spiritualities amounting to j^i3 41. 6d. from the parsonage of Chaldon, and tithes in Winfrith Newburgh, Burngate, and West Chaldon,^" and temporalities from the manors of Bindon, Wool, East Burton, Pulham, Chaldon Herring, and South Fossil, West Lulworth, and other lands.'^ Among the expenses was the sum of 3^. 4^. annually dis- tributed to the poor in Chaldon, and 13J. ^.d. annually distributed at Abbotsbury for the soul of the founders, 'Roger' Newburgh and Ma- tilda his wife. The abbey, with a clear annual income ofj^i47 7;. 94^/.,^" came under the earlier Act for the suppression of all houses under the yearly value ofj^200.^' There is no evidence of a genuine desire on the part of Henry VIII to save the house, but on the payment of £300°* the king, by letters patent dated i6 November, 1536, restored it and constituted the former abbot head ; the respite was of a very temporary nature, for the house fell with the larger monas- teries in 1539 and was suppressed on 14 March of that year.°* The abbot, John Norman, who signed the surrender deed with the prior and six brethren, received a pension of ;^50 ; the prior, who had a yearly corrody in the monas- tery of jTio, received j^8 ; Stephen Farsey was appointed to the living of Bindon, worth £6 135. 4(-/. without tithes and oblations, ' if he be impotent then to have io6j. ^.d.;' the sub- prior had £j ; and of the four remaining, one had £$, another ^4, and two received £2 each.^^ Abbots of Bindon John, resigned 1191, in which year he became abbot of Ford " Henry ^' Ralph, occurs 1227 °' John, occurs 1232'" William" '» L. and P. Hen. Fill, vii, 821. =' Ibid, viii, 74. "" Falor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 239. " Ibid. 240-1 . '' Ibid. " L. and P. Hen. VIII, x, 1238. "Ibid, xili (2), 457, I (3). " Ibid, xiv (i), 509. ^ Ibid. ^^ Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), i, 21. '" Given by Hutchins without reference, Hisl. of Dors, iii, 355. ™ Ibid, from Fin. Cone. Dors. 1 1 Hen. Ill, No. 30. '" P.it. 16 Hen. Ill, m. 8 d". " Cited by Hutchins from a charter undated. Cus- tum. Glaston. 84. Robert, occurs 1243 ''"'^ 1252" Reginald, occurs 1275'^ William, occurs 1290'* Walter, elected 1309 '' Richard, occurs 1316'^ John de Monte Acuto, deposed 1331-2 by order of the chapter-general of Cheaux'' William, occurs 1331 "* Roger HarnhuU, appointed 1332"' William de Comenore, elected 1338"' Philip, occurs 1350*' William Chetus or Cletus, elected 1361 *^ William Fordington, occurs 1400*'* Robert Lulworth, occurs 1433** John Smith, occurs 1444*° William Comere, occurs 1446'° Robert, occurs 1458 and 1464*' Thomas, occurs 1467** John, occurs 1485 and 1495'' John Bryan, occurs 1499''' John Waleys, occurs 1523^^ Thomas, occurs 1529^^ John Norman, elected 1534, surrendered finally 1539°' A fourteenth-century pointed oval seal with a very imperfect impression and the legend en- tirely defaced represents two crowned saints in a canopied niche. There is an obliterated shield of arms on each side. In base under a pointed arch an abbot is lifting up his hands in adora- tion.'* A much mutilated example of this seal is attached to the surrender deed of the abbey ."^ " Hutchins, Hist, of Dors, iii, 355. " Ibid. " Pat. 1 8 Edw. I, m. 29. He may probably be identical with William de Huleburn, who occurs 1296. Ibid. 24 Edw. I, m. 17 J. " He made his profession and was blest by the bishop 5 Ides May of that year. Sarum Epis. Reg. Simon of Ghent, ii, fol. 79 16;. 4^^., including spiritualities from the churches of Tarrant Kaines, Little Crawford, and Wood- yates amounting to ^^ 1 2 bs. 2id}^ Their tem- poralities were assessed at ^i^ in the deanery of Dorchester, ^^33 loj. 2i\d. in the deanery of Whitchurch, £\() gx. "jd. in the deanery of Pimperne, ^^22 lbs. ^d. in the manor of Han- ford within the Shaftesbury deanery.** The total value of their possessions within this county came to ;^ioi 31. 45^., and they had ^^15 from the manor of Binderton in the diocese of Chichester,'' and j^io 31. from the manor of Hurstbourne Tarrant in the Winchester diocese.^^ In spite of the respectable rent-roll represented by these figures we read that in 1292 the abbess obtained leave from the king to sell forty oaks from her manor of " Chart. R. 26 Hen. Ill, m. 3. Among other gifts the charter includes the church of St. Nicholas of Woodyates with a virgate of land, the gift of the prior and canons of Breamore (H;ints), the manor, advowson of the church, and mill of Hanford given by John de Mares and Agatha his wife, which the king had confirmed, quit of all suit and foreign service, 26 February, 1240 (ibid. 24 Hen. Ill, m. 3), with licence to hold a weekly market on Tuesday, and a yearly fiir on the vigil, feast, and morrow of St. James (ibid. 25 Hen. Ill, m. 3). "Chart. R. 37 Hen. Ill, m. 18. On i July, 1245, a royal licence was granted for the abbess to hold free of service and in frankalmoign all the land in Gussage All Saints, which by a former grant the king had permitted Imbert Pugnes to give to them for the same service for which he had held it. Ibid. 29 Hen. Ill, m. 3. " Close, 4 Edw. I, m. 10. "Chart. 8 Edw. I, No. 35. " Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 178. ""Ibid. 184*, 185. " Ibid. 1383. »' Ibid. 213*. 88 RELIGIOUS HOUSES Hurstbourne to whomsoever she would in order to pay her debts.^' Save for the record of their temporal posses- sions the community rarely emerge from the obscurity that veils their history. It is evident that the name by which they continued to be known, ' the poor nuns of Tarrant,' "* was something of a misnomer if it should be read to imply absolute poverty. The time had long gone by since the days when the sisters were warned by the bishop to avoid the holding of personal property : ' Ye shall not possess any beast, mv dear sisters, except only a cat,' or, when seeking their pittance in the hall of their early founder, were bidden ' be glad in your heart if ye suffer insolence from Slurry the cook's boy who washeth dishes in the kitchen.' " As belonging to the Cistercian order the house was technically ' exempt,' and beyond forwarding a copy of the Constitutions of Pope Boniface for enforcing the stricter inclosure of nuns in 1301 the bishop, so far as we can gather from the registers, made no attempt to impose his authority therein.^^ At all events history does not deprive us of the hope that these ladies remained true to the ideal of the Christian life pointed out to them by their early friend. In the fourteenth century certain chantries were founded in the conventual church that prayers might continually be offered for the souls of royal and distinguished benefactors. In 1347 in consideration of the sum of 4.6s. 8d., Thomas Baret obtained a licence to bestow certain mes- suages and lands in Charlton and Little Crawford for the provision of a chaplain to celebrate every IVIonday in the abbey church at the altar of St. Mary for the good estate of the king, for his soul when dead, the souls of his progenitors, the grantor and his heirs.^' Thirty years later, by an indenture dated 'Nuns Tarent, Saturday, St. Mark,' the nuns granted to ' Sir ' Thomas Gilden, chaplain, a weekly corrody for life from their abbey, with a chamber in the houses lately built by Thomas Baret to be kept in repair by the abbess, and assigned to him the office of chaplain of the parish church of All Saints, Little Crawford, 'otherwise called St. Margaret's Chapel,' in return " Close, 20 Edw. I, m. 9. " The name by which the sisters are designated in the reigns of Henry III and Henry IV, and later still when they were declared to be 'exempt' by ancient custom from the payment of tax and subsidy. Close, 1 7 Hen. Ill, m. l^J.; Pat. i Hen. IV, pt. 2, m. 17, 28 ; Sarum Epis. Reg. Beauchamp, fol. 187 Pat. 5 Ric. II, pt. I, m. 31. *' Ibid. 3 Hen. IV, pt. 2, m. ij d. " Ibid. 5 Hen. I\', pt. 2, m. 29 d. « L. and P. Hen. Vlll, ix, 236. ** Both Dugdale and Tanner make the mistake of giving Margaret L}-nde, who was prioress when the Valor of 1535 vvas t.-ken, as abbess; Dugdale, Mon. V, 620 ; Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iii, 12 I. " L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xiv (i), 515. This list, with the addition of fresh names and some corrections of date, closely follows that of Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iii, 121. " Deeds of Surrender, No. 233. ' According to Hutchins {Hist, of Dorset, ii, 498) Knighton took its name from the Knights Templars or Hospitallers here (Knightoun); Friar Mayne, now a hamlet in West Knighton parish, was formerly a manor adjoining. ' Bund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 100. ' Chart. R. 18 Edw. I, No. 810. 90 RELIGIOUS HOUSES 1 29 1 he is said to have had a portion out of the church of Knighton.* The preceptory was founded some time be- tween then and the year 1338, when full particulars of the bailiwick of Mayne are given in the return made of the possessions of the Hos- pitallers of England to the Grand Master of the Order by Philip de Thame, provincial prior of England. The ' bajulia de Maine ' with its members Knighton and Waye was valued at 144 marks, 2s. lod. ;° the outgoings amounted to 63 marks 5^- 4<^-> ^nd included ordinary ex- penses of the household with the exercise of hospitality, a duty much enjoined on all members of the order — _^8 14?.; a life-corrody to Sir Robert de Norfolk at the table of the brethren, a robe and his necessaries, 271. ; the kitchen, £"] 16s. ; the brewing of the beer, ^^5 145. id. ; robes, mantles, and other necessaries for the preceptor and his brother knight, 69;. ^.d. ; for the squire and others of the household, 50J. ; the chaplain's stipend for celebrating in the chapel was 20s. ; the cost of entertaining the prior for three days on his annual visit came to bos. An annual pension of £2 6s. Sd. was paid to the vicar of Stinsford,' and small payments of 6s. and Js. to the rector of Warmwell and the prior of Holme respectively. The household consisted at that time of the preceptor, brother John Larcher, junior ; Richard Bernard, his brother knight ; and Sir Robert de Norfolk, the corrody-man or boarder ' in the place of a knight,' besides squire and servants.' The balance to be paid into the treasury after all expenses had been met amounted to 79 marks lOs. lod. The house was not reported in a very good state, for the court at Mayne was ' badly built,' the house in ruins : * burnt by misfortune,' so that the whole return of the bailiwick for one year would hardly suffice to repair the buildings, and owing to these un- * Pofe Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 1 79. The first presentation to the rectory of West Knighton was made in 1304 (Hutchins, 7^///. of Doiset, ii, 504). Stinsford church is not mentioned in the Taxation of 1 291, but is given as appropriated to the preceptory and worth 18 marks in the return made by the provincial prior of England in 1338 (Larking, Knights Hospitallers in England [Camd. Soc], 11); the first presentation to the vicarage is recorded in 13 19 (Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 569). ' At Mayne besides dovecot and water-mill there were 340 acres of land, 15J acres of meadow and pasture for 12 oxen, 12 cows, and 500 sheep; at Knighton, a messuage and garden, 68 acres of land, \\ acres of meadow, and pasture for 6 oxen, 8 cows, and 100 sheep ; at Waye a messuage with garden, 10 acres of meadow, 160 acres of land, and pasture for 6 oxen, 8 cows, and 100 sheep ; Larking, Knights Hospitallers in England (Camd. Soc), lo-l I. * This payment was made up to 1535, and is given in the Valor Eccl. of that year ; op. cit. (Rec. Com.), i, 262. ' Larking, Knights Hospitallers in England (Camd. Soc), lO-II. fortunate circumstances that voluntary contri- bution to their funds by the neighbourhood, on which every preceptory relied for a large fraction of its income, could hardly be expected to reach the average of 36 marks.* The establishment at Mayne previous to the Dissolution seems to have become incorporated with or united to the larger and more flourishing preceptory of Baddesley or Godsfield in Hamp- shire. In 1523 brother William Weston paid ;^38 17J. I (^. for the commandery of Baddesley and Mayne into the treasury or capital fund of the order for the year ending at the feast of St. John the Baptist,^ and in 1533 the prior and hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, by an indenture dated 27 June, leased to John Gerard of Tincle- ton the capital messuage or mansion of their manor of Friar Mayne with the tithes of the chapel and a warren of coneys in Lewell or East Stafford for a term of twenty-one years. ^'^ The preceptory, therefore, in all but the name, seems to have sunk to the position of a ' camera ' or estate maintaining no community and farmed out for the benefit of the society. In the Valor of 1 535 all receipts and payments, with the exception of the rectory of West Knighton, are made out jointly in the name of the commandery or preceptory of Baddesley or Mayne ; the receipts were 20J. %d. from the aforesaid rectory,^' i^d. out of the rectory of Langton Matravers and Worth," and 55. in tithes out of West Chaldon ; " the vicar of Stinsford received a stipend of £2. 6s. 8d. as in the return of 1338.1* At the Dissolution the property of the Knights Hospitallers was by Act of Parliament vested in the crown, and the manor and premises here in reversion of the afore-mentioned lease were granted by Edward VI to William Dennys for twenty-one years." On the re-establishment of the order under Philip and Mary they were re- stored in 1558 to Thomas Tresham, Grand Pre- ceptor of St. John of Jerusalem,'^ but the advent » Ibid. ' Hutchins, quoting from the records of the Knights Hospitallers at Malta, says that in 153 1 Roger Boydell, preceptor of Baddesley and Mayne, paid by the hand of Francis Balyard j^44 12/. id. into the treasury and the same in 1532. In 1533-4 Thomas Dingley paid ^44 12s. id. for Baddesley and Mayne for half a year, and he owed the same sum for 1535. Hist, of Dorset, ii, 501. '" Ibid. 499. " Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 244. '» Ibid. 1' Ibid. 239. " Ibid. 262. " Pat. 5 Edw. VI. " Pat. 4 & 5 Phil, and Mary, pt. 14. This restoration comprised not only the manor of Friar Mayne and Westbroke with messuages and lands in Westbroke, East Stafford, Warmwell, West Waddon, and Dorchester and a pension of 20/. %d. from West Knighton rectory, all belonging to the precep- tory of Friar Mayne, but certain other lands and rents in the county belonging to the preceptory of Temple Combe in Somerset included in the same patent of re- edification. 91 A HISTORY OF DORSET to the throne of Elizabeth brought about the destruction of the order anew, and the queen in April, 1564, in consideration of the sum of j^ 1,189 '9*- 7^- re-granted the manor in rever- sion of the former lease of Edward VI to William Pole of Shute and Edward Downing and their heirs." In addition to the preceptory of Mayne with its members West Knighton and Waye, the order possessed a smaller estate re- turned in 1338 as the 'camera' of Chilcombe, which comprised the manors of Chilcombe and Toller Fratrum with the rectory of the latter; it was valued at £\ 55. 4^., paid 30 marks into the treasury at Clerkenwell, and was farmed out to Ivo de Chilcombe.'* The HospitaUers also held lands in Hammoon, Watercombe, MarnhuU, Wareham, Upway, Charlton Marshall, Turnworth, and Shroton.*' FRIARIES 12. THE DOMINICAN FRIARS OF GILLINGHAM On 8 December, 1267, Henry III granted twelve oaks in Gillingham Forest to the Friars Preachers to repair the fabric of their church at Gillingham.' This was probably a chapel con- nected with the royal palace.^ No other reference to the house has yet been found. 13. THE DOMINICAN FRIARS OF MELCOMBE REGIS' The friary at Melcombe Regis was the last Dominican house established in England. It was founded by Hugh Deverell, knt., and John Rogers, chief of the house of Rogers of Bryanston in Dorset.* In furtherance of their purpose the provincial of England, supported by the master- general of the order, applied to the Holy See in 141 8 for powers to make the foundation; and on 1 7 August Martin V gave the necessary leave for erecting a convent here, with church, belfry, churchyard and cloister, and all things necessary for a religious house, even without the consent of the ordinary of the diocese, provided there was no other house of Mendicants within the distance of 150 cannae (about 280 yards) and saving the rights of the parochial churches.' Deverell and Rogers then gave two messuages, two tofts and four curtilages, containing altogether 270 ft. in length and 160 ft. in breadth, held of the crown in free burgage at a rent of 2J. I^;^. a year and estimated at the annual value of 65. ^d. This site wasconveyed toEdward Polyng, who was appoint- ed thefirst prior ' both by the superiors of theOrder and by the aforesaid Hugh and John,'' and with " Tanner, Notitia, Dorset, xvi. " Larking, The Knights Hosf'italUrs in England (Camd. Sec), 105-6. " Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 502. ' Close, 5 2 Hen. Ill, m. 12. ' Cf. the houses of Friars Preachers and Minors at Clarendon ; Liberate R. 34 Hen. Ill, m. 5 ; 54 Hen. lll,m. 2. ' Rev. C. F. R. Palmer, ' The Friar-Preachers of Melcombe Regis,' in The Reliquary, xxi, 72-6. * Cf. Leland, Itin. ( ed. 1745), iii, 65. 'Refill, xxi, from Bull. Ord. Pracd. 'Pat. 8 Hen. VI, pt. 3, m. 4. him were associated friars John Lok and John Lowen to carry on the new foundation. They immediately established a chapel and set up an altar in one of the houses and began their spiritual ministrations among the people. John Chandler, bishop of Sarum, opposed the new foundation, and in 1426 shortly before his death declared the friars contumacious and forbade their proceedings.' Deverell and Rogers, however, secured the royal licence for the foundation 16 February 1 430-1 * and addressed a petition to the bishop, Robert Neville.' In this they stated that they had begun the house moved by the desolation of the town ; that there was no place dedicated to God in Mel- combe ; that the parochial church of Radipole was a long mile and a half away and was incon- venient for the burgesses ; that the inhabitants were rude, illiterate, and situated in angulo terrae : that the vill lay open to enemies, whereby the king's rent was not paid and the customs were diminished. An arrangement was soon made with the bishop and the prohibition removed. The friars did not confine their attention to the spritual welfare of the inhabitants, but contri- buted to the defence of the town and increase of the port by building a jetty against the ebb and flow of the tide. After they had begun this work, they determined to add a tower as a fortification for the town, port, and their own house. They therefore applied to the crown for help, and on 17 February, 1445-6, received from the king and council a grant of land, 1,000 ft. long and 600 ft. broad by the sea for the site of the tower in free alms without any rent, and also a sum of ^10 a year for twelve years out of the customs and sub- sidies of the port of Poole towards the expenses of making the jetty.'" In the Act of Resumption passed in 1450 this grant was specially exempted in consideration of the great charge and costs that they have had and yet must have in making and re- pairing of a jetty in defence of the said town of Mel- combe against the flowing of the sea." 'Sarum Epis. Reg. Chandler inter acta, fol. 54; Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset (ed. 3), ii, 454. »P.it. 8 Hen. VI, pt. 3, m. 4. ' Sarum Epis. Reg. Neville, inter acta, fol. 34 ; Hutchins, loc. cit. '"Pat. 24 Hen. VI, pt. 2, m. 24. " Par/. R. v, 187. 92 RELIGIOUS HOUSES Friar Simon Ball or Bell, sometime prior of this house, was collated to the rectory of Radipole, 18 December, 1533.'^ Owen Watson, rector of Portland, who died in 1533, willed his body to be buried at the Friars Preachers here where he had built a tomb for himself.^' Shortly before the Dissolution some new altars were erected and new stalls placed in the choir and new seats in the church, as appears from the inventory of the 'stuff' taken at the end of Sep- tember 1538, when the bishop of Dover as visitor took the priory into the king's hands.'* Among the belongings of the house may be noticed in the choir a fair table of alabaster, ' a fair table folk of beyond sea work,' a frame of iron hanging for tapers, and new stalls : in the church, new altars, seven images, six marble stones, new ceiled seats at the Jesus altar, new seats in the body of the church, and a little bell in the steeple. The contents of the parlour, buttery, and vestry were few and poor : in the chambers were four old bedsteads, one feather bed and one flock bed : the kitchen also was scantily furnished, though every- thing seems to be included in the inventory down to a broken saucer. The visitor, however, paid his expenses and discharged the debts owing by the house, which amounted only to 20s. He carried away a chalice weighing ii|^oz. and left the house in charge of John Gierke, controller of the customs.'^ There was no lead except a few gutters,'* and the timber was hardly sufficient to keep the fences in repair." The Black Friars was let in 1541 to Sir John Rogers, knt., grandson of the founder, for twenty-one years at a rent of 1 35. ^.d. a year." Sir John purchased the whole with other "Ellis, Hist, and Jntiq. of Weymouth, 261 ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. v, 581. " Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 454. "i. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii (2), 12 14. " Ibid. Ellis in his History and Jntiquitiei of Wey- mouth (1829) has preserved an inventory of jewels and plate of this house which probably dates from the Dissolution ; the articles mentioned are a short pair of beads of gold coral with eighteen stones of silver and a ring of silver and a Saint Dominic's shell ; sixteen rings of gold, and a ' gymmere ' (a ring with two rounds of pearls) of stones and a buckle of gold ; an Agnus Dei of silver ; a circlet of silver ; a cross of silver ; a box with two silver beads ; a paten of silver ; a chalice of silver ; a Holy Rood ; a piscina ; a pair of beads of gilt with stones of silver ; a pyx; an ampul, etc. He also mentions a tradition that the prior had a wonder-working chair, the gift of a cardinal and engraved with a cardinal's hat and ' certain arms,' which at the Dissolution was ' con- verted into the municipal office of holding the persons of the borough representatives.' Ellis had, however, found no trace of it. The tradition (mentioned by Hutchins) that there was a nunnery adjoining the priory is without foundation. ^"L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii (2), 489. " Partic. for Gts. (P.R.O.), file 944. '« Ibid.; L. and P. Hen. Fill, xvii, 703. monastic lands in 1543, holding the friary at a rent of \6d. from the crown." The friary was situated in the east part of the town, in Maiden Street, near the sea.^" Leland called it a ' fair house.' '' The patron saint of the church was, according to Speed, St. Dominic ; according to Willis, St. Winifred. The ceme- tery appears to have been on the north side, where many skulls and bones were dug up in 1682. The priory was in a ruinous condition in 1650, but some old buildings still remained in 1803, including the church, which had been converted into a malt-house. In 1861 the whole of the buildings were pulled down and the ground cut up into building plots.^' 14. THE FRANCISCAN FRIARS OF DORCHESTER The Franciscan friary, or the priory, as it is generally called, stood on the north side of the town, on the banks of the river, a little east of the castle.^^ The date and circumstances of its founda- tion are unknown. It was already in exist- ence in 1267, as in that year the friars were presented for encroaching upon the road by erecting a wall ; ^ that the encroachment was of recent date is shown by the entry in the same year of the death of a workmen who fell off the wall while building it.^' It is said by Speed to have been built by the ancestors of Sir John Chideock.^^ Richard III claimed it as a royal foundation,^' probably with justice. At the time of the Dissolution there was still a room in the friary known as ' the king's cham- ber.' ^' The house was already a large one containing thirty-two friars in May 1296, when Edward I gave them 321. for three days' food through Friar Nicholas of Exeter.^' In a deed " L. and P. Hen. Fill, xviii (2), 241 (31) ; xix (1), 278 (40); Pat. 35 Hen. VIII, pt. I, m. 34; and pt. 14, m. 11. " Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 454. " Leland, Itin. iii, 65. " Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 455. " Ibid. (ed. 3), ii, 364. " Assize R. 202. " Ibid. " Speed, Hist. 1055. Dugdale and others say it was built 'out of the ruins of the Castle.' The tradition that some monuments in St. Peter's church were monuments of the Chideocks and were removed from the Grey Friars church lacks confirmation : Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 381. For pedigree of the Chideock family, see ibid. 257. In the Year Book of 1364 there is a reference to a 'college de xxx soers in le Precheurs de Dorcet': this is probably a mistake for Dartford : Les Reports des Cases on Ley (1679), Mich. 36 Edw. Ill, 28. " Harl. MS. 433, fol. 131. " L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii (2), 474 (2). " B.M. Add. MS. 7965, fol. 7. 93 A HISTORY OF DORSET dated 1310 a burgage held by the abbey of Milton is described as lying near the Friars Minors,'" and in the same year the house received legacies from Thomas Button, bishop of Exeter," and from Robert Bingham of Dorchester." Friars of this house received licence to preach and hear confessions, as Friar John of Grymston in 1338." About the time of the Peasant Revolt the head of the house was ordered by the king to correct Friar John Grey for having excited the cottagers and tenants of the abbot of Milton against their lord.** Alexander Riston, rector of the church of Sarum, left these friars two quarters of corn and one of barley, c. 1393 :" and Robert Grenelefe aSas Baker of Dorchester left them his ' best bason with ewer and best brass pot' in 1420."' They also had bequests from Elizabeth de Burgh, Lady Clare (1355)," Sir Robert Rous, knt. (1383),'' John de Waltham, bishop of Salisbury (1395),'' John Seward (1400),** Sir William Boneville, knt. (1407)," William Ekerdon, canon of Exeter (141 3)," John Pury of Dorchester (1436)," William Wenard of Devonshire (1441)," John Martyn of Dorches- ter (1450)," Thomas Strangways (1514).^* Richard III in 1483 granted to the warden and brethren of this house full power to have the rule and governance of the hospital of St. John the Baptist in Dorchester, lately occupied by Sir Richard Hill, priest, and now in the king's hands, and to minister divine sen'ice there and receive the rents to their use.*' This hospital had been endowed with lOOs. of rent by William Mareschal of Dorchester in 1324,*' and in the time of Henry VIII the master of the chapel of St. John held nine burgages or tene- ments in the parish of St. Peter, thirteen in the parish of All Saints, and two in that of Holy Trinity." The hospital had already been *> Hutchins, Hiit. 0/ Dorset, ii, 364. " jiccount of the Executors of . . . Thomas bishop of Exeter (Camd. Soc), 42. '' Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 364. " Reg. Rod. de Sahpia (Somers. Rec. Soc. ix), 322. " Camb. Univ. Lib. MS. Dd. iii, 53, fol. 97. '=■ P.C.C. Rous, fol. 66b. '« Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 387. " Nicholas, Royal and Noble Wills, 33-4. ^ P.C.C. Rous, fol. I ; Coll Top. et Geneal. iii, 100. »' P.C.C. Rous, fol. 32. *° Cant. Archiepis. Reg. Arundel i, fol. I93'»,- cf. Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 389-90. *' E.xeter Epis. Reg. Stafford, 391. " Ibid. 402. " Hutchins, Hist of Dorset, ii, 364, 388. " P.C.C. Rous, fol. 105. " Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 364, 388. " P.C.C. Fetiplace, qu. 13. " Harl. MS. 433, fol. 131. «' Pat. 17 Edw. II, pt. 2, m. 28. " Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 408-9. conferred on Eton College by Henry VI and it is doubtful whether the grant of it to the Grey Friars took effect.'*' The friars, however, at the time of the Dissolution held three tenements in the parish of All Saints and four in the parish of Holy Trinity." In March 1483-4 the king further ordered the receivers and tenants of the manors of Little Crichel, Chideock, and Caundle Haddon to pay in all 8oj. a year to this friary.*- An important addition was made to the possessions of the convent in 1485, when Sir John Byconil, knt., built and gave them some mills on the water that ran by the friary. The friars in return recognized him as chief founder of the house, conferred on him special spritual benefits and engaged to celebrate his decease on the day after the feast of St. Francis. The mills were given on the following conditions : (i) that 40i. of the profits of the mills should be set aside each year for repairs ; (2) that the friars should take it in turn week by week to pray for the donor and each should at the end of his week receive bd. ; the cursors or lecturers ' being diligently employed about their scholars ' were excused this service and entitled to receive the alms, provided that they substituted another to perform the office ; (3) each friar praying at the obsequies of Sir Jolm should receive an alms ; (4) the remainder of the revenues derived from the mills was to be employed in bringing of boys into the Order and their education in good manners and learning and in making good the books in the choir and in no other way : and the brethren so brought in and educated to the perpetual memory of the said John were to be called Byconil's Friars and none of them to be called by their sur- names. If these conditions were not fulfilled, the profits of the mills were to be divided equally between the Franciscan houses of Bristol, Bridgwater, and Exeter. The agreement was confirmed by William Goddard, D.D., provincial minister, and John Whitefield, custodian of Bristol, and the seals of the provincial minister, the custodian, and the convent were affixed to the deed.'' It is noteworthy that Sir John Byconil made no bequest to any houses of friars in his will in 1500.'* His widow Elizabeth left 20s. to the friars of Dorchester in 1504." In 1510 John Coker, esq., having given the friars a barn and a garden annexed, on the south side of the cemetery, was admitted with his family and " On this hospital see Dugdale, Mon. vi, 759. " Ibid. " Harl. MS. 433, fol. 1643. " Fr. a. S. Clara (Chr. Davenport), Hist. Minor Fratrum Minorum Pror. Jngliae, 37-8 ; Collectanea jing.'o-Minoritica, i, 208 ; Dugdale, Mon. vi ; Hutchins,. Hist, of Dorset, ii, 364. " P.C.C. Blamyr, 5. " Ibid. Holgrave, 15. 94 RELIGIOUS HOUSES successors to the privileges of confraternity by Richard Draper, D.D., custodian of the custody of Bristol and warden of the convent of Dorchester/' Sir Roger of Newborough, lent., and William who was abbot of Milton 148 1-1525 granted to these friars an annual alms of 43J. 4^. from lands in Upper Stirthill." The bishop of Dover visited the house in September, 1538, and had some difficulty in obtaining the surrender;'' he notes that the warden, Dr. Germen,^" had been there many years and was in high favour, so that he (the writer) had much trouble to come to a knowledge of the state of the house. Finding that the mill, which was worth ^TlO a year, had been recently let to Lord Stourton for ^^4, the visitor seized it into the king's hands and retained the miller to the king's use. The deed of surrender was signed on 30 September, 1538, by Dr. William Germen, Edmund Dorcet, Thomas Clas, John Tregynzyon, John Clement, John Laurens, Stephen Popynjay, and Thomas Wyre.'° The 'stuff' was delivered to the bailiffs of the town on behalf of the king : it included a table at the high altar of imagery after the old fashion, a small pair of organs, fair stalls well canopied, and divers tombs in the choir, four tables and three great images of alabaster, a new tabernacle for the image of St. Francis, divers images stolen (?), and divers tombs in the church ; three bells of different sizes in the steeple. In the vestry six suits with other vestments, some of them with blue velvet embroidered. In the chambers a feather bed without a bolster, blankets, quilt and sheets ; two old carpets, ' one of them in the king's chamber,' besides furniture in the hall, frater, buttery, kitchen and brew-house. Further, to redeem plate in pledge for £1 and to pay certain wages and the visitor's charges the following articles were sold : an iron grate about a tomb in the church (40J.), a white vestment with deacon and subdeacon (40J.), two feather beds and a covering ( I o;.), 'an old cope durneks,' a pillow and old iron with a holy water stoup [fs. ^d.). The visitor also sold a press standing in the vestry for 131. /^d. The plate weighed 1265^ oz. There were also various deeds and ' two horses belonging to the mill.' *' Part of the steeple and three panes of the cloister were covered with lead."" William, Lord Stourton, sought to secure a grant of the Grey Friars,*' but the house and grounds were in 1539 leased and in 1543 sold '* Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 365. " Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 25 i. " L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xiii (2), 482. " Cf. Little, Grey Friars in Oxf. (Oxf. Hist. See), 275. ^ L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xiii (2), 474. «' Ibid. «- Treas. Receipts (P.R.O.), A. j\, fol. 4. " L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xiii (2), 482. to Edmund Peckham, cofferer to the king's household." The property, consisting of the house and site, with water-mill and 6 acres of ground, was valued at £\ a year, less 8j. for the tenth, and the price paid was £'J2.^^ Peckham had at the time of the Dissolution bought the elms growing on the property for ;^8.*' He sold the estate to Thomas Wriothesley, earl of Southampton, and Paul Dorrel, esq., in 1547, and it subsequently passed to Sir Francis Ashley, knt., whose heiress brought it to Denzil, Lord Holies." Wardens John Colsweyn, 1327^* John Loss, 1485"' Richard Draper, 15 10 William Germen, 1538 15. THE CARMELITE FRIARS OF BRIDPORT In a letter of which the superscription is lost the writer, who represents himself as the special protector of the Carmelite order, requests his correspondent ' to permit the friars to perform divine offices without molestation or difficulty in the oratory which they have built at Bridport. The letter was probably written by Cardinal Ottobon, papal legate in England 1265 to 1268, to Walter de la Wyle, bishop of Salisbury.™ In 1269 the Carmelites of Bridport received a legacy of 2s. from Christina de Strikelane, widow, of Bridport.'^ The house had only a brief existence. In 1365 Sir John Chideock,knt., applied for licence to confer on the provincial prior and Carmelite Friars of England 3 acres of land in Bridport for the establishment of a friary, together with a mill the profits of which would supply them with bread, wine, wax, and other things necessary for celebrating masses. An inquiry being held, the jurors declared that the grant would be injurious to the patron and rector of the church of Bridport, and the licence was not given.''^ It would appear from this that the "Ibid. XV, 555 (Aug. Off. Bk. 211, fol. 24); xviii (i), 981 (108). " Partic. for Grants, file 852, m. 2, 6 ; Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 366. ^ Partic. for Grants, ibid. m. 3. " On the history of the site see Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 365-6. '" Sarum Epis. Reg. Mortival, ii, 187 ; Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 365. «' Franc, a. S. Clara (Chr. Davenport), Hist. Mm. Frat. Minorum Prov. Angl. 37-8. " Bodl. MS. Laud. Misc. 645, fol. 135; other letters in the collection appear to have been written by a papal legate about this time. " Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset (ed. 3), ii, 19. " Inq. a.q.d. file 355, No. 13. The writ says \oa., the return 3a. 95 A HISTORY OF DORSET original settlement had either ceased to exist or that the friars were for some reason compelled to vacate their premises. No further attempt to re-establish the Carmelites in Bridport appears to have been made. 1 6. THE CARMELITE FRIARS OF LYME In November, 1325, a jury of inquest declared that it would not be to the king's prejudice if he licensed William Darre, chaplain, to grant a •■nessuage and 8 acres of land in Lyme to the Carmelite Friars. The land paid 155. lof^a'. towards the firm of the town and was worth 21. a year besides.'^ The house does not seem to have been founded.'* 17. THE AUSTIN FRIARS OF SHER- BORNE In 1343 Robert of Bradford had licence to grant to the provincial prior and Austin Friars in England a messuage and 8 acres of land in Sherborne to build thereon an oratory and houses for friars of their order." The house does not seem to have been founded. HERMITAGE 18. THE 'PRIORY HERMITAGE' OF BLACKMOORi Obscure though the early history of this house is it may reasonably be assumed that, originally a hermit settlement in the heart of the forest of Blackmoor, it attracted to itself so large a com- pany of the faithful that a community was formed, a rule adopted — apparently similar to that of the friars hermits of St. Augustine, though the hermitage seems clearly never to have been affiliated to that order — and the brethren placing themselves under the protection of the lords of the forest, the earls of Cornwall, who had permitted if not built the earlier foundation, acquired the site of their dwelling and such property from time to time as the generosity of their patrons added to them. The precise date of these events cannot be given, though they probably took place in the reign of Henry III. Edmund, earl of Cornwall, died in 1300 seised of the hermitage in Blackmoor,' and in 1314 Edward II granted a licence to the brethren to retain without let or hindrance of any justice or forest officer the land which they had acquired within the forest without licence from his pre- decessors, comprising the site of their hermitage, " Inq. a q.d. file 183, No. 4. " Willi.im of Worcester (//;'». 372), speaking of Thomas Beaufort, duke of Exeter, says : ' Item habuit iii vel iiii infantes et obierunt apud Lyme inter fratres.' (?) " Inq. a. q.d. file 265, No. 12 ; Pat. 17 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 17. ' This house has not been fully or correctly treated by previous compilers. Tanner, in the earlier Notitia (1744), mistaking it for an Austin priory of the same name in Essex, states that it was dedicated to St. Lawrence and attributes to it various references relat- ing to the Essex house. The matter is not cleared up in the later Notitia, and the edition of the third and corrected edition of Hutchins, while giving much fresh information, repeats some of the old errors. Hist. 0/ Dorset, iv, 467. consisting of 10 acres of land the gift of Ralph, earl of Cornwall, 7 acres acquired from Richard, earl of Cornwall, who died in 1272, and 7 acres bestowed by Edmund, the late earl,' which they had inclosed according to the assize of the forest so that the deer could enter and leave. Tlie following year the prior and hermits were allowed 8 acres of land out of the waste of the forest in a place called ' Rocumbe,' with liberty to inclose the same with a little dyke and low hedge and bring it into cultivation,'' and in 1325 Ingelram Berenger, who had been ap- pointed steward of the forest,' made over to them 100 acres of land in ' Rocumbe,' held in chief for the service of rendering 32/. ,^d. at the Exchequer, on condition that they should find a chaplain to celebrate daily in the church of the hermitage for the souls of the said Ingelram and the faithful departed and for the maintenance of ten mendicants to be refreshed once a day in the hermitage.^ The List charge seems to have dropped speedily out of practice and even memory, for the return made to the writ of Edward III, dated November, 1338, requiring to be certified whether it would be to the injury of the king or any other for the prior and chaplains of the hermitage of Blackmoor Regis, Dorset, to retain 14 messuages, 100 acres of land, 2i- acres of meadow with a rent of 67J. ^d. and of a pound of cummin in Knighton, Fossil, Winfrith, and Baltington, which they had acquired in fee from the late Ingelram Berenger since the publication of the Statute of Mortmain without licence of the late king, ' Inq. p.m. 28 Edw. I, No. 44. Unfortunately the section giving the return relating to the hermitage within Blackmoor forest, parcel of the duchy of Corn- wall, is reported as ' missing ' at the P.R.O. ' Pat. 7 Edw. II, pt. 2, m. 15; see Dugdale, Baron, of Engl, i, 76 1. * Pat. 9 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 28. ' Ibid. 18 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 25. ° Ibid. 19 Edw. II, pt. 1, m. 13. 96 RELIGIOUS HOUSES stated that the grant had been made on condi- tion that the brethren should pay the said Ingelram the true yearly value of the same during his life and after his death should provide a chaplain to celebrate daily for the souls of the kings of England, of Ingelram and the faithful departed,' without mention of the daily pro- vision for mendicants ; possibly it may have ceased owing to the financial condition of the house, and his consort and for their souls after death. ''' Henry VI the following year, 17 December, 1470, ratified the estate of William Brown as master of the hospital of St. John the Baptist, Dorchester, and as master of the house or chapel called ' le priory hermitage ' by Dor- chester." On the death or cession of William in 1473 Edward IV made a grant of the custody of the ' chapel ' to Robert Bothe, for the grant of the following February, enabling doctor of law,'° the deed being annulled four them to retain the land and premises, records that it was made by fine of 1 00s. because of the poverty of the said chaplains.* A few particulars as to this forest house may be gleaned from the episcopal registers. They record that the house belonged to the order of St. Augustine and that the prior and brethren were presented to the ordinary for examination and approval before admission, as in the case of John de Ramesham, 28 October, 1327 ; ' Wil- liam de Bradewas, who was presented to the custodian of the spiritualities of the bishopric, Robert de Worth,'" in the vacancy of the see, 8 May, 1330 ; another instance is recorded 2 October, 1387." On the resignation of John de Ramesham the house presented John de Wyke to the bishop, who on account of the poverty of the brethren proceeded to admit him in a summary manner, 9 July, 1340.'^ In 1389, all the inmates being dead, the bishop bestowed the house in commendam on Thomas Wilton 25 August. '^ An inquisition being held as to its state in 1424 it was found that the house was of royal foundation and that the king held the custody of it when vacant, that the brethren elected a prior subject to the royal assent, and that the house was not taxed at 10 marks per annum. After this date the style of the house alters and it becomes known as the free chapel of St. Mary, 'called the Hermitage,' and as such was placed by Edward IV in 1469 in the custody of William Brown, clerk, who already held the mastership of the hospital of St. John the Baptist, Dorchester, with a grant for life of the yearly pension or annuity of 52^. 2d. with which the chapel was charged to the king, of which 38J. lod. was payable to the Exchequer and 1 35. ^d. to the bailiff of the king's manor of Fordington for the use of the duke of Cornwall, on condition that he should maintain the old service and pray for the good estate of the king ' Inq. p.m. 2 Edw. Ill (2nd nos.), No. 147. . ' Pat. 3 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 3;. ' Sarum Epis. Reg. Mortival, fol. 164. '" Ibid. Wyville, fol. 3. " Ibid. Erghum, fol. 84. " Ibid. Wyville. " Ibid. Waltham. years later, November, 1477, in favour of Master Robert Myddelham, bachelor of theology." He was succeeded by Richard Hill, dean of the king's chapel, appointed by Henry VII in the first year of his reign,'* who was again followed by John Cole, appointed by Henry VIII in 15 11." Two years later, on the surrender of the patent by which it had been bestowed on John Cole,^" the king granted the free chapel called ' le Hermytage ' in Blackmoor to the abbot and convent of Cerne. No reference is made to this house in the chantry certificates of Henry VIII and Ed- ward VI. Priors or Masters of Blackmoor William, occurs 1327^' John de Ramesham, resigned 13.1.0^^ John de Wyke, presented 1340^^ Richard Andrew, presented 1349" Thomas Marshall ^'^ Thomas Wilton, appointed 1389^' John Baret, appointed 1424" William Brown, appointed 1469"* Robert Bothe, appointed 1473"'' Robert Myddelham, appointed 1477'° Richard Hill, appointed 1485-6" John Cole, appointed 151 1, surrendered 15 13 on the annexation of le Hermytage ' to the abbey of Cerne ^^ " Pat. 9 Edw. IV, pt. 2, m. 22. '' Ibid. 49 Hen. VI, m. 12. ■' Ibid. 13 Edw. IV, pt. I, m. 3. " Ibid. 17 Edw. IV, pt. 2, m. 23. '" Hutchins, Hisl. of Dorset, iv, 467. " Pat. 3 Hen. VIII, pt. i, m. ^ d. '"' L. and P. Hen. Vlll, i, 3853. " Sarum Epis. Reg. Mortival, fol. 1 64. " Ibid. Wyville. ■'' Ibid. " Ibid. '■' Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iv, 467. "'■ Sarum Epis. Reg. Waltham. " Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iv, 467. '' Fat. 9 Edw. IV, pt. 2, m. 22. " Ibid. 13 Edw. IV, pt. i, m. 3. " Ibid. 17 Edw. IV, pt. 2, m. 23. " Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iv, 467. '^ Pat. 3 Hen. VIII, pt. i, m. 3 a'.; L. and P. Hen. nil, \,38S3. 97 13 A HISTORY OF DORSET HOUSE OF UNCERTAIN ORDER 19. WILCHESWOOD > The history of this priory, chantry, or free chapel is very obscure, and can only be partially reconstructed with the help of certain documents which came into the possession of the Coker family on the Dissolution.' Coker, in his Survey of Dorset (1732), states that this house,dedicated to St. Leonard, was founded by Roger le Walleys, lord of the manor of Langton Wallis and grandson of Ingelram le Walleys, in the forty- seventh year of Edward III (1373) ; ' but it was certainly founded many years earlier, probably in the first part of the century. According to a charter, undated, Alice, once the wife of William de Ponsont and widow of Ingelram le Walleys, gave a tenement in the manor of Mappowder for the maintenance of William Bonet, chaplain, to celebrate an obit for the souls of the said William and their ancestors at Wilcheswood for life, with a proviso that in the event of the transference of the prior and brethren of the house the chaplain should receive satisfaction out of the revenues.'' By another deed, also undated, William de Watercumb, chaplain, warden of the house of St. Leonard at Wilcheswood and the brethren there leased to William Aignel and his wife of Stour Provost a certain tenement with houses, lands, &c., for the term of their lives for the sum of 8 marks sterling in hand.' Roger le Walleys, Wallis, or Walsh, whom Coker erroneously gives as the founder, appears to have added rather to the endowment of the house; in 1373 he presented Henry Atte- chapelle, chaplain, to the chantry, that he might find maintenance for himself and two fellows {soc'tt) in the chapel of Wilcheswood and St. George of Langton (Matravers), serving God and St. Leonard there, with the grant for life of i caru- cate of land in Mappowder, and charged only with the provision of a lamp to burn during mass in the chapel of Langton.*^ The advowson of the priory appears always to have accompanied the manor, and by a fine levied in 1398 between John Fauntleroy and Joanna his wife, granddaughter of Roger le Walleys, and John Foliol, the second husband of Margaret, daughter of the same, the manor of Langton Wallis, &c. with the ' chantry ' of Wilcheswood was granted to John Foliol for his life with remainder to William Foliol his son and Joanna his wife and the heirs of Joanna.^ In the third year of Henry V William Talbot, clerk, warden of the chantry of Wilcheswood, delivered over to William Foliol the muniments of the chantry, consisting of nineteen charters and indentures sealed, and one indenture unsealed, two papal bulls, four royal letters patent, and a copy of the presenta- tion of Henry Attechapelle by Roger le Walleys.* The lands of the priory in the reign of Henry VIII consisted of a carucate of land in Mappowder valued at 6j., lands in Knowlton, parcel of the manor of Woodlands, with other lands and a mill estimated at £i) lbs. 4^. ;' after the Dissolution these came into the hands of the Coker family. Chaplains or Wardens Adam de Watercumb, occurs in a deed with- out date ^^ Ralph de Sayr, occurs in a deed of 1316-17 " Henry Attechapelle, presented 1373*' William Talbot, occurs 1413 and 1417^^ Richard Petworth, presented 1417" Hugh Filiol, occurs 1506-7, and in the reign of Henry VIII " HOSPITALS 20. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. MARY MAGDALEN, ALLINGTON At Allington,* anciently a village not far distant from Bridport and now forming part of the borough, was a lazar house or hospital for lepers dedicated to the honour of St. Mary Magdalen. ' At the time of the Domesday Survey, Wilceswode, as it is termed, formed part of the holding of the widow of Hugh Fitz Grip ; Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.),i, 84. ' Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, i, 641 ; iii, 729, note^. ' Hutchins, op. cit. i, 48. ' Ibid, i, 641. » Ibid, iii, 729. " Ibid, i, 641. ' Ibid. 637. M bid. 641. ' Ibid, and iii, 729. 98 Various accounts are given of its foundation. Coker, in his Survey of Dorset, attributes it to the family of the Chideocks.' Hutchins, reciting an instrument contained in the corporation archives of Bridport, states that it was 'founded, or rather better endowed,' by John Holtby, canon of Salisbury and custos of the house de " Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, i, 641. " Ibid, iii, 729. '» Ibid, i, 641. " Ibid, iii, 729 ; i, 641. " Ibid. " Ibid. ' In Domesday Book the village occurs as Adeling- tone (Rec. Com. i, 80^). Later it is given also as Athelington or Allington. ' Op. cit. (ed. 1732), 24. RELIGIOUS HOUSES valle scholarium or Vaux College, in the latter part of the reign of Henry VI. ^ Other records show us, however, that the house had at that time been in existence for con- siderably over two hundred years, and may claim to be one of the earliest foundations of its kind within the county. In 1232 Henry III granted letters of protection without limit to the lepers of St. Mary Magdalen of Bridport,* as from its proximity to the town it was in- differently termed, and by her will dated St. Gregory's Day, 1268, Christine de Stikelane left among other bequests to the religious esta- blishments of the town and neighbourhood ' vi^. to the Magdalene house of Adlington.' ' The hospital appears to owe its original endow- ment— if not foundation — to the de Lega or de Legh family, for by a document, previous to the year 1265, and still preserved at Bridport, Wil- liam de Legh the son of Philip de Legh* granted to the house of St. Mary Magdalen of Allington called ' The Hospital of the Lepers of Mary Magdalen of Bridport ' for the good of his soul and for the soul of his wife Dame Nicola de Legh 50 acres of arable land in ' Alingtone ' with pasture for one steer, six oxen, three cows, and fifty sheep, a sufficiency of marl for marling their lands, of turf to be taken from his moor, and liberty to be ' sterefry ' and toll-free in his mill. In return for these benefactions two chaplains at least should be appointed by the house ' of laudable life and honest conversa- t'on,' one of whom should say a mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary with a special collect for his soul and for the souls of Dame Nicola his wife, Geoffrey de Auk' and Isota his wife, Master John de Bridport, physician, and Robert the Serjeant of ' Alingtone ' ; the other chaplain, on days not feast days, should pray in his first prayer especially for the souls of the same.' Further, a covenant dated at Leghe, 1265, between William de Legh, knight and lord of Allington, and William de Stikelane and Hugh Rodhum, provosts of Bridport, and other good and lawful men, sets forth that whereas the said William had given to the said provosts &c. full power to administer his grant of lands to the two chaplains, brethren, and lepers of St. Mary Magdalen of * Alingtone ' aforesaid, they were empowered to compel the said chaplains, brethren, and lepers to observe the terms of the grant, and directed to hold an inquisition yearly at Easter ' Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 206. • Pat. 16 Hen. Ill, m. 3. ' From the corporation archives quoted by Hutchins under 'Bridport,' ii, 19, note a. * In the reign of King John, lzo6, Richard Wallensis quitclaimed to Philip de Lega and Clarice his mother all his rights in half a knight's fee in Allington ; Hunter, Pedes Fin. ii, 95. ' Rec. of Corp. of Bridport (Hist. MSS. Com.), Rep. vi, App. 486. and Michaelmas to ascertain whether the chap- lains were living honestly, and whether the brethren and lepers were treated in a due and humane manner, together with other conditions of the grant. ^ The later grant of John Holtby in 31 Henry VI aforementioned was of the nature of a re-foun- dation, the terms of which were carefully planned with a view to safeguard the interests of the parochial chapel of St. Swithun, within whose limits the hospital lay, and to prevent the possi- bility of any dispute between the two. Drawn up with the consent of the dean and chapter of Salisbury, here given as patrons of the house, it gave permission to the brethren and sisters of the hospital to have two chaplains to celebrate daily in their chapel, 'saving the rights of the chapel of St. Swithun.' They might receive all obventions and oblations of the said chapel, but none from the parishioners of Adelington or Allington. Certain tithes were assigned or rather confirmed to them from their first founda- tion and their present benefactor quitclaimed to them I mark of silver which they were accus- tomed to pay annually to the chapel of St. Swithun for their ' chantry.' The brethren and sisters were expected to provide for the chaplains.' As time went on and Allington became practically merged into Bridport, we find the hospital more usually entered under the name of the latter ; in the confusion thence arising, many writers have supposed that there were two religious foundations at Bridport, both of which, according to the early edition of Hutchins and Tanner, were dedicated to the honour of St. John the Baptist, while the explanation offered by the editors of the late and amended edition of Hutchins hardly accounts for the fact of two entries appearing under Bridport in the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535, one of which we can now see belongs to Allington.^" All the ecclesiastical authorities of the town in 1444 joined together in aid of the work of repairing the haven, promis- ing for themselves and their successors that all benefactors of the port should be remembered in the prayers and masses they were bound to offer daily for their founders ; the list of clerical persons thus associated includes the names of John Hasard, chaplain of the ' chantry ' of the Blessed Mary Magdalen, and John Brode, chap- lain and stipendiary there.^^ ' Ibid. 4.85-6. ' Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 206. '° They hazard the conjecture that these two houses were one and the same without accounting for the fact of the separate entries. Leland's description by its ambiguity has furthered the error. Proceeding from Chideock to Bridport he says ' there was in Sight or ever I came over the river into Bridport a lazar house and not far off a chapel of St. Magdalen in the which is a chantry founded. And over the bridge a little by west in the town is a chapel of St. John ' ; Leiand, I tin. iii, 61. " Ibid, ii, 16. 99 A HISTORY OF DORSET The Valor of 1535, which gives the hospital as the priory of Blessed Mary Magdalen of Bridport, states that it was worth £b^ and tliat Henry Danyell was prior there" ; by the chantry commissioners it was valued at ^t 8j. 4^., and again at £"] is. ^.d., and they reported that it had among its possessions 'one chalice of 6 oz.,' two pairs of old vestments, two candlesticks worth Sd., and two bells worth 20s. ; the house was certified to be ordeyned for the relief of lepers and lazar men and to one priest to sny mass before them, the profits thereof the priest hath for his stipend, the poor men live by alms of the town." The last incumbent, Robert Blakewell, received a pension of ^^6." In the third year of his reign Edward VI granted the hospital and lands belonging to it to Sir Michael Stanhope and John Bellow, and in the same year they came into the possession of Giles Kelway." Urtder the name of the Magdalen Charity the hospital still exists as an almshouse for eight poor women. Masters John Brode, occurs 1444'^ Henry Danyell, occurs 1535 " Robert Blakewell, last incumbent ^* 21. HOSPITAL OF LONG BLAND- FORD Hutchins states that there was here a hospital for lepers, mentioned in an old deed of the date of 10 Edward I." Nothing further is known of its existence, but local tradition preserves its memory in a farmhouse w thin the parish of Langton or Langton Long Blandford, known as St. Leonard's Farm. 22. HOSPITAL OF ST. MARY AND THE HOLY SPIRIT, LYiME Beyond one reference we know nothing of a hospital for lepers founded here. In 1336 Bishop Robert Wyville of Salisbury granted an indulgence for the repair of the fabric and bell- tower, 20 " rahr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 232. " Chant. Cert. 16, Nos. 51, 62. " Pensions to Religious in Dorset, Add. MS. 1 9047, fol. 8 d. '* Hutchins, op. cit. (ed. 3), ii, 206. '* Ibid. 1 6. " Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 232. "Add. MSS. 19047, fol. id. " Hist, of Dorset, i, 98. ^' Sarum Epis. Reg. Wyville, i, fol. 40 d. Hutchins, Tanner, and Dugdale state that this hospital is valued in the chantry certificate of Edward \' I at 38/. iid., but further evidence is wanting to establish identity 23. HOSPITAL OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST, BRIDPORT Though the date of its foundation cannot be exactly stated it is evident, from its mention in various deeds of the time of Henry III belonging to the corporation of Bridport, that the hospital here, like that of Allington, was already in existence in the earlier half of the thirteenth century.-^ Among these documents is a charter, dated 1240, which recites that Helias de Wroccheshel, for the good of his soul and those of his ancestors and successors, has granted and confirmed to the house of the Blessed John the Baptist in Bridport within the east bridge, and to the brethren and sisters serving God there, leave to graze ten oxen, four yearling cows, one hog, one steer, and fifty sheep in the whole of his pasture land at Walditch, except in his meadows in fence-time [in tempore defencionii), as well as sufficient fencing from his wood to inclose their land in Wal- ditch.^' Another deed sets forth an agreement, made on Christmas Day, 1 271, whereby John, son of William Telle of Bridport, leased to Sir William, prior of the hospital of St. John, a cer- tain croft situated between the land of St. John and the way leading to the mill of Richard Killing, together with a house, curtilage, and croft bounded by the curtilage which lately belonged to Osbert Baldwyn.*' The benefactors of the hospital were numerous, and included Mabel, the daughter of Edward Hux, who, in her widowhood, gave to God and the brethren and sisters serving God in the hospital of St. John, Bridport, I J acres of land in Portmannefeld for the soul of Richard her late husband ; "'' Richard Hux, who, by charter undated but belonging to the time of Edward I, engaged himself to pay 1 2d. yearly to Roger de Rydeclive, warden of the hospital and his successors, from his tenement in the South Street of Bridport ; ^' Christine de Stikelane, who, by her will, dated in 1268, left various small sums to the religious foundations of her town, bequeathed 'xiif^. to the "church" of the Blessed John.'^^ Little is recorded of this hospital beyond what is contained in these and similar charters. It appears to have been in the patronage of the bailiffi and commonalty of Bridport, who, by an indenture dated on Sunday after the Feast of between this hospital for lepers and the seri'ice of the Blessed Man,-, for which the sum of 38/. lid. was applied towards the finding of a clerke and children,' the only entry under Lyme Regis in the said chantry certificate. Chant. Cert. 16, No. 71. " Rec. of Corp. of Bridport (Hist. MSS. Com.), Rep. vi, App. 475-99. " Ibid. 4S2. " Given by Hutchins from the same source. Hist. of Dorset, ii, 19. " Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vi, App. 4-9. " Ibid. 484-j. " Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 19, note a. 100 RELIGIOUS HOUSES St. Peter and St. Paul (29 June), 1357, granted the custody of the hospital, together with the administration of its goods, to John de Shapwick, chaplain, on the understanding that he by him- <;elf or a fit chaplain should celebrate daily in the chapel.^' A document still exists among the town archives entitled — Implements of the priory of St. John the Baptist •delivered to Sir John Syltere by Richard Burgh and John Cryps, Bjilifts of Bridport, received from Hugh Prior, late prior there, the 9th October in the 32nd year of King Henry VI, tlie possessions and furniture of the inmates are ■set out under the following headings : — In the Chapel, In the Hall, In the Pantry, In the Kitchen, In the Chamber.^' In the deed of 1444, to which all the ecclesiastical authorities of the town set their hands pledging themselves to assist in the pious work of repairing the haven, the master or warden here, John Shipper, is styled ' prior of St. John.'^' The clear income of the house, according to the Falor of 1535,'" was estimated at ^8 bs. id., the name of the then prior being Robert Chard. The chantry commissioners in the reign of Edward VI stated that it was worth £6 155. 8d., out of which 165. should be deducted in rents resolute;^' the incumbent, William Chard, re- ceived the whole profits for his own use ; ^^ there was found there ' one chalice and one gold ringe of 12 oz.,' two ' lytle ' bells worth 20;., and ' certain ornaments ' worth 20d?^ The last warden, William Shard or Chard, who may be the same as the Robert Chard of 1535, received a pension of £S-^^ Wardens or Priors of Bridport Hospital William, occurs 127 I ^* Roger de Rydeclive, occurs temp. Edward I '* " Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 21. " Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vi, App. 493. " Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 16. '" Hutchins, in the earlier edition of the Hist, of Dorset, and Tanner after him, has fallen into the mistake of supposing that there were two foundations at Bridport both dedicated to St. John the Baptist, and the error is not entirely explained away by the editors of the last edition of Hutchins ; they give it as their opinion that there was only one foundation, * the chapel of St. John over the bridge a little by west in the town,' described by Leland in his Itinerar-) (iii, 61), and fail to see that one of the foundations valued in 1535 under Bridport belongs to the hospital of Allington ; Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 232-4. " Chant. Cert. Dorset, 16, No. 49. ^' These, in a further section of the roll, were reduced to^6 8/. 9i^. Ibid. No. 61. 'M bid. No. 49. " B. Willis, Hist, of Mitred Abbeys, ii, 72. " Hutchins, Hist of Dorset, ii, 19. '^^ In a charter of Richard Hux ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vi, App. 4845. William Worgan, occurs temp. Edward I ^^ Richard Castelayn, occurs 1295-6 and 1316-17 ^* John de Shapwick, appointed 1357,''' resigned before 1411^° John Shipper, occurs 1444^' Hugh Prior, occurs in 1453 ^* 'late' prior ^ Robert Chard, occurs 1535^' William Shard or Chard, last incumbent ^* 24. HOSPITAL OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST, DORCHESTER The hospital here, commonly called ' St. John's House,' was under the royal patronage, and presumably of royal foundation, but we hear nothing of it until the year 1324, when William Marshall of Dorchester obtained a licence from Edward II to endow a chaplain who should celebrate daily in the chapel of the hospital of St. John, Dorchester, for the soul of the said William, for the souls of his ancestors and successors and all the fiithful departed.^* The date, therefore, when the hospital was built cannot be definitely stated. The wardenship, like that of many other royal free chapels and hospitals within the gift of the crown, was frequently held with other offices. In June, 1334, Edward III presented his clerk, Mar- tin de Ixnyngge, to the custody of the king's hospital of Dorchester for life, directing the brethren and sisters of the house to be ' inten- dant' to their new head,^* who, in the previous February, had been appointed master of the hos- pital of Maidstone, Kent.*' In 1 45 I William ^' William Worgan occurs as 'prior' of the hospital in another charter by the same Richard Hux, conceding certain lands to the brethren and sisters of the hospital of St. John the Baptist ; ibid. "* He occurs as master in a further charter of Richard Hux, dated 24 Edw. I, and is given as ' keeper of the gate of the hospital of St. John of Bridport ' in a grant of Stephen Crul of Walditch, dated 10 Edw. II. From the archives of Bridport; Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 20. '' Ibid. 21. '" In that year an inquiry was instituted into the consanguinity of John Shapwick, late prior of the hospital of St. John of Bridport ; Madox, Formukre Angl. 15. *' Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 16. " He is called late prior of the hospital in the inventory of goods of 9 Oa. 1453 ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vi, App. 49;. " Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 234. "Chant. Cert. 16, No. 61 ; B. Willis, Hist, of Mitred Abbeys, ii, 72. *^ Pat. 17 Edw. I!, pt. 2, m. 28. " Ibid. 8 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 14. " Ibid. m. 41 ; see Newcourt, Eccl Rcpert. (i, 748), for a list of the preferments at different times of this clerk. lOI A HISTORY OF DORSET Man, vicar of Sturminster Marshall, was warden of this hospital." As far as its internal management is concerned a royal writ was issued, 1 8 November, 1359, directing the eschcator of the county to make inquiry into the truth of the report that certain lands and rents pertaining to the hospital of St. John of Dorchester ' of our patronage ' had been granted away by former custodians to the great waste and destruction of the house, so that various services and almsgiving, established for the souls of the king's progenitors, had ceased and been withdrawn ; a jury should be empanelled to ascertain what lands and rents formerly belonged to the house, what had been alienated away, and by whom it had been done.*' The return, made the following month, stated that the hospital formerly possessed seventeen messuages in the town of Dorchester which produced a yearly rent of £j 6s. ^.d., a water-mill, 96 acres of a-able land, and 7 acres of meadow in Fording- ton, two cottages, 5 acres of land and meadow in Puddletown with appurtenances, and that Richard Creyk, late master, eight years ago alienated one messuage to Richard Tannere, chaplain, for the annual rent of ijs. for the term of his life. Since that time the present warden, Simon de Brantingham, had made further alienations, and had not only conveyed away land but carried oiF the goods and chattels of the house, including linen [naperia) and bedding.'" In the course of these proceedings the said Simon seems to have been either deposed or suspended, for the following year the patent rolls, under date of 6 July, 1360, record that Edward III granted to his beloved clerk, Thomas de Brant- ingham, the life custody of the hospital of St. John Baptist, Dorchester, vacant and in his gift." In March, 1451, Henry VI made a grant of the hospital (vulgarly called ' Sayntjohneshous ') with all its emoluments to the provost and college of Eton, his deed reciting that whereas the custody was then in the hands of William Man, vicar of Sturminster Marshall, the present grant should not hold good until by the death or cession of the said incumbent the hospital should next come into the king's hands. °^ Whether this grant ever took effect it is diffi- cult to say, for though it was confirmed by Edward IV in 1467," and again in 1473," the crown continued to appoint as the cus- " Pat. 29 Hen. VI, pt. i, m. 8. " Inq. p.m. 33 Edw. Ill (2nd Nos.), 88. " Ibid. '" Pat. 34 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 23. This may be an error of the scribe and refer to Simon, or it may be mere coincidence for two wardens to have the same name. '' Ibid. 29 Hen. VI, pt. I, m. 8. '' Ibid. 7 Edw. IV, pt. 3, m. 13. " Ibid. 13 Edw. I\', pt. I, m. 10. tody fell vacant,'^ and in the first year of his reign Richard III bestowed the hospital, ' lately occupied by a priest and of our disposal,' on the Friars Minor of Dorchester." The Act of Re- sumption passed on the accession of Henry VII ordained that it should not be prejudicial ' to anygraunte or letters patents made by King Ed- ward IV, late king of England, to Maister Richard Hill, now dean of the king's chapell, of and for the free chapell of Seynt John's in Dor- chester.' " The Valor of 1535 gives this house a clear income of £2> 4*- Antony Wcldon was then ' rector ' or incumbent.*' By the Chantry Com- missioners it was valued at ^<) 13J. 2d., out of which 42X. 8i. was deducted in 'rents resolute,' leaving a balance of ^7 los. 6(/." The whole amount was received by the last incumbent, Edward Weldon, ' towards his exhibition at the University of Oxford by virtue of king's letters patent dated 4 August 32 Henry VIII' (1540).^ On the confiscation of colleges and chantries he was assigned a pension of ;^6.*^ Wardens of Dorchester Hospital'' Martin de Ixnyngge, appointed 1334^' Robert Creyk, appointed 135 1 " Simon de Brantingham, appointed 1354^' Thomas de Brantingham, appointed 1360*' Roger de Stoke, appointed 1370 ^' Thomas de Brounflet, appointed 1376** " Edward IV in the first year of his reign, 2 1 Feb. 1462, appointed William Brown to the custody (ibid. I Edw. IV, pt. 5, m. 18). Henry VI on his brief return to power in 1470, without reference to his former grant, ratified the estate of the said William as master or warden of St. John Baptist, Dorchester, as well as master of the house or chapel called ' le priory hermitage' by Dorchester (ibid. 49 Hen. VI, m. 12). Edward IV, after granting the reversion of the house, when it should ne.xt come into the king's hand, in frankalmoign to William Westbury, the provost and college of Eton, March, 1473, in November of the same year committed the custody to Master Oliver Kyng, one of the clerks of the Signet (ibid. 1 3 Edw. IV, pt. I, m. 10 and 2), the letters patent for the last being exchanged in November, 1477, in fn'our of Rich.ird Hill (ibid. 17 Edw. IV, pt. 2, m. 29). '' Harl. MS. 433, 1603, fol. 131. " Pari. R. (Rec. Com.), vi, 367. " Valor EccL (Rec. Com.), i, 243. "Chant. Cert. 16, No. 2. " Ibid. 1484. The clear income was estimated again at [j 1 5/. ^d. ; ibid. " B. Willis, Hist, of Mitred Abbeys, ii, 72. " The following list of wardens is taken, with some additional names and corrections, from that sup- plied by Hutchins from B. Willis, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 416. « Pat. 8 Edw. Ill, pt. i,m. 14. " Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 416. " Ibid. ** Pat. 34 Edw. in, pt. 2, m. 23. " Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 416. " Pat. 50 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 5. 102 Milton Abbey [Oh'versc) Milton Abbey [Re-verie) '^'-^^ri WfV^: Shaftesbury Abbey i^Oh'vcrse) Shaftesblry Abblv i^Reuersi') Dorset Monastic Seals : Plate II RELIGIOUS HOUSES Henry Harburgh, 1399^^ William Man, occurs 145 1 '" William Brown, appointed 1462/^ occurs 1470 '^ Oliver Kyng, appointed 1473'^ Richard Hill, appointed 1477,^* resigned be- fore 1485'* Thomas Otteley, 1485 ^^ John Burton, 1495," died 1499 John Argentine, 1499^^ Antony Weldon, occurs 1535'' Edward Weldon, last incumbent*" 25. HOSPITAL OR LAZAR-HOUSE, DORCHESTER There appears to have been a hospital built -here for the relief of lepers, but no particulars have yet been recovered as to the date when it was founded or the name of the founder. The chantry certificate of Edward VI states that the hospital or 'house of leprosy' at Dorchester had no lands, but consisted of ten poor men who received an annual rent of 40;. for their gowns * by the hands of Mr. Williams, Esquire.' '^ 26. HOSPITAL OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST, SHAFTESBURY 82 When and by whom this hospital was founded history does not say. The earliest notice of it occurs 5 January, 1223, when the king issued an order to John Lancelive, bailiff of Brian de Insula of the forest of Dorset, directing him to allow the prior of the hospital of St. John of Shaftesbury three trees {fusta) of the windfall wood of the king's park of Gilling- ham for the repair of his house.*' The founda- tion, therefore, cannot be dated later than the beginning of the thirteenth century. The chantry commissioners in the sixteenth century reported that it was ordained for the relief of five poor men who then lived by the alms of *' Hutchins, Hist. 0/ Dorset, ii, 416. '" Pat. 29 Hen. VI, pt. I, m. 8. " Ibid. I Edw. IV, pt. 5, m. 18. "Ibid. 49 Hen. VI, m. 12. " Ibid. 13 Edw. IV, pt. I, m. 2. '* Ibid. 17 Edw. IV, pt. 2, m. 29. " Par/. R. (Rec. Com.), vi, 367. " Hutchins, Hisf. of Dorset, ii, 416. " Ibid. " Ibid. " Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 243. ^ This last may be the same as the Antony Weldon of 1535. Chant. Cert. 16, No. 84. »' Chant. Cert. 16, No. 89. *' Hutchins describes this hospital as situated in the parish of St. Martin and near the church at the meeting of Hert Crope and Shetwell lanes ; Hist, of Dorset, iii, 38. ** Close, 7 Hen. Ill, m. 22. the town, the whole of the profits being re- ceived by the priest who officiated there.** The house, or priory as it is occasionally termed, was in the patronage of the abbess of Shaftesbury and the diocesan registers give a succession of presentations by the nuns down to the Dissolution, beginning with William de Eggeclyve, priest, presented to the wardenship by the abbess and convent 11 November, 1305.*'' In April, 1 541, Robert Fowke, the last warden or master, was presented by Edmund Wynter, knt., David Brokwey, gent., and Nicholas Tyddour, patrons pro hac vice by reason of the grant of letters of advowson made to them by the last abbess and convent of Shaftesbury.*' For some reason not very apparent the patronage of the house came temporarily into the hands of the king in 1381, and in September of that year Richard II presented John Ridgway, chap- lain, to the life custody of the hospital of St. John on the Mount at Shaftesbury, his appointment being shortly afterwards followed by that of John Bridport.*' Beyond the names of the different wardens the history of St. John's is almost a blank. The master in 1348 probably fell a victim to the terrible plague that ravaged Dorset in the autumn and winter of that year, for in the heavy list of presentations for December occurs that of John de Meleborn to St. John's, Shaftes- bury, on the death of William de Godeford, late warden.** William Russel, called the prior of the hospital, was visited along with other rectors and vicars of the deanery by the diocesan in the church of Holy Trinity, Shaftesbury, in April, I344-*' In an inquisition made in 1499 the hospital was said to be founded by the king's ancestors. The property, consisting of five tenements, 4 acres of arable, loi acres of pasture, and half an acre of meadow, was valued at ^b. The sup- port of the poor and the celebration of the divine services weekly and yearly had been neglected for the last twenty years, and had completely ceased in the last two years, during which David Knolle, chaplain, had taken the profits and also removed the ornaments of the hospital.*^'' On the confiscation of chantries this hospital was valued at ^4, with one bell worth 3;. 4^.^" " Chant. Cert. Dorset, 16, No. 100. ^ Sarum Epis. Reg. Simon of Ghent, ii, fol. 45. "* Ibid. Salcot or Capon, fol. 7 J. " Pat. 5 Ric. II, pt. I, m. 12, 19. These two exceptions, as against some twenty appointments by the nuns, seem to have led Tanner into the error of supposing that the house was of royal patronage. There is no ostensible reason for the king's action, the abbey then being ' full ' and under the rule of Abbess Joan Formage. ^ Sarum Epis. Reg. Wyville, ii (Inst.), fol. 193. »' Ibid. Waltham, fol. 73. "^ Esch. Inq. file 896, No. 21. '"Chant. Cert. 16, No. 15. 103 A HISTORY OF DORSET It was granted by Edward VI with lands be- longing to it in Shaftesbury, Motcombe, and GiUingham, to Kendal, Burgh, and others for the sum of ^^136 lis. ^d.^^ The last incum- bent, John Hame, received a pension of Wardens or Priors of Shaftesbury Hospital William de Eggeclyve, appointed 1305'' William de Godeford, died 1348" John de Meleborn, appointed 1348'° John Lord, appointed 1361,'^ died 1 38 1 John Ridgway, appointed 138 i '' John Bridport, appointed 138 1 '* William Russel, appointed 1381,^' died 1423 James Grevey, appointed 1423'"*' John Wynnyngham, died 1470'°^ John Tyrell, appointed 1470'"^ William Ketilton, resigned 1492^°' George Twynho, appointed 1492,^°^ resigned 1496 David Knollys or Knolle, appointed 1496 '"' William Wylton, died 1525 i'^« William Parkows, appointed 1525 ^"^ William Percuste, died 1541 ^'* Robert Fowlce, appointed I 541 ^"^ John Hame, last incumbent.*"'* 27. HOSPITAL OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST AND ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST, SHERBORNE A hospital here of comparatively late founda- tion ' was begun,' according to Leland, ' by de- votion of the good people of Sherborne in the fourth year of Henry VI, and the king is taken for founder of it.'*'" On 11 July, 1437, eleven years after the date given of its inception, Henry VI granted a licence to Robert Neville, bishop of Salisbury, Humphrey Stafford, knt., " Hutchins, Hist, of Done-/, iii, 39. '^ B. Willis, Hist. ofMiired Abbeys, ii, 72. '^ Sarum Epis. Reg. Simon of Ghent, pt. 2, fol. 45. " Ibid. Wyville, ii (Inst.), fol. 193. " Ibid. '"= Ibid. (Inst.), fol. 278. " The registers take no note of this and the fol- lowing appointment by the crown (Pat. 5 Ric. II, pt. I, m. 19), and Stat J that William Russel was appointed on the death of John Lord. Sarum Epis. Reg. Erghum, i, fol. 44 <^. »« Pat. 5 Ric. II, pt. I, m. 12. '' Sarum Epis. Reg. Erghum, i, fol. 44 d. "* Ibid. Chandler, fol. 61. '«' Ibid. Bciuchamp, fol. I 50. "" Ibid. '" Ibid. Langton, fol. 40 d. "» Ibid. '" Ibid. Blyth, f.il. zdd '»" Ibid. Campegio, fol. 3 d. "" Ibid. ™ Ibid, .-alcot or Capon, fol. 7 d. '™ Ibid. "^ B. Willis, op. cit. ii, 72. "° Itin. ii, 49. 'It yet standeth,' adds Leland, but most of its property had been dispersed ; ibid, iii, 1 10. Margaret Gogh, John Fauntleroy, and John Baret, to incorporate and establish a certain house of perpetual charity in Sherborne to the honour of God and St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist for the reception of twenty brethren, twelve ' poor sick and impotent ' men and four women, with a chaplain who should pray for the good estate of the king and of the brethren of the house and their benefactors while they lived, and for their souls and those of all the faithful departed ' when they shall have withdrawn from this li^ht.' The brethren were yearly, or whenever it should be convenient, to elect a master froiti among themselves, and were empowered to fill up any vacancy that should occur in their number, and to remove or expel the master from his office or any of the poor men or women from the house ; all the inmates should live under the rule and government ordained by the said bishop. Sir Humphrey Stafford, Margaret Gogh, John Fauntleroy, John Baret, or any four, three, or two of them. The master and brethren were declared capable of holding lands in the name of the society, and of pleading and being impleaded in the law courts of the land, they should use one common sea!,, and might hold lands and rents in socage or in burgage to the annual value of 40 marks for the benefit of the poor men and women in the hospital, while the perpetual chaplain and his successors might acquire and hold the same to the value of 10 marks, notwithstand- ing mortmain and all previous statutes to the contrary.*" Henry VI in October, 1448, made a further grant to the brethren of the house that for a fine of ;^io they might acquire lands and tene- ments to the annual value of £33 6j. 8d.,^^^ and by a later deed reciting his former grant he licensed William Combe, John Downton of Folke, and William Couland to give and assign to William Smyth, then master of the hospital, thirty-nine messuages, two tofts, one dovecot, 39^- acres of land, 19 acres and one rood of meadow and I acre of grove situated in Sher- borne, Beer Hackett, and Caundle, of the yearly value of j^5 3;. 4.d.y to be held in part satisfaction of the ^33 6s. 8./.*" Bishop Richard Beau- champ of Salisbury is mentioned as a great benefactor to the house,*** which, indeed, was situated within his ' vill ' of Sherborne, but he can hardly have been the founder as one report states ; **' his predecessor Aiscough, according to an entry in his ofScial register, dedicated an altar in the chapel of the hospital in 1442, five years after its incorporation by royal charter.*'* "' Pat. IS Hen. VI, m. 5. "» Ibid. 27 Hen. VI, pt. 1, m. 30. '"Ibid. 32 Hen. VI, m. 15. "* Hutchins, op. cit. iv, 294. ns Magna Brit. Jntiq. et Nov. i, 567. "* Sarum Epis. Reg. Aiscough, fol. (^J d. 104 RELIGIOUS HOUSES On the confiscation of colleges and chantries under Edward VI the house entered as ' the hospital or house of leprosy of St. John the Evangelist in Sherborne' was found worth j^35 8s. 6d., out of which £^ 35. 6d. was deducted in rents resolute, leaving a clear income of £2^ 5^- which the officiating priest received half-yearly, £^ 6s. 8d., the residue, being applied 'to the finding of eleven poor and impotent men and four poor women according to the foundation thereof.'"' The name of the last incumbent is not given, nor is he entered among those who received pensions."^ Masters of the Hospital of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist, Sherborne John Deen, occurs 1448 "' William Smyth, occurs 1454'-" Henry Borman, occurs 1468 '^' 28. HOSPITAL OF ST. THOMAS, SHERBORNE Very little is known of this hospital or chapel dedicated to St. Thomas Becket, but commonly known as St. Thomas atte Grene or on the Grene, yet from a reference in a charter '^^ granted by Bishop Richard le Poor of Salisbury in 1228 to his tenants at Sherborne 'between St. Thomas's chapel and the castle,' it appears to have been in existence in the early part of the thirteenth century, and was probably founded during that period when dedication to the honour of that most famous and popular of English saints was high in fashion. Presentation to the hospital was in the gift of the crown and the custody was usually held by king's clerks together with other benefices ; on 20 June, 1395, Richard II ratified the estate of his clerk, John de Wendelyngburgh, as parson or warden of the chapel of St. Thomas on the Grene,'^' Sherborne, and on 22 September of the same year following the death of John committed the wardenship of the hospital to Nicholas Slake, king's clerk ; ^^* both these "' Chant. Cert. 1 6, No. 91. "' B. Willis, Hist, of Mitred Abbeys, ii, /i-z. "" Pat. 27 Hen. V'l, pt. 1, m. 30. ■>° Ibid. 32 Hen. VI, m. 15. '" On 25 Nov., 1468, Edward IV licensed Henry Borman, the master and the brethren of the almshouse of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist to acquire lands and other possessions held in socage or burgage to the yearly value of j^l3 ; ibid. 8 Edw. IV, pt. 2, m. 4. '" By inspeximus of Richard II. Pat. 5 Ric. II, pt. I, m. II. "'Ibid. 18 Ric. II, pt. 2, m. 9. "* Ibid. 19 Ric. II, pt. I, m. 18. 2 I wardens held the office in plurality with other benefices. In 1405 John Brunyng is given as rector of the Chapel de Grene according to the register of Dean Chandler.'^' In the reign of Henry VIII Leland describes 'Thomas Bekettes chapelle by the New Yn' as still standing, but ' incelebrated.' '-^ The college and chantry commissioners of Edward VI re- ported that it was worth 621., had no plate or ornaments, but two bells valued at 265. 8<^.'" Roger Hord or Horsey, late incumbent, received the whole of the emoluments'^* to his own use without performing any manner of service in the chapel ; ' there is no power (poor) people nor headmen found nor relieved of the premises.' '-' The chapel was granted by Edward VI to John Doddington and William Ward.'"^ Wardens of St. Thomas's Hospital, Sherborne John de Wendelyngburgh, occurs 1395,"' died in the same year Nicholas Slake, appointed 1395 "^ John Brunyng, occurs 1405 ''^ John Hord or Horsey, last incumbent "* 29. HOSPITAL OF ST. LEONARD, TARRANT RUSHTON At what date and by whom this house or hospital was founded it is impossible now to say. The first mention of it occurs in the reign of Edward I, when the advowson and lordship {dominium^ of it were in the hands of the Deverel family, and they may have been the founders; at any rate in 1314 they made over the entire rights to the prior and convent of Christchurch, Twyneham."* According to an inquisition post mortem, held as to his possessions '" Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iv, 257. The warden is mentioned again as 'rector of the Grene' in a grant of Menry VI in 1454 to the master and brethren of the hospital of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist of Sherborne, enabling them to acquire thirty-nine messuages in the town, and describing one of these same messuages as situated between the tenement of the rector 'de la Grene,' called the George Inne,' on the north and the king's highway leading from the Grene to the Castle on the south ; Pat. 32 Hen. VI, m. 15. '^•^ Leland, I tin. ii, 49 ; iii, I 10. '-' Chant. Cert. 16, No. 8. "'* Entered again as worth 66/. ■'' Chant Cert. 16, No. 92. "' Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iv, 257. "' Pat. 18 Ric. II, pt. 2, m. 9. '" Ibid. 19 Ric. II, pt. l,m. 18. '" Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iv, 237. '" Chant. Cert. Dorset, 16, No. 92. '" Inq. p.m. 6 Edw. Ill (2nd Nos.), 97. 05 14 A HISTORY OF DORSET in Milborne Deverel or Gary, in March, 1332,'"^ Elias de Deverel died in October the previous year, and on his lands escheating to the crown by reason of the forfeiture of his son and heir, John de Deverel, the then prior and convent petitioned the king to restore to them those rights in the house of St. Leonard of Rushton near Palmeresbrugg of which they had been unjustly disseised by the late donor and his son. The king ordered an inquiry to be made, and on 28 November, 1332, the jury found that the advowson and custody of the house had been granted to William Quentyn, late prior of Christchurch, the convent and their successors by Elias de Deverel on the morrow of St. Nicholas (6 December), 1304; that then, in accordance with the terms of the grant and on the cession of the master, John Curteis, they had presented Robert de Horton, chaplain, to the custody and mastership of the house, to which he had been admitted on the feast of St. Thomas the Apostle (21 December) the same year ; that subsequently, on 2 May following, they had been unjustly dispossessed of their rights by the said Elias de Deverel and John his son, and Robert de Hor- ton, then master, had been removed and Ralph Lychet, chaplain, admitted to the custody in his place ; and that the same Elias and John had continued to usurp possession of the house from that time up to the date of the attainder of John de Deverel, when it came into the king's hand. The jury further estimated its value at 40J."' These facts having been ascertained, Edward III did not hesitate to make good the claim of the monks, his deed of restoration the following January, 1333, reciting that the original grant of the premises in the reign of Edward I had been made to the then prior, William Quentyn, and the convent without licence of the king, but that in consideration of a fine of 10 marks he had consented to pardon the lack of this for- mality."' The subsequent history of the house is unknown, and it is not entered in the chantry certificate of the county in the reign of Edward VI. Masters of Tarrant Rushton Hos- pital John Curteis, resigned in 1304'" Robert de Horton, appointed 1304, resigned 1 305,"° Ralph Lychet, appointed 1305"' "^ Inq. p.m. 6 Edw. Ill (2nd Nos.), 59. "' Ibid. (2nd Nos.), 97. "* Pat. 7 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 13, 15. "' The names of these three wardens are all given In the inquisition of 28 Nov. 1332 ; Inq. p.m. (2nd Nos.), 97. '«» Ibid. '*' Ibid. 30. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. MAR- GARET AND ST. ANTHONY, WIM- BORNE The date of the foundation of this ancient hospital, commonly called St. Margaret's of Wimborne, is unknown. Tradition has re- ported that it was founded by John of Gaunt, but, as evidence has been found of its exist- ence long before the reign of Edward III, the conjecture was probably based on the fact that the house was situated within the manor or Kingston Lacy, which formed part of the duchy of Lancaster ; it may at some time or another have been rebuilt or re-established by John of Gaunt or one of his descendants. '*- From certain deeds found in a chest in the chapel the house appears to have existed as a house for lepers as far back as the reign of King John, and to have depended for its support al- most entirely on the alms of the town and neighbourhood ; a grant dated 1245 recited that for the encouragement of such charitably-dis- posed Christians as should contribute towards its relief Pope Innocent IV by an indulgans or bulle did assoyl them of all syns forgotten and offcncis done against fader and moder and of all swerj-nges neglygently made This ' indulgans ' granted of Peter and ' Powle ' and of the said pope should hold good for fifty-one years and 260 days, provided a certain number of Paternosters and Ave Marias were repeated daily.'« In the absence of a sufficient endowment licence to beg must have been almost a necessity, and for that purpose Edward I in 1275 granted letters of protection for a year to the brethren and sisters of the hospital of St. Margaret and St. An- thony, Wimborne,^*' and renewed the grant on the expiration of the term the following year,*^' and again in 1286."^ The Chantry Commissioners of Edward VI valued the house at 291. 8^., and found it was ordained for the relief of poor men, and that there were then eight who 'not only live by the profit of the said house but by the devotion of the people and inhabitants of the town of Wim- borne.' "' In the chapel of the hospital there was estab- lished in early days a chantry founded by John Redcottes and named after him ; it was annexed '" In the beginning of an account book of the hos- pital of the sixteenth centurj' the house is said to have been erected by the sometime duke of Aquitaine and Leicester, which shows that its early origin had been lost as far back as the reign of Elizabeth ; Hut- chins, op. cit. iii, 247. '" Ibid. '" Pat. 3 Edw. I, m. 23. >" Ibid. 4 Edw. I, m. 19. '" Ibid. 14 Edw. I, m. 24. "' Chant. C ert. 16, No. 112. 106 RELIGIOUS HOUSES to the college or free chapel of Wimborne and is entered among its possessions, being held in the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI by the sacristan of the college in conjunction with his other office. At the time the Valor of 1535 was taken it was worth ^^5 6s. 8d., and was held by Thomas Yeroth, sacristan."' Accord- ing to the chantry certificate Simon Benyson, then incumbent, received for his stipend £^ 6s. Sd. arising out of certain lands ' called Dixon and Capons lands,' parcel of the duchy of Lancaster ; after his death these rents should be paid into the duchy. In the meantime he held another living to the value of ;^30."^ An annual pension was allowed him of ^^5 a year.^'" The book of ancient accounts above men- tioned further shows that from the year 1567 to 1683 the hospital was continued under the control and direction of two parishioners, annually elected and styled the guardians or wardens of St. Margaret's Hospital or Almshouse, assisted by the constable of the town and the stewards of the lord of the manor of Kingston Lacy, the latter signing the accounts on behalf of the lord of the manor.^^^ From 1683 the election ofguardians ceased, and the entire management and control of the funds was placed under the stewards of the lord of the manor, to whom belonged the appointment of the poor to the almshouses. In a return to Parliament in 1786 the value of the house was given at ;^35 iij. The hospital benefited largely by the will of the Rev. Wm. Stone, dated May, 1865, whereby certain lands and tenements in the parish of Wimborne Minster were left in trust to the use of the almsmen only in St. Margaret's Hospital. The house is described as standing on the high road which runs from Blandford to Wimborne."^ 31. HOSPITAL OF WAREHAM The only reference to a hospital here is to be found in the return of the commissioners for chantries and colleges in the sixteenth century,, which states that the hospital or house of charity in the town of Wareham, valued at £() 13J., was founded for the relief of six poor and im- potent men and five poor women ' to have their continual living there and so yt ys usyd.' ^^^ COLLEGE 32. WIMBORNE MINSTER One of the earliest religious foundations in this county was the nunnery built here at the beginning of the eighth century, converted on its restoration into a house of secular canons pre- sided over by a dean, and subsequently known as the royal free chapel and college of Wimborne Minster. The Saxon monastery was built by St. Cuth- burh or Cuthburga, the daughter and sister re- spectively of the Wessex kings, Kenred and Ine, who after her union with Aldfrid, king of the Northumbrians, renounced married life and, with the consent of her husband, entered the abbey of Barking and became a nun under the rule of the Abbess Hildelitha.'^ Various dates »« Fa/or Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 273. '" Chant. Cert. 16, No. 107. He also held the sacristan's office of Wimborne Minster. '••» B. Willis, Hist, of Mitred Abbeys, ii, 72. "' The lords of the manor were reputed the founders. '*' Hutchins, op. cit. iii, 248. '" Chant. Cert. Dorset, 1 6, No. 1 1 7. ' Will, of Malmes. Gesta Regum (Engl. Hist. Soc.), i, 49 ; Flor. Wigorn. Chron. (Engl. Hist. Soc), i, 49 ; Matt, of Westm. {Flores Hist. [Rolls Ser.], i, 367), Leland {Coll. i, 211-12 ; ii, 387), and a few other writers give Ecgfrid, king of the Northumbrians, half- brother to Aldfrid, as the husband of St. Cuthburga, but Capgrave, who in his life of the saint records a dialogue between her and her husband on the subject are assigned for her subsequent foundation at Wimborne. Cressy, whose account is generally adopted, gives the year 713 ;" the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle meniions it under 718, but makes no definite statement as to when it came into exist- ence.' The foundation must, however, be dated some years earlier and previous to 705 according to a letter of Bishop Aldhelm, written in that year, granting liberty of election to the monasteries under the charge of the bishop, who. died in 709, in which he mentions particularly ' the nuns in the monastery by the river which is called Wimburnia presided over by the abbess Cuthburga.'* ' St. Cuthberga,' says Cressy, translating various passages from the Fita of Capgrave — having built her monastery and therein a church to the Queen of Virgins, there macerated her body with almost continual watchings and fastings. She was humble both to God and man and mild to all. Many virgins she assembled in the same place ; she per- mitted her body to enjoy no rest ; but importunately day and night her prayers sounded in the ears of a merciful God. She happily ended her d.iys in the year of grace 727, and her memory is celebr.ited by the church on the last day of August.' of the renunciation of marriage, as well as her dying charge to her nuns, calls the king Aldfrith or Aldfrid;. No^a Legenda Anglie (15 1 6), fol. 79-80. ' Ch. Hist, of Brit. (1668), lib. xxi, cap. 18. ' Op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), 39. * Birch, Cart. Sax. i, 168. ' CA. Hist, of Brit. (1668), lib, ; xi, cap. iS. 107 A HISTORY OF DORSET According to Leland she was buried on the north side of the presbytery, but afterwards translated to the east end of the high altar of the church,* which was subsequently re-dedicated in her honour.' With St. Cuthburga is frequently associated as co-foundress her sister St. Cuenburh or Quin- burga, also said to have been buried in this church,* and who, if we accept her identification with abbess Cneuburga — the joint author of a letter addressed to Atjbot Coengils of Glaston- bury, Abbot Ingeld, and the priest Wiethberht agreeing to a proposal for mutual intercessory prayer and asking in particular ' that remem- brance may be had of our dead sisters,' — prob- ably succeeded to the rule of the monastery on the death of the first abbess.' The Eta to whom reference is made in the same letter may possibly be identified with Tetta the venerable abbess, said to be a sister of iEthelheard, the kinsman and successor of King Ine, who soon after became superior of the monastery and was responsible for the religious training and educa- tion of the sisters Lioba and Agatha, destined to carry abroad the benefits of the instruction they had received while under the care of ' that devout mother.' A great proof of the perfection of monastical dis- cipline observed after the death of the foundress in her monastery is this : (again quoting Cressy) that St. Boniface the glorious apostle of the Germans, having founded a monastery of virgins at Biscofisheim in Germany made choice of her disciples above all others, and particularly of St. Lioba, to plant religious observances there. This is testified bv Rodulphus, disciple of Rabanus Maurus, in the life of Lioba written by him.'" St. Lioba died in a monastery near Mainz, 28 September, 757. Besides the nunnery there appears to have been a monastery or ' cloister of monks ' at Wimborne, built either by St. Cuthburga or her brother King Ine, strict regulations being laid •down prohibiting any intercourse between the two sections of religious men and religious women. Excepting priests who were to serve at the altar, no men should be permitted to enter the monastery of those religious virgins, nor any woman that of reli- gious men. And that among the other obligations of the virgins at their profession this was one, never to step out of their cloister except upon a necessary' .cause to be approved by superiors." ° Leland, Itin. iii, 72 ; Collect, ii, 409. ' The church occurs under this dedication ; Clo^e, 14 Hen. IV', m. 28,2'. ' John of Tinemouth, ' Hist. Aurea,' Hickes, 'Th'saur. iii, 120. ° H.iddan and Stubbs, Councils and Eccl. Doc. iii, 342-3. She died three years after her sister, says Cressy, and is commemorated on 22 September ; Ch. Hist. o/Bnt. lih. xxi, cap. 18. "> Ibid. " Ibid. We are told in her life given by Mabillon that St. Lioba '^ was fond of citing the example set by her former superior. Abbess Tetta of Wim- borne, who presided over the houses of both men and women as over a double monastery, and whose observance of this regulation was so strict ' that she would not so much as permit the bishop's entrance ' in the women's section." References to Wimborne in the ninth and tenth centuries afford ample proof of the import- ance of the town and the veneration paid to its Minster during the Saxon period. It was select- ed as the burial-place of King jEthelred, who died in 87 I in consequence of wounds received in the battle fought against the Danes at Merton.^* The yinglo-Saxon Chronicle recording the death of king Sigferth, who killed himself in 962, adds, ' his body lies at Wimborne.' " Again, Wimborne was the centre of events attending the accession to the throne of Edward the Elder in 901, for .iEthelwold, son of j^lthelbert, an elder brother of Alfred, disputing tiie title of his cousin and relying on some measure of popular support for his own claim, seized the royal towns of Oxeley or Christchurch (Hants) and Wimborne, and investing the latter place with such troops as he could muster resolved to stand a siege, declaring that there ' he would either live or lie.' To the injury more- over of whatever cause he might possess, he forcibly abducted an inmate of the famous monastery ' without leave of the king and con- trary to the bishop's ordinance, for she was a pro- fessed nun,' and made her his wife. King Edward meanwhile raising a powerful army for the defence of his kingdom and the vindication of religion marched into Dorset, and encamped at a place called Bad bury, where there was a castle at no great distance from Wimborne. The courage of .iEthelwold then apparently deserted him and he fled away by night and came to Northumbria, where he joined himself to the Danes and besought them to receive him into their company to fight against King Edward, being soon after made king by them. Edward the Elder in the meantime relinquishing the pursuit of the enemy contented himself with receiving the submission of the town, ordering the religious woman who had been abandoned by iEthelwold in his flight to be sent back to her nunnery.'' A blank in the history of Wimborne succeeds, and it is generally conjectured that the monastery " Acta Sanctorum Ord. S. Benedicti, Sacculum, iii (2), 247- " Ibid. See Cressy, Ch. Hist, of Brit. lib. xxiv, cap. 4. " Anglo-Sax. Ckron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 62 ; Matt, of Westm. Fiores Hist. (Rolls Ser.), i, 444. " Anglo-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 92. '' Ibid. 75 ; Matt, of Westm. Fiores Hist. (Rolls Ser.), i, 478 ; Matt. Paris, Ckron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), i, 435-6. 108 RELIGIOUS HOUSES perished in one of the Danish raids of the period. The Danes, we are told, ravaged the country in the year 998 ; no details are given, but the Anglo- Saxon Chronicle, recording fruitless attempts to withstand the destructive march of the enemy, adds sadly : ' In the end they ever had the victory.' " According to Leland Wimborne was rebuilt by ' King Edward,' supposed to be the Confessor, and by him was converted into a house or college of secular canons with a dean at its head.'* No reference is made to it until the reign of Henry III beyond the statement in Domesday, that the church of Wimborne had a hide and a half and a virgate of land in Hinton." From the date of its restoration it appears to have enjoyed the status and privileges of a royal free chapel with college attached under the direct patronage of the crown. In 13 1 8 Edward II addressed an order to Rigaud Asser, then papal nuncio, afterwards bishop of Winchester, forbidding him to exact aught from or to lay any imposition whatever on the dean and preben- daries of Wimborne Minster — Whereas it is a free chapel of the king and altogether exempt with the prebends and chapels pertaining thereto from all ordinary jurisdiction and from all exactions, procurations and contributions whatsoever."' Owing to this immunity from episcopal juris- diction there are no entries in the diocesan registers which can throw light on the internal condition of the college. A solitary mention occurs in 1379 wherein William Crundell, proctor of the dean and college, was summoned with the proc- tors of Ford, Cerne, and Tewkesbury to appear before the bishop's commissary in the parish church of Sonning prepared to exhibit their title to all ecclesiastical benefices, portions, and pensions held by them.^' The earliest appointment to Wimborne that is recorded occurs at the beginning of the reign of Henry III, when Martin de Pateshull received letters of presentation to the deanery then vacant and at the royal collation, 6 December, 1223.^^ " Anglo-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 108. '* Collect, i, 82 ; see also Itin. iii, 72. " Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 77^. This may be either in Hinton Martell or Little Hinton, as both are included in the survey of Hinton. ™ Close, II Edw. II, m. 10. In the event of a general contribution by the clergy to the crown the king was in the habit of addressing a special order to the dean, appointing him collector of the subsidy due from all benefices pertaining to his chapel, which was exempt from the jurisdiction of the ordinary. Ibid. 8 Edw. II, m. 9. " Sarum Epis. Reg. Erghum, i, fol. 29. ■" Pat. 8 Hen. Ill, m. 12. The Rev. R. W. Eyton, in \a%Key to Domesday {Dorset,), suggests that Maurice, bishop of London, and Hugh his predecessor held half a hide in OJeham in the parish of Wimborne in virtue of the deanery, ' having in their time been deans of Wimborne,' but they are not included in any list of the deans of Wimborne. The following year the sheriff of Dorset was directed to cause proclamation to be made that the market and fair formerly held within the cemetery of Wimborne should in future be held outside under the walls, on land belonging to the dean on the same days and with the same liberties and customs as formerly.^' The deanery was always held by men holding other ecclesiastical benefices and in many cases secular offices, and. was bestowed by the king on his clerks and court favourites as a reward for their services, and by no means always with a view to their spiritual fitness. Martin de Pateshull, early in the reign of Henry III, sat as a justice of the King's Bench, was a justice itinerant and constantly employed as a judge ; besides other ecclesiastical benefices he held a prebend in St. Paul's, London, the archdeaconry of Norfolk, and in 1228 was appointed to the deanery of St. Paul's.^^ On his death the following year he was succeeded at Wimborne, 20 October, by Randolf Brito,^* who in the previous December had been presented by letters patent of the king to prebends in London and Salisbury and to the rectory of Charing (Kent),-^ and the March following appointed constable of Colchester Castle and warden of the ports of Essex.^' John Mansel, the notorious pluralist, who succeeded in 1 247 on the death of Brito, had, as we may gather from the pages of Matthew Paris,"* a very distinguished career in many ways, but the positions which he held and the difficult negotia- tions in which he was frequently employed by the king can have left him no leisure to bestow on Wimborne, and the fact that he held the deanery is not even mentioned in the Chronica Major a, which records his varied appointments.^' For examples of pluralism in this county we have only to turn to this deanery, a notorious instance being that of John Kirby the tax- gatherer, who followed Mansel. The number of his clerical preferments, granted solely in reward for his services to the king, and with no regard to his fitness,'" created a painful ^ Close, 9 Hen. Ill, m. 20. " Le Neve, Fasti Eccl.Jngl.u, 308, 371, 482; New- court, Repert. i, 35. " Pat. 13 Hen. Ill, m. i. »= Ibid. m. II. "Ibid. m. 9. '■^ Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), vols, iii, iv, and v. -' He held a prebend in London {Fasti Eccl. Angl. ii, 397), was chaplain to Henry III, made chancellor by the king in 1243 (Pat. 27 Hen. Ill, m. 10), and the following year principal councillor (Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. [Rolls Ser.], iv, 294). In the same year that he was presented to Wimborne he received the charge of the Great Seal and was made provost of Beverley (ibid. 601). In 1258 he witnessed a charter as chancellor of York (ibid, v, 672). Bilsington Priory in Kent was founded by him (ibid, v, 690-1). *° He appears to have held only deacon's orders, and was ordained priest by Peckham the day before his consecration to Ely in 1286; Reg. Epist. Peckham (Rolls Ser.), iii, App. ii, 1 041. 109 A HISTORY OF DORSET impression in the minds of the more scrupulous and devout of the clergy, while the nature of his employment did not tend to add to his popularity. "*' On his election to Rochester in 1285, Archbishop Peckham actively interfered and, on the ground of Kirby's notorious pluralism, desired the chapter to make another choice of a fit person.'^ The archbishop did not interfere, however, when, in 1286, the dean was promoted to Ely." No record seems to exist of the original endowment of the college and deanery, which at the beginning probably consisted of the great tithes of the parish, to which were added as time went on considerable gifts of portions of tithes and land. According to the Taxatio of 1 29 1 the possessions of the dean and college were assessed at ;^7 1 ; the portion of the dean amounting to £26 ly- 4-d- from Wimborne, Kingston, and Shapwick ; that of the four pre- bendaries jTio each ; the sacrist ^^4 6s. Sd.^* In 1349, on the appointment of Reginald Brian, four commissioners were deputed, together with Thomas de Gary the sacrist, to survey the chapel, which was reported to be very defective in books and ornaments, and in need of repairs in the manse and houses as well as in the manors and other places in the country pertaining to the deanery, to the great injury of the then dean,^* who, the following year, was raised to the see of St. David's and subsequently made bishop of Worcester. The next occasion for an inquiry was in 1367, when an inquisition was ordered to be held in the presence of Richard de Beverley, lately presented to the deanery, or his proctor and the executors of the late dean, Henry de Bukyngham, with a view to ascertain what damages and waste had occurred during the last " Just before the death of Henry III he was given the Great Seal, and, though he subsequently resigned it, appears to have been attached in some capacity to the chancery ; the Anna'es speak of him as vice-chancellor {Ann. Man. [Rolls Sen], iii, 315). In 1284 he was made treasurer, but he was employed chiefly to travel the country and collect what sums he could for the king. The benefices with which his zeal was rewarded included the rectory of St. Burian's, Cornwall, the deanery of Wimborne, a canonry in Wells and York, and in 1272 the archdeaconry of Coventry ; Wharton, Angl. Sacra, i, 637, note 4 ; Fasti Eccl. Angl. i, 568. " Reg. Epist. Peckham (Rolls Ser.), ii, 575. " Wharton, Angl. Sacra, i, 637. " Po/>e Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 180. Within the deanery of Pimperne the dean is said to have portions consisting of 1 3/. \d. from the church and chapel of Shapwick (ibid. 178), j^l from Edmondsham, 10/. from Stanbridge or Litde Hinton, and j^l from Hampreston (ibid. 179) ; Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, 139, 142,435. The parishioners of Hampreston were formerly buried at Wimborne until 1440, when they obtained a licence for their own burial-ground from Henry VI ; Harl. MS. 6963, fol. 56. '^ Pat. 23 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 22 d. occupancy of the deanery, the nature of the defects, and whether they could be repaired within a cost of ^^400. The return made to the writ, giving the value of the dean's possessions, enumerates titlies in Shapwick, lOOs. ; Kingston, 8 marks ; Pimperne, 20s. ; Bradford, 20s. ; Crichel, ioj. ; parcel of Holt, with tithes of wool and lambs, ;^8 ; tithes of Hampreston, ^^4 ; demesne lands let to farm, 235. ; tithes of wool and lambs, 40^. ; and states that William Sewell, chaplain and farmer of the late dean, had 20 marks remaining in hand, and the reeve [praepoiitus) £6 of arrears.'* Leaving the deanery, we find the staff of the college with sacrist and four preben- daries increased in the middle of the fourteenth century by the addition of four chaplains ap- pointed to serve the chantry, known as the Great or Brembre's Chantry, founded in 1354 by the dean Thomas de Brembre, who, on 10 August of that year, obtained a royal licence to appropriate the advowson of the church of Shapwick, held in chief of the king, to the canons and college of Wimborne Minster for the sus- tentation of four chantry priests celebrating divine ofSces in the chapel under the sacrist according to the ordination of the dean." In addition to this grant the custodian and four chaplains obtained a licence enabling them to acquire 10 'marcatas' of land and rent in Walsford, Chalbury, Kingston, ' Duppleshegh,' and ' Cokeshull,' not held of the king in chief; while Richard de Corfton, at the same time, was permitted to assign to them one messuage, 12 bovates of land, 16 acres of meadow, 5 acres of pasture, 2 acres of wood with 40;. rent, and pasturage for sixteen oxen, twelve cows, forty pigs, and 400 sheep in the above places, valued at J IS. 4.ci., to be held by the custodian and chaplains at the annual value of £i^., in part satisfaction of the grant of I o ' marcatas.' '* The " Inq. p.m. 41 Edw. Ill (2nd Nos.), No. 37. " Pat. 28 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. I 5. The church of Shapwick seems, from early times, to have been attached to the deanery. In 1238 Henry III addressed letters to the bishop of Salisbury bidding him revoke the presentation he had made to the church on the ground that it belonged immediately to the deanerj' which pertained to the royal patronage. Pat. 22 Hen. Ill, m. 2. " Pat. 28 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 10. There m.iy later have been some dispute in reference to this grant, for an entry in the Close Rolls of the last year of Henry IV states that Thomas Corfton testifies that he has released and quitclaimed to Richard Holhurst, sacrist of the church of St. Cuthburga of Wimborne Minster and custodian of the chantry of Thomas de Brembre, founded in the church, to Richard Skvll, William Vyncent, Richard Shephurd, and Thomas Pylle, chaplains, all personal actions which he may have or could possibly have against them ' from the beginning of the world up to the dav of the " con- fection " of these present.' Close, 14 Hen. IV, m. 28. 1 10 RELIGIOUS HOUSES office of custodian of the chantry was held, ex officio, by the sacrist. Besides the foundation of Dean Brembre, there was another and later chantry of equal, or even greater, importance in the church, founded by Margaret countess of Richmond and Derby but not completed till after her death. By a tri- partite deed, dated 12 March, 1511, between the executors of the will of the deceased countess, the dean and chapter of the college, and the sacrist or custodian and chaplains of the Great Chantry, reciting the grant procured by the countess of her son Henry VII by letters patent of I March, 1497, for the foundation of a chantry of one chaplain in the royal free chapel or collegiate church of Wimborne ' to the praise and honour of Jesus and the Annunciation of the B. V. M.,' with licence to appropriate lands, rents, and benefices &c., to the annual value of j^io, to the said chaplain and his successors; and after the death of the countess and the ap- pointment of her executors (Richard bishop of Winchester, John bishop of Rochester, and others), the letters patent of Henry VIII, 7 August, 1509) in the first year of his reign, confirming the previous grant of his father and granting an additional licence to appropriate lands and rents to the annual value of j^6, besides the above ;^io, was established a perpetual chantry for the augmentation of divine service and for the souls of the said countess, her parents and ancestors, and all the faithful departed at the altar on the south side of the tomb of John Beaufort, late duke of Somerset, and Margaret his wife, the father and mother of the aforesaid countess. By this same deed Richard Hodgekynnes, B.A., was appointed the first chaplain, to reside in a house within the college opposite the chamber or dwelling of the sacrist and to teach grammar to all comers after the form and manner used at Eton and Winchester. Besides this duty he was bound to celebrate daily for the soul of the founder, and for the souls of her father, mother, and ancestors, special collects being appointed to be recited ; an anniversary was fixed to be kept yearly on 29 July, whereon a requiem mass should be said, and at the end of the mass a distribution of 20s. made in the following manner: — To the sacrist of the college if he should be present in his surplice and amice, idd.; to each chaplain 'present and devoutly singing,' 8i. ; to every secondary and parish clerk, 4 2s. o^^., and had no ornaments.*' The four prebends in the college called the ' first,' ' seconde,' ' thirde,' and ' fourthe staulle,' were worth re- spectively ^^8 los., £j !$!■ 2d., £12 I5i. 2d., and £j IS. id. clear.*'* Pole forfeited the deanery in 1537 and was succeeded at Wimborne by Nicholas Wilson.'" Some of the leading parishioners the following year addressed the dean a very respectful letter, saying they had been informed that ' Seynt Cuthborow's hed ' was to be removed from their church. And we know by our composycion that yt ys the p,irishioners' goods and our chyrche ys in gret ruyn and decay and our toure ys foundered and lyke to fall and ther ys no money left in our chyrche box, and by reason of great infyrmyty and deth ther hath byn thys yere in our parysh no chyrche aele the whych hath hyndred our chyrche of xx nobles. The letter proceeded to ask whether the parishioners might sell the silver about the head of the image, and apply the proceeds to the re- pair of their church.'" The college was dissolved in 1547, and we may gather the immediate effect of its suppres- sion and of the withdrawal of the activity of the staff from the parochial and social life of the town from the second part of the commissioners' report of Edward VI. The chantry of the Countess Margaret,'^ ' founded to the intent that the incumbent thereof should say mass for the soul of the founder and to tech schoole'mg,^ was empty, and complaints appear to have been made by the townspeople that their children had been deprived of the means of education provided for them : — It is very requisite and necessary (ran the report) to have the said school maintained, for the town of Wimborne is a great market town and a thoroughfare and hath many children therein, and there is no grammar school kept within i 2 miles of Wimborne, at which pLice the poor men dwelling in Wimborne and there.ibout are not able to keep their children. Wherefore it is very requisite that the said school may remain still for the bringing up of young children in larnyng . . . without anything paying at all as it was in times past." *' Chant. Cert. Dorset, 28. " Ibid. 29. "i. and P. Hen. rill, xii (i), 1 1 15 (42). At the close of 1536, on the report that Pole was about to forfeit his promotion, William Marshall sought to procure the ' little deanery ' from Cromwell for his brother Thomas Marshall or his son Richard. Ibid, xi, 1355. "* Given by Hutchins from the parish records (Hist, of Dorset, iii, 1888). It is not noted whether so apparently reasonable a request was granted. " With the exception of this chantry, the net value of which was returned at ^lo 12/. I \d., the value of the rest of the offices had fallen in the second part of the report below that of the first. " Chant. Cert. 16, No. 106. From the sacrist's office, the last holder of which was Simon Benyson," a distribution was annually made to the poor of 205.'* The clear income of the deanery, lately held by Nicholas Wilson, then amounted to ;^34 6i. id., all which was employed as well towards his own portion and finding as towards the finding of poore men, in which said town of Wimborne be very many poore people unto the finding and relief whereof he did yerely distribute ^^4 at the lest." A note in reference to the four prebends in the college states : — Mem"* to have 4 priests to serve the cure in the parish of Wimborne because there be 3 chapelles wherein ther is devyne service, because the said chapelles be distaunt from the church of Wymborne 3 miles and are for the ease of the people.'' The report also serves to show of what the staff of the college consisted ; besides the dean and sacrist, the four chaplains — afterwards reduced to three — ordained to serve the Great Chantry, the chantry priest and schoolmaster of the foundation of the Countess Margaret, there were four prebendaries who were bound out of their salaries to find and maintain four vicars and four 'secondaries' to discharge the cure of souls in the parish. The repetition of some of the names indicates that some offices were doubled ; John Ace and Walter Matthew, chaplains of the Great Chantry, served as vicars of the first and third prebend.'' On its dissolution, in the first year of the reign of Edward VI, most of the possessions of the college were granted to (i) Edward, duke of Somerset, (2) to Giles Keylsway and William Leonard, and in 1551 to Edward, Lord Clinton. Notwithstanding the representation of the com- missioners no steps appear to have been taken for the retention of the school till the reign of Elizabeth, when by a grant of the queen part of the property of the late college was vested in the governors of the free grammar school of Queen Elizabeth in Wimborne Minster in the county of Dorset.'* " He received a pension of ^^5 as late incumbent of Redcottes Chantry ; Willis, H'tst. of Mitred Abbeys, ii, 72. " Chant. Cert. 16, No. 108. This was probably the distribution ordained to be made annually at the discretion of the sacrist on the anniversary of the countess of Richmond and Derby and her parents. " Ibid. No. III. The late dean was entered for a pension of 53/. \d. ; Add. MS. 19047, fol. 8 d. ''Chant. Cert. 16, No. iii. Besides the free chapel of St. Peter within the town there were these three chapels outside the town : St. Katherine's of Leigh, St. Stephen's at Kingston Lacy, and St. James of Holt. Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iii, 228. " Chant. Cert. 16, No. 109-11. They received a pension of £6 each ; Add. MS. 19047, fol. 8 d. " Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1452. 112 RELIGIOUS HOUSES Deans of Wimborne '^ Martin de Pateshull, presented 1223^-' Randolf Brito, presented 1229" John Mansell, presented 1247 John Kirby, 1265 John de Berwick, presented 1286 Stephen de Male Lacu or Mauley, presented 1312'=' Richard de Clare, presented 131 7" Richard de Swynnerton, presented 1335^' Richard de Murymouth, presented 1330 '^■'' Robert de Kyngeston, presented 1342"'' Thomas de Clopton, presented 1349," died in the same year Reginald Brian, presented 1349"* Thomas de Brembre, presented 1350'' Henry de Bukyngham, presented 1 36 1 Richard de Beverley, presented 1367'" John Carp, presented 1387'^' Roger Coryngham, presented 1400^^ Peter de Altobasso or Altobosco, presented 1 4 1 2 Walter Medford, occurs 141 5 Gilbert Kymer, presented 1423" Walter Hurte, occurs 1467 Hugh Oldham, presented 1485 Thomas Rowthel, occurs 1508 Henry Hornby, occurs 1509 as an executor of the will of the countess of Richmond and Derby Reginald Pole, presented i 5 i 8 '* Nicholas Wilson, presented 1537 '' ALIEN HOUSES 33. THE PRIORY OF FRAMPTON The Domesday Survey records that the manor of Frampton in Dorset was held by the church of St. Stephen, the Norman abbey of Caen founded by William the Conqueror 'for the weal of himself, his wife, his children, and his relatives,'' and that 2 hides of land adjoining the manor were the gift of his queen Matilda, the whole being worth 40;.^ Henry II, con- firming to the monks of Caen the gifts of his predecessors, enumerates the manor of Northam in Devonshire with its appurtenances, including wreck of the sea and dues of the ships calling there, given by Matilda in her last illness ; the manors of Frampton and Bincombe in Dorset, the gift of the Conqueror together with 7 hides of land in East Hendred, Berkshire ; the manor of Burton Bradstock, Dorset, given by Henry I, partly for the redemption of his soul and those of his father, mother and relatives, and partly in lieu of the crown and other ornaments belong- ing to it which William his father had bequeathed to the abbey ; and the little manor [maneriolum) of Pantfield in Essex.' Richard, archbishop of " The following are taken from the list given by Hutchins {Hist, of Dorset, iii, 186) from Browne Willis, verified and in some cases corrected according to the patent rolls and other official records ; where no further reference can be found the list has been allowed to stand. "' Pat. R. Hen. Ill, m. 12. " Ibid. 13 Hen. Ill, m. I. " Ibid. 5 Edw. II, pt. 2, m. 3. ^ Ibid. II Edw. II, pt. I, m. 30. " Ibid. 8 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 5. " Ibid. 12 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 13. '° Ibid. 16 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 14. " Ibid. 23 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 31. '' Ibid. m. 4. " Ibid. 24 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 17. '" Inq. p.m. 41 Edw. Ill (2nd nos.), No. 37. " Pat. II Rich. II, pt. I, m. 27. 2 I Canterbury, 1172-84, confirming to the abbot and convent of St. Stephen's all their possessions in the province of Canterbury, includes the churches of Frampton, Bincombe, Winterborne, and Bettiscombe — saving the rights of the bishop of the diocese — according to the charter of Jocelin bishop of Salisbury.* Henry III in 1252 granted to the prior and monks of Frampton the right of free warren within their demesne lands of Frampton, Ernley, Bettiscombe, Mosserigg, Burton Bradstock, and Bincombe, Dorset, and Northam (Devonshire), provided their lands should not lie within the king's forest.* The Taxatio of 1 291 gives the prior tempor- alities in this county amounting to £b2 2s. ; £j 31. 4r/. from Northam, Devonshire, and ;^3 lOJ. from East Hendred, Berkshire.^ The spiritualities of the priory are omitted. In the same year an order was sent to the treasurer and barons of the exchequer to acquit the prior of a fine of lOOf. in which he had been amerced for his claim for wreck of the sea within his manor of Northam.' " Ibid. I Hen. IV, pt. I, m. 34. '' Ibid. 2 Hen. VI, pt. I, m. 33. " L. and. P. Hen. Vlll, ii (2), 3943. '» Ibid, xii (i), 1 115 (42) ' See the Conqueror's charter for the abbey, CaL Doc. France, 155. ' Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 78^. ' Cal. Doc. France, 155-60. The charter of Richard I in I 190, contained in the inspeximus charter of Henry IV (Pat. 2 Hen. IV, pt. I, m. 33),. confirms the two manors of Frampton and Bincombe with their members ; the manor of Northam, Devon,, 7 hides of land at East Hendred, Berks ; Pantfield ini Essex ; Burton Bradstock, Dorset ; and a grant by Henry II of all kinds offish cast up on their land. ' CaL Doc. France, 162. 'Chart. R. 37 Hen. Ill, m. 21. ^ Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), fol. 132^, I S3, 184, 196. ' Close, 19 Edw. I, m. 7. n »5 A HISTORY OF DORSET The cell of Frampton as a typical example affords very good material for a study of these alien dependencies, and from its history we may learn in a measure the vicissitudes of fortune that during the greater part of their existence alter- nately despoiled and restored them. As regards the attention they evidently attracted in this county it should be noted that their number and position near the coast made them legitimate objects of suspicion, and we have to remember that their prayers were naturally engaged, or sup- posed to be engaged, not for the armies of England and her king, but for her adversaries and an alien cause.* On the seizure of lands held by Nor- mans in England following the loss of Normandy in 1204, the prior of Frampton is said to have secured his property from John by promising to pay a fine of 100 marks in two moieties, the first at Michaelmas, 1204, and the second at the Feast of St. Hilary following, and afterwards ;^8o yearly at the usual four terms, in return for which he was allowed the custody of the lands of the abbot of Caen in Somerset and Dorset.' From this time ;^8o per annum, or a propor- tionate fraction of it, seems to have been tlie sum demanded by the crown on the vacancy of the parent house occasioned by the death or cession of the abbot of Caen.^° Hugh de Neville was ordered 10 April, 1208, to restore to the prior of Frampton all his lands taken into the king's hands by reason of the interdict. ^^ The reign of Henry III passed without incident, but early in the reign of Edward I the cell excited suspicion, and the prior was required on a summons from the sheriff, April, 1275, to certify that neither he nor his house were in any way bound to any foreign merchant, nor had received from them money or 'arras' in ex- change for their wool, which on the contrary the prior declared had been sold to Geoffrey and Thomas de Aune, burgesses of ' Corcestree,' and to Stephen Bray, burgher of Sefton.^^ In 1294 the prior obtained letters of protec- tion from Edward I for a year with other ecclesiastics who had granted a moiety of their benefices and goods to the crown," and, in accordance with the principle of allowing the foreigner to escape none of the burdens imposed on the native clergy, in 1332 he was requested * This reason is set out among others in a letter of Edward II to the bishop of Salisbury in 1326 res- pecting the foreign cells in his diocese. Sarum Epis. Reg. Mortival, i, 274 a'. ' Rot. Norman. (Hardy), 126; Rot. de oblat'ts et finibus (Hardy), 199. In Oct. 1209, the king notified the sheriff that the first moiety had been paid into the Camera at Winchester on the Monday follow- ing the Feast of St. Michaelmas. Close, 6 John, m. 15. " Close, 8 Edw. II, m. 30. " Ibid. 9 John, m. 3. " Anct. Corresp. xvii, I 2 5. "Pat. 22 Edw. I, PI 8. to assist the subsidy raised on the occasion of the marriage of the king's sister.** In December, 1 295, the protection granted to him the previous year was renewed, with the restoration of his lands and goods on condition that he should pay yearly a fixed sum at the exchequer for the custody,'^ the grant being repeated March, 1297, on the same terms.*' On the general seizure of the property of aliens in 1324, the issues of the manors belong- ing to Frampton Priory taken into the hands of custodians by the king's orders from 8 October to the 10 January following were valued at ^^260 "Ji. \dy An inquisition held to inquire as to the yearly value of the priory lands esti- mated Frampton with the advowson of the vicarage at 100;. and the church held 'in pro- prios usus'at ^^13 6j. to be worth ^^58 4J. ()d}^ This measure, however, did not satisfy the king, and in September, 1326, in anticipation of a French landing, Edward II addressed a letter to the bishop of Salisbury pointing out the danger that lay in the position of the enemy's confederates near the coast, and desiring certain brethren dwelling in these parts to be transferred to other houses of the same order further inland. The bishop in his reply notified the king that in obedience to his order he had sent William Pyequier of the priory of Frampton up country to the monastery of Sherborne.*' As Edward III restored the lands and possessions of no alien houses a few days after his accession the follow- ing January, Frampton belonging to the abbey of Caen being of the number, this transference was probably not of long duration.^ A period of tranquillity ensued till the year 1337, when an outbreak of war caused foreign dependencies to be again seized, and Henry de Haydok, clerk, was deputed to take into the king's hand the lands and rents ' of foreign religious men of the power and dominion of the king of France ' in this county, the sheriff to whom they had been delivered accounting for the issues of Frampton Priory then valued at j^294 19J. "jd}^ The prior meantime was granted protection and allowed the custody of his house on condition of paying a yearly "Close, 6 Edw. Ill, m. xd d. '^ Pat. 24 Edw. I, m. 21. '' Ibid. 25 Edw. I, m. \zd. " Mins. Accts. bdle. 1125, No. 7. ■' B.M. Add. MS. 6164, fol. 270. The allowance made by the king to those foreign ecclesiastics whose goods and benefices he had seized was at the rate of I %d. a week with 40/. per annum for clothing and boots. Sarum Epis. Reg. Mortival, i, fol. 236. " Ibid. fol. 274. '" Rymer, Foed. iv, 245-6. In fact the prior in 1338 was ordered to take up his station near the sea for the protection of the coast under penalty of being regarded as an adherent of the enemy. Rymer, Foed. (Rec. Com.), ii (2), 1062. " Mins. Accts. bdle. 1 125, No. 9. 114 RELIGIOUS HOUSES farm of ^^90 and 10 marks.^^ This payment included all incidental charges, and the king's escheator in 1 341 was ordered not to meddle further with the priory, which he sought to enter on the excuse of the voidance of the abbey of Caen by the death of Simon the last abbot, as it was being farmed by the prior for the king ; ^' in the same way the collectors of the tenth granted by the clergy in 1338 were ordered to exact no more from the prior of Frampton, as he was already paying ^^90 for his farm.^* In December, 1 34 1, the foreign superior was ordered to appear before the council, and to bring with him all accounts and memoranda of payments made by him.^* The following month he received a promise that a quantity of wool requisitioned by the crown officials commissioned to take a moiety of wool in Dorset for the king's use should be paid for."^ An extent of the priory was ordered to be made at the close of 1344,^' and in 1346 Edward III granted ;^ioo of the farm of the priories of Frampton and Loders to William de Groucy,^' Thomas de Lancaster receiving a grant of £100 of the farm of Frampton alone the following year.^' The waste and destruction attending the occupation of alien cells in the reign of Edward III resulted in a harvest of inquisitions under Richard II with the object of ascertaining the cause. A commission in 1381 was appointed to survey Frampton and its lands and to make inquiry into the damage done therein.'" The king, the year after, on the payment of 1 00 marks, licensed John Devereux, knt., to acquire the priory from the abbot of St. Stephen's, Caen, for life with successive remainder to Margaret his wife, John their son, and Joan their daughter, paying ;^8o yearly farm at the Exchequer while the war should last.'' The lessee presented in 1387 to the church of Frampton, which, except for an interval following the restoration of alien houses in 1361, had been in the king's hands since 1337, and in 1385 the farm paid for the custody of the priory was remitted by letters patent of Richard II. Henry IV in 1400 confirmed the manor or priory of Frampton with its issues to Joan, the daughter "Close, II Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 13; Pat. 11 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 37. "Close, 15 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. 4. There was evidently some delay in complying, for the order was repeated in I 343. Ibid. 17 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 17. " Ibid. 12 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 20. " The order was transmitted to the sheriff the fol- lowing month. Ibid. 15 Edw, III, pt. 3, m. 5 a'. 6 d. In 1 345, and again in 1 347, the prior, Lawrence de Brioco or Breoto, was summoned by name. Ibid. 19 Edw. Ill, m. 22 (/. ; 21 EJw. Ill, pt. I, m. 6 d. " Pat. 15 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. 2. -' Ibid. 1 8 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 12 d. ^'Ibid. 20 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. I. ^' Ibid. 21 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. 34. '"Ibid. 4 Ric. II, pt. I, m. 27 a'. ''' Ibid. 5 Ric. II, pt. 2, m. 19. of John Devereux, who had survived her mother and brother, and with her husband, Walter Fitz- Wauter, ' chivaler,' entered into possession in 1398.'* In 1402 after the restoration of alien houses, Frampton Priory, 'which is conven- tual,' was restored to Ralph de Nubibus, monk of the abbey of St. Stephen, Caen, on condition that he should maintain its former condition and pay to the king during the war the ancient apport due to the head house in time of peace, with other charges.'' It is, as a rule, extremely difficult to get any real idea of the internal condition of a foreign cell, and Frampton is no exception in this respect. The episcopal registers record that priors were presented by their superiors, the abbot of Caen or his proxy, to the bishops of Salisbury for institu- tion, letters being subsequently issued to the archdeacon of Dorset for their induction. The resignation of a prior was also made into the hands of the ordinary, but though the house was of the Benedictine order and consequently could not claim exemption, there is no record that he exercised the right of visitation. A very common cause of misgovernment, the frequent and arbitrary withdrawal of the head of a dependent cell by the foreign superior, seems to have been present here, for in 1343 the bishop successfully petitioned the pope to confirm the presentation of Lawrence de Sancto Brioco to the priory in order to strengthen his position and prevent his arbitrary removal by his superior.'* Previous to the suppression of alien cells in 1 414 the priory or manor of Frampton was made over by Henry IV to John, duke of Bedford, and Thomas Langley, clerk, keeper of the privy seal, for as long as the war should last for a yearly farm of ^93 6s. 8d., the grant under date of 2 March, 141 4, providing that a reduction should be made at the Exchequer in the event of the priory being injured and destroyed by the enemy lliiad absit) ; it was followed in December of tiiat year by another grant which remitted the payment of this rent and included William, prior of Ogbourne, as holding jointly with the duke and Thomas Langley, and again in 1410 by a licence enabling the duke to acquire from the chief houses in Normandy the whole, or part, of all the temporalities pertaining to the priories of Ogbourne and Frampton." Henry V confirmed the grants of his father in the first year of his reign, "* but on the reversion of the priory of Frampton to the crown by the death of the duke of Bedford, it was given by Henry VI, 16 No- " Ibid. 2 Hen. IV, pt. I, m. 8. The February following, the king cancelled his previous grant of the profits of Frampton rectory to John Cheyne, knt., and Thomas Horston, clerk. Ibid. pt. 2, m. 31. '' Ibid. 3 Hen. IV, pt. 2, m. 22. " CaL Pup. Letters, ii, 26 ; iii, 187. " By inspeximus of Henry V, Pat. I Hen. V, pt. 3, m. 41. 'Mbid. 115 A HISTORY OF DORSET vember, 1437, to the dean and canons of the royal college of St. Stephen, Westminster,'' the gift being confirmed to them in 1445,'* and again on the accession of Edward IV.'' The Valor of 1535 gives the possessions of Frampton as still held by the college, who retained them down to the Reformation.*" Priors of Frampton William Humez, 1207-14.*^ Guimund, 1261 *" Robert*' Richard " Martin,** occurs 1296 and again in 1302 James de Troarno, presented 1302*^ Richard de Montigney, presented 131 7, re- signed 1329*' William de Rusca Villa, presented 1329, re- signed 1335*8 Lawrence de Sancto Brioco or Breoto, pre- sented 1335,*' occurs 1345 and 1347,'" he presented to the vicarage in 1363 John Letour, collated by the bishop, 1377 *^ Ralph de Nubibus, collated by the bishop 1400" " Pat. 16 Hen. VI, pt. I, m. 14. •^ The confirmation of 1 1 July, 1445, vvas given as the result of a petition of William Walesby dean, and the canons of St. Stephen, setting forth that by an inqui- sition held at Dorchester 1402, it was found that a carucate of land within the manor had been granted by Henry IV on condition that a distribution of cer- tain alms should be made to ' poor men,' that the carucate was valued at 44; , but that the distribution had ceased previous to the inquisition and the canons knew nothing of it, though the escheator continued to distrain them for the value of the land, and they prayed a remedy. The king in his reply stated that the possessions of the priory had been granted to the dean and canons in free alms and that, therefore, no exaction could be made from them. Ibid. 23 Hen. VI, pt. 2, m. 8. '' Ibid. Edvv. IV, pt. 6, m. 1, 2. " VabrEccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 428. " According to a Cole MS. he was prior here until he was made abbot of Westminster in 1214 ; Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1000. " Ibid, " This name is also given, but with no date and by no authority, in Hutchins and Dugdale. " A seal found at Sydling in 1849 with the legend S. RicarJi Prioris de Fruntmte, appears to be of thir- teenth-century work ; Jourv. of Arch. Assoc, vii, (1852), 162. '^ As authority for these dates, Hutchins gives a fine paid by the prior, 25 Edw. I, and a presentation to the vicarage ; Hist, of Dorset, ii, 300. " Sarum Epis. Reg. Simon of Ghent, ii, fol. 3 3 ^' t^lic temporalities of the prior of Loders within the parish were reckoned at £26.^^ A commission was appointed on 18 October, 13 13, to investigate a complaint of the prior that John, rector of St. Mary's church in the neighbouring town of Bridport, had carried away his goods at Bradpole.** The external history of Loders as an alien dependency follows very closely that of Frampton, with which it is frequently coupled during the period of the French wars. On its seizure by John in 1 204, together with the property of other Norman landowners in England, the land was re- ported to be worth ^^33 unstocked, with the stock £^0.^^ The sheriff the following year was ordered to restore to Prior Baldwin full possession of his property ' which he holds of the abbot of Montebourg,' for which he had given two palfreys to the king with a promise to pay what- ever he had formerly paid to the abbot, and not to transport any goods abroad without licence.*^ The prior received from Edward I in 1 294, 1295, and 1297 letters of protection with licence to retain the custody of his goods on the same terms and under the same circumstances as the prior of Frampton.^' On the seizure of alien pro- perty by Edward II in 1324 his goods within the manor of Loders and Bothenhampton, taken into custody from 8 October to 28 December, were valued at ;^99 is. 3^.,*^ the extent of the yearly value of his lands was returned at ;^54 8j. 5J^. ; the church of Loders, which the monks held in proprios usus, a prebend of Salisbury, was worth £,2\; the advowson of the vicarage iooj.,and of the vicarage of Bradpole ;^io.^' On the eve of a threatened invasion of the French in the autumn of 1326 the bishop advised the king that in accordance with his mandate he had caused Ralph Pothyn of Loders Priory, a foreigner, to he transferred to the abbey of Sherborne as further removed from the coast.™ The outbreak of war in 1337 resulted in the priory being again taken into the hands of the ^ Reg. St. Osmund. (Rolls Ser.), i, 225. " Ibid. 226. ^' Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), i8i/5. '■^ Ibid. 1%-ib. '■* Pat, 7 Edw. II, pt. I, m. i\J. '''' Rot. Norman. (Hardy), I 24. ^ Rot. de Finibus 1 199-1 2 l 5 (Hardy), 313. "' Pat. 22 Edw. I, m. 8 ; 24 Edw. I, m. 21 ; 25 Edw. I, m. 12 d. ''Mins. Accts. bdle. 1 125, No. 7. "" B.M. Add. MS. 6164, fol. 270. '" Sarum Epis. Reg. Mortival, i, fol. 236. king, who restored it to the prior, 3 August, on condition that he should pay 10 marks and a yearly farm of £jo for the custody,'' the payment of this amount superseding all other dues. The possessions of the priory at Loders and Bothen- hampton, with the custody of which the sheriff had been charged, were valued at £s^ 2J. and ;r34 175.'^ An interesting record under the year 1339 states that the king wrote to the bishop of Winchester cancelling his order for the removal of the prior of Applcdurcombe in ths Isle of Wight and two of his monks from their priory near the sea coast to Hyde Abbey, owing to the war with France, desiring that they should be transferred instead to the house of the prior of Loders within the cathedral close of Salisbury, ' which is further still from the sea.''^ Events in 1343 throw some light on a com- mon enough feature of most dependent cells : the state of subjection in which the house was kept by the foreign superior. The bishop, we may note, beyond instituting the prior appoint- ed by the abbot and convent of Montebourg and receiving official notification of his with- drawal, neither exercised nor attempted to exer- cise any jurisdiction in the priory ; the check placed that year on the arbitrary methods of the abbot came from the king, who in February wrote to the sheriff that whereas he had com- mitted to brother Roger, prior of Loders, an alien, the custody of his house for a certain farm, the abbot, his superior, on the false suggestion of the death of the prior had committed the man- agement to another monk, and was endeavouring forcibly to remove the former contrary to the appointment made by the king, who forbade any such substitution to be allowed.'* The fol- lowing year Roger Hariel, prior of Loders, obtained from the pope an indult that he should not be removed from the priory without reason- able cause," and as the next presentation does not occur until 1 36 1 he seems to have made " Close, 1 1 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 37. " Mins. Accts. bdle. I 125, No. 9. An inventory of the household goods of the cell, including beds or rather iino lecto xx', is informing as to the internal equipment of a small religious house. Ibid. " Rot. Aleman. 13 Edw. Ill.m. G d. On the other hand the prior of Loders and the heads of other alien cells as well as of native houses were ordered in 1338 to repair to manors nearer the sea in order to defend the coast from attack. Rymer, Foedera (Rec. Com.), ii (2), 1062. " Close, 17 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. zj d. This order was addressed to the escheator in the Isle of Wight for the benefit of Roger Hariel, prior of Applcdurcombe, as well as to the sheriff of Somerset and Devon for Roger, prior of Loders, who appear to be one and the same person, as Roger Hariel was certainly appointed to Loders in I 320 and occurs here in 1344 and later. " Cal. Pap. Letters, iii, 116. In February, 1346, he received as prior of Loders another indult to choose a confessor. Ibid, iii, 210. 17 A HISTORY OF DORSET good his position. This is the nearest approach to any hint as to the internal condition of the house that can be discovered. , An inquisition held at Bridport the Wednesday- after the Feast of the Annunciation, 1387, states that the possessions of the priory in the parish of Loders at that date were worth £^']0 and at Ax- mouth, Devonshire, ;^30.'* Richard II, in the early part of 1399, bestowed the house with all its appurtenances, rendering a yearly farm of ;^8o to the crown, on the Carthusian priory of St. Anne by Coventry," but the grant can barely have taken effect, for in November, almost immediately after his accession, Henry IV restored it to its for- mer owners in the person of the prior, Sampson Trisal,''* the grant beina; confirmed to William Burnell, collated to the priory in March, 1 40 1.''' On the final suppression of alien houses in 1 414 Henry V made over the possessions of this cell to the abbess and convent of the nunnery of Syon, which he had founded in the manor of Isleworth, Middlesex, the grant being ratified by Henry VI in 1424,'° and confirmed by Edward IV in the first year of his reign,*^ the manor appearing as parcel of the possessions of the abbey of Syon in the Valor of 1535.*' Priors of Loders Baldwin, occurs in 1205 *' R[oger or Robert], occurs in surrender deed of abbot of Montebourg, probably of the year 1 2 1 3 ** Robert, occurs 1308*' William de Carentonio or le Condu, presented 1313,^' withdrawn 1320 Roger de Hariel, presented 1320*' Robert Dore, presented 1361,^ resigned 1364 Sampson Trigal, presented 1364*' William Burnell, collated 1401'° 35. THE PRIORY OF POVINGTON Povington, formerly a manor and now a hamlet in the parish of Tyneham in the isle of Purbeck, was granted to the abbot and monks of Bec-Hellouin in Normandy by Robert Fitz "= Add. MS. 6164, fol. 506. " Pat. 22 Ric. II, pt. 3, m. 4. " Ibid. I Hen. IV, pt. 2, m. 13. " Ibid. 2 Hen. IV, pt. 3, m. 20. '" Ibid. 2 Hen. VI, pt. 3, m. 20. " Ibid. I ¥.dv/. IV, pt. 3, m. 1. *> Fa/or Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 425. ^ Rot. de Finibus, 1 1 99-1 2 1 5 (Hardy), 3 1 3. ^ Reg. Rubrum, fol. 142. ** Sarum Epis. Reg. Simon of Ghent, ii, fol. 73. '« Ibid. fol. 126. " Ibid. Mortival, i, fol. 8 7 a". «' Ibid. Wyvllle, ii (Inst.), fol. 285. «' Ibid. fol. 305. "> Ibid. Mitford. Ceroid,'^ a Norman who accompanied the Con- queror to England, and who is returned in Domesday as holding ' Povintone ' of the king, the manor being valued then and in the days of Edward the Confessor at ;^ii.'^ In the roll of Norman landowners in England of the year 1205 the manor of Povington belonging to the abbot of Bee was valued at loof. unstocked, and at double that amount with the stock. The prior of Bee was reported to have removed since Easter eighty-five cheeses and all the wool of the flock, together with i mark from the sale of beans, 1 5x. from the sale of oats, and 20j. <)d. of the Easter rent." Notwithstanding the many charters granted in favour of this Norman abbey by the Norman and early Plantagenet kings,''' the claim of the monks to their estates here did not pass unchallenged. As a result of a trial by wager of battle fought out between Avenel Fitz Robert and Henry abbot of Bee by his attorney, William de Wane- cing, the former by a fine levied within fifteen days of Michaelmas, 1223, released to the said abbot his claim to the manor of Povington, and received by way of compensation the sum of 30 marks of silver.^' Towards the close of the thirteenth century the manor of Povington with its members of West Whiteway in the parish of Tyneham, Lutton and Blackmanstone in the parish of Steeple, and Milborne Bee in the parish of Bere Regis, had come to be reckoned as parcel of the priory of Ogbourne, Wiltsliire, another cell to Bee ; '* the temporalities of the prior of Og- ^' The pancarta of this foreign abbey, granted by Henry VI (Pat. 12 Hen. VI, pt. I, m. 13), contains inspeximus charters of Henry IV, Richard II, Edward III, Henry III, and Henry II, with a confirmation of the possessions of the monies by Henry I, including a grant of the manor of ' Ponniton ' in the county of Dorset by Robert Fitz Ceroid. =' Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 80^. " Rot. Norman. (Hardy), 123. '* See collection of charters contained in Pat. 1 2 Hen. VI, pt. I, m. 13, and Cal. Doc. France, 120-31. '^ Feet of F. 7 Hen. Ill, 5 (26). Again in the autumn of 1225 Henry III directed the sheriff to del.iy a suit between Avenel de Purbeck and the abbot respecting acarucate of land with appurtenances in Milborne, and between John Fordham and the abbot in regard to the mill in Wareham until the following Easter, on account of the death of the proctor-general of the abbot in England, the abbot subsequently ap- pointing Ralph de Exon, his monk, to act as his re- presentative ; Close, 9 Hen. Ill, ni. 1 ; lo Hen. Ill, m. 29. *' In 1206 John signified to the sheriff of Bucks, that the prior of Ogbourne had paid ;^ioo down for the right to hold in his custody all lands and pos- sessions of the monks of Bee in England, so that he might be disseised of none of them save by the special command of the king, and that he had also engaged to send none of the issues abroad ; Rot. de Oblatis et Finibus, 1199-1216 (H.irdy), 314. The town of 118 RELIGIOUS HOUSES bourne in Tyneham and Steeple, Milborne Bee and Povington being assessed at ^i i lOi. in the year 129 1.'' In common with other ah'en cells Povington was constantly taken into the king's hands dur- ing the wars with France. By an inquisition held on the occasion of its seizure 8 October, 1324, by Walter Beril and Martin Roger de Blokkesworthe the goods found in the manor of Povington and Lutton were valued at ;^58 gs.^^ The sheriff in 1337 was charged with the issues of Povington and Lutton, and of ' a certain place called Milborne Bek,' amounting to ^^28 4s. gd., which had been taken into custody by Henry Haydok, clerk, and delivered to him.'' The inquisition at VVareham the Monday after Easter, 1387, probably ordered with a view to ascertain the cause of the steady decrease in value then taking place in most of the alien cells, showed that the possessions of the prior of Ogbourne at Povington and West Whiteway, Lutton, and Blackmanstone were worth £6 1 3$. 4.d. after all charges and deductions had been made.'"'' The vicissitudes of the manor during the fif- teenth century were many and various, and one can hardly account for the contradictory effect of many of the grants. Before the final suppres- sion of alien priories in 1 41 4 Ogbourne, with all its rectories, manors, land, and possessions, &c., was granted by Henry IV to John duke of Bedford, who, piously recollecting the religious nature of the benefaction, made it over to the warden and canons of St. George's, Windsor, the gift being confirmed by Henry V.'''' Henry VI, on the death of the duke in 1435,'°' granted the manor of Povington — together with pensions and portions in Milborne Bee, Turnworth, Charl- ton, and Up Wimborne — parcel of the sometime alien priory of Ogbourne, which had reverted to the crown, to Richard Sturgeon, clerk, for life, and in 1442 bestowed the reversion of the manor with its members on John Carpenter, the master and brethren of the hospital of St. Anthony, London, for the exhibition and support of five boys or scholars ' well disposed ' at the university of Oxford, each of whom should previously have been well and sufficiently instructed in the rudi- ments of grammar at Eton College and should receive at the university lOs. per week until he Povington was returned in 1285, however, by the jurors of the hundred as belonging to the abbey of Bcc-Hellouin, though they could not say by what title. The abbot claimed to have the fines {amercia- menta) of his tenants, the assize of bread and ale, and the right to hold a view of frankpledge within the manor ; Inq. of Assess, relating to Feud. Aids, ii, '' Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 183-4. "' Mins. Accts. bdle. 1 125, No. 7. '' Ibid. No. 9. '™ Add. MS. 6164, fol. 506. "" Chart. R. I Edw. IV, m. 20. "" Inq. p.m. 14 Hen. VI, No. 36. had attained the degree of bachelor of arts.'*" This arrangement notwithstanding, the king nine years later gave to the provost and college of Eton the farm or rent to be paid by John Newburgh, knt., for the custody of the manor of Povington to which he had been appointed the previous Michaelmas, 1450, together with the reversion of the same.'"^ Edward IV, in the first year of his reign, while confirming the pre- vious grant to St. George's, Windsor, of the alien priory of Ogbourne and all its appurte- nances by John duke of Bedford, granted the manor of Povington to William Beaufitz for the term of twenty years.'"* In 1467 he made it over to Eton College,'"^ and again in 1474 made it the subject of another grant in favour of the chapel of Windsor."" The schemes of the Yorkist king for the union of Eton and Windsor and the enrichment of the royal chapel of the latter by the endowments of Henry VI's college were foiled by the decision of Archbishop Bourchier.'"^ Edward IV by letters patent of May, 1478, appears to have repeated his grant of this manor to Windsor,"" but Po- vington was, nevertheless, restored to Eton with other lands of which it had been deprived in anticipation, and remained in the hands of the college down to the reign of Henry VIII. "" There is in the case of Povington little to favour the presumption that a religious house was actually maintained here. A single refer- ence to it as a ' priory ' occurs years after it had passed away from its ancient possessors the abbots of Bee,'" and, in all probability, it would be most accurately described as a grange. 36. THE PRIORY OF SPETTISBURY Robert de Bellomonte or Beaumont, earl of Leicester and count of Meulan, in the reign of William Rufus granted to the abbey of St. Peter of Prdaux in Normandy, twin foundation to the other abbey of St. Leodegar or Leger on whom his father Roger had bestowed Stour Provost in this county,"^ the manor of Toft, Norfolk, with the tithes of Charlton Marshall and Spet- tisbury, Dorset, the churches of these two vills, and the lands belonging to them ; "' the earl by another charter testifying that his gift, made for '" Pat. 20 Hen. VI, pt. I, m. 5. "" Ibid. 29 Hen. VI, pt. I, m. 9. "^ Chart. R. I Edw. IV, m. 20. "■^ Pat. 7 Edw. IV, pt. 3, m. 13. "" Ibid. 14 Edw. IV, pt. 4,m. i. "" Hist, of Colleges of mn Chester, Eton, ice. (Acker- mann), 29. '"' Pat. 17 Edw. IV, pt. I, m. i. "» yalor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 216. '" This is in the patent of Edward IV in 1467 ; Pat. 7 Edw. IV, pt. 3, m. 13. "' Tanner, Notitia, Dorset, xxvii. '" Cal. Doc. France, 1 1 1 . 119 A HISTORY OF DORSET the souls of the Conqueror and Matilda his queen, for the weal and prosperity of William king of the English, as well as for the souls of his own parents, Roger and Adelina, for himself and Henry his brother and all his predecessors, had been allowed and confirmed by King William at Whitsuntide when he first held his court in his new hall at Westminster.*'* The valuation in the reign of John of the lands of Nor- mans in England seized into the king's hand states that Spettisbury belonging to the abbot of Pr^aux was worth ^12 unstocked, and with the stock already there ;^I5; if stocked to the extent of its capacity it should be worth ^20; nothing had been removed therefrom.'" In 1 29 1 the church of Spettisbury, in the deanery of Whit- church, together with the chapel of Charlton Marshall was assessed at ;^io. The prior of Spettisbury had a pension therein of 30J., and received ^^'4 ds. 8d. from tithes ; the temporalities in Spettisbur)' were reckoned to the abbot of Pr^aux or de Pratellis as worth ^^12 6s}^^ On 27 October, 13 12, Thomas de Marisco of Spet- tisbury obtained a licence from the king enabling him to alienate a moiety of a mill in Spettisbury to the abbot and convent of Preaux in exchange for 2 acres of land and I rood of meadow in the same town.''' Little is known of the history of this alien cell up to the period, at any rate, of the French wars. Edward II in 131 7 ordered his escheator to restore the manors of Toft (Norfolk), Spettis- bury (Dorset), Warmington (Warwickshire), and Aston (Berksiiire) belonging to the abbot and convent of Pr6aux, which had been seized into the king's hand on the pretext of the vacancy of the abbey, alleging that these were originally granted by Robert, earl of Leicester and count of Meulan, with the consent of his progenitors, and that neither he nor they had been accustomed to receive any of the profits on the death of the foreign superior."* The abbey seems to have placed a monk here at an early date to look after the property and conduct divine service, for the prior of Spettisbury is included among those ecclesiastics who in 1294 received from Edward I a grant of protection in return for a contribution '" Ca/. Dec. Franc/; III. By 3 subsequent charter in the reign of Henry II, Robert count of Meulan confirmed to the monks of Preaux all the land be- stowed on them in Charlton by the gift of his knight Hugh, named the villein {cognomento Villanus) ; ibid. 1 17-18. Henry II confirmed the grant made to the abbey, his charter being inspected and confirmed by Edward I. Chart. R. I 3 Edvv. I, m. 2 i , No. 69. '" ^oA Norman. (Hardy), 122. "" Pope Khh. Tax. (Rcc. Com.), 178, iS+/^. '" Pat. 6 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 13. The following May the monks, on payment of a fine of 20/., were pardoned their trespass in having acquired the above premises without obtaining a royal licence. Ibid. pt. 2, m. 6. '"Close, II Edw. II, m. 22. I2i to him from their goods and benefices ; '" and in 1328 protection for a year was conceded by Edward III.'^ Previous, however, to the year 1324 the foreign superior annexed this manor to the priory of Toft in Norfolk, the head house of the abbey in England ; and in the capacity of proctor to the abbot the prior of Toft pre- sented to the rectory of Spettisbury in March, 1327, the king directing the bishop of Salisbury not to institute until it had been ascertained whether the late rector, Ralph Moreb, an alien, had died before or after 5 February, on which date Edward III restored the possessions of alien religious men seized during the late king's reign.'^"' On the seizure of aliens' lands under Edward II the issues of the manor of Spettisbury, taken into custody as parcel of the temporalities of the prior of Toft, 8 October, 1324, and restored to his proctor the following 25 February, were valued at ^^61 4/. Sd'.'"' On their re-seizure by Edward III in 1337 the issues with which the sheriff was charged amounted to ^^25 1 7^.'** The goods belonging to the rectory, held by a Frenchman [Gcil/ictis), were seized at the same time and estimated at ^I2 O^ 4(/.'^' They were subsequently restored to the foreign incum- bent on condition that he should pay the king annually a farm of loos}^* Towards the end of the century the abbot of Preaux was successful in letting his English property. Lewis de Clifford obtained a licence from the crown, 12 October, 1390, to acquire for life, with remainder to his son, the manor of Toft with Spettisbury and other possessions of the abbey of Preaux, on condition that he should pay annually during the continuance of the French war the sum of ;^8o to the king's exchequer, the payment of this farm being re- mitted later in the year.'-' Henry IV, in 1403, confirmed a grant of these manors by Lewis de Clifford to Thomas Erpingham,'-"^ in whose pos- session they remained down to the suppression of alien houses by the Parliament of Leicester in 1 4 14, after which they were held in trust to the use of the said Thomas for the term of his life ; '■' and subsequently, with the approval of Henry V, made over to the priory of Witham (Somerset), the first house of the Carthusian order in England.'-' Edward IV, in the first year of his reign, confirmed to the Carthusian '" Pat. 22 Edw. I, m. 8. ""Ibid. 2 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 17. ""'Close, I Edw. Ill, pt. 1, m. 9 ; see also Rymer,. Foedera, iv, 246-7. "' Mins. Accts. bdle. 1125, No. 7. '" Ibid. No. 9. '" Ibid. "* Close, I 5 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. 6 a". ; 17 Edw. III,, pt. 2, m. 27 d. '-' Pat. 14 Ric. II, pt. I, m. 21 ; ibid. pt. 2, m. 46. "« Ibid. 4 Hen. IV, pt. 2, m. 8. '" Ibid. 1 Hen. VI, pt. 4, m. i 5. '" Ibid. 7 Hen. VI, pt. i, m. 12. RELIGIOUS HOUSES house the manors of Spettisbury (Dorset), Warmington (Warwickshire), and Aston (Berk- shire), lately belonging to the ah'en priory of Toft, together with all fees and advowsons per- taining to the same.'"' The following February (1462) he transferred the possessions of Toft to the college of St. Mary and St. Nicholas — now King's College — Cambridge,''" with the excep- tion of Spettisbury, which remained in the pos- session of Witham Priory down to the Dissolu- tion, the Falor of 1535"' stating that the prior of Witham had rents here amounting to ;^35 OS. lod., besides the sum of 26j. 81^. as the fee of William Frye the steward, and a pen- sion of 30J. similar to the one paid to the prior of Spettisbury in 129 1. 37. THE PRIORY OF WAREHAM An ancient monastery, probably the earliest religious foundation in this county, was built here in Saxon times, but afterwards destroyed in the Danish raid of 876."' Cressy, in his account of the assault on Wareham by the Danes in tiiat year, describes the house as 'a noble monasterie of religious virgins seated in the same town.'"' After the Conquest a priory or cell to the Norman abbey of Lire, founded by William Fitz Osborn, kinsman and marshal to the Con- queror,"* was established here in the early part of the twelfth century in connexion with the churches and lands in Wareham granted to the abbey by Robert earl of Leicester. A charter in the register of Carisbrooke Priory, the chief house of Lire in England, states that Henry II confirmed to the abbot and convent among their English possessions the church of Wareham with its appurtenances, the church of Gussage with 100s. worth of land, and the church of ' Rinchorde ' with its appurtenances, the gift of Robert earl of Leicester, with a hide of land in Wareham the gift of William de Waimura or Weymouth ; while by another charter he confirmed to the abbey the churches of Ware- ham, with a hide of land given by Robert earl of Leicester, and an ounce of gold given by ''" Pat. I Edw. IV, pt. 4, m. 6. "° Ibid. pt. 3, m. 23. "' Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, I 57-8. '" Tanner, Notitia, under Dorset, xxix. "^ Ch. Hist, of Brit. (1668), lib. xxviii, cap. iv. Leland describes this nunnery as situ.ited between the two rivers, the ' Frome ' and the Trent or Puddle, but it must not be confounded with that other monastery near the Frome in Somerset built by Aldhelm and included in the bull of Pope Sergius I in 701, grant- ing privileges to various monasteries of the bishop's foundation, which was probably also destroyed by the Danes ; Leland, Collect, ii, 388 ; Birch, Cart. Sax. i, 152; Tanner, Notitia, under Somerset, xxi. "' Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1040. William de Waimuta, in the reeveship [prae- poiitura) of Wareham."* In 1290 the prior successfully petitioned the king to grant a licence for Peter Doget, chaplain, to alienate to the brethren a messuage and a carucate and a half of land in Whiteway ; '"^ and in 1329, by a fine of 20/., the prior and convent obtained a licence for the alienation in mortmain of a messuage and land in Whiteway towards the support of a chaplain to celebrate daily in the convent church for the souls of all the faithful departed.'''" Besides the church of St. Mary, Wareham, of which the prior was the rector, the prior held the presentation of the churches of St. Martin, St. Michael, and St. Peter within the town. In 1291 the spiritualities amounted to ^,^12 25. 9^/. from the churches of Shapwick, Gussage (St. Michael), Holy Trinity Wareham, St. Mary Wareham, Knowle, Winfrith Newburgh, and East Stoke."' The temporalities within Steeple and Tyneham, Whiteway, Egliston, Blandford, and Wareham, were worth £% os. 8;/."' The priory is not mentioned in the general seizure of alien cells as the property of Norman landowners in 1204, but it occurs on the eve of John's death in 1 2 1 6, when the king notified Peter de Manley that he had committed the abbey of Shaftesbury to the prior of Wareham during a vacancy, and that the abbey should remain under the king's protection so long as it was in the custody of Prior William.'*' An order was subsequently issued in November in the first year of Henry III, directing the prior to cause the newly-elected abbess to have full seisin of all the possessions of the abbey.'*' Edward III in 1294 granted letters of protec- tion to the prior in return for a grant of a contri- bution from his goods,'*^ the letters being re- newed in March, 1297, for Prior Nicholas Bynet.'*' On the seizure of alien property in 1324, the goods and possessions found in this cell by Walter Beril and Roger de Blokkesworthe, custodians of religious houses 'of the power and dominion of the king of France,' were found on inquisition to be worth ^^27 14.S. 6d., of which £6 OS. lod. came from the parish of Wareham.'** On being taken into the king's hands by Edward III in 1337, they were valued at '" See Chart, under Carisbrooke, Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1 04 1, No. V. "' Anct. Pet. 1088 1 ; Pat. 18 Edw. I, m. 18. '" Ibid. 3 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 17. '■'" Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 178, 178^, 179^. '^Mbid. 183-4. '*" Close, 18 John, m. 1,2. '" Pat. I Hen. Ill, m. 16. '*' Pat. 22 Edw. I, m. 8. The prior of Wareham was also requested in 1332 10 contribute towards the subsidy raised on the marriage of the king's sister ; Close, 5 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 6a'. '" Pat. 25 Edw. I, pt. I, m. 13. '" Add. MS. 6164, fol. 282. 21 l6 A HISTORY OF DORSET jf39 i6s. 2^y.,"^ and the house was committed to the custody of the prior for the payment of 10/. and an annual farm of 405. at the exchequer.'** A year later the prior of Wareham, together with the heads of nine other abbeys and priories, was ordered to remove to manors nearer the sea, for the defence of the coast in view of a threatened attack from the enemy.'*' Information may be gathered as to the manage- ment of the cell in the middle of the fourteenth century from a complaint made by Prior Robert •de Gascur or Gascourt, soon after his appointment in 1354,'*' as to the condition in which he then found it. According to the writ of inquiry issued the following year, the late Prior William de Noys, to whom the custody had been committed, had grievously abused his trust ; he had consumed and entirely dissipated the goods and chattels of the house, had alienated its property, and trans- ferred abroad a large sum of money acquired by such alienations ; the present head, in conse- quence, found he could not get a sufficient living for himself and his fellow monks, could neither pay the king the annual farm of 40;. or 6 marks, nor restore the buildings which his predecessor had allowed to get out of repair, and he prayed the crown to appoint a remedy.'*' We may here state that the episcopal registers record the presentation of priors to the ordinary by the abbots of Lire, or their proctors the priors of Carisbrooke, and their admission after having made profession of canonical obedience ; but, as in the case of the larger priories of Frampton and Loders, no attempt seems to have been made by the bishop to exercise jurisdiction. Richard II in 1 39 1 committed to Ralph Maylok, proctor of the abbot of Lire, the custody of all the possessions of the abbey in England, with the exception of the three priories of Carisbrooke, Wareham, and Hinckley (Leicester- shire), for an annual rent of ^\1%. In Novem- ber, 1394, the grant was renewed in favour of Thomas Wallwayn, Robert de Whytyngton, and William Slepe, but revoked the following ) ear on the petition of the abbot's proctor.'^'' An inquisition held at Wareham the Monday before Easter, 1387, as to the possessions of the priory, stated that these were then worth j^io after all deductions and charges had been reckoned."' In the last year of his reign, the king, at the request of his nephew Thomas duke of Sussex, made over to Edmund, prior of Mount '" Mins. Accts. bdle. 1 1 25, No. 9. '" Close, 2 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. 6. "' Rymer, Foed. (Rec. Com.), ii (2), 1062. "' Sarum Epis. Reg. W)-ville, ii (Inst.), fol. 264. '" Hutchins gives a copy of the original of this writ ■of inquiry ; Hut. of Dorset, i, 87. "" Pat. 18 Ric. II, pt. 2, m. 7. '" Add. MS. 6164, fol. 506. Grace in York>hire, the priories of Hinckley, Wareham, and Carisbrooke, paying respectively a yearly farm of ^^50, ^^4, and no marks, with the rest of the English possessions of the abbey, the farm of which amounted to 200 marks, for as long as the war should last, and quit of all payment of yearly rent."^ Upon the suppression of alien houses in 141 4, Henry V bestowed on the Carthusian priory which he had founded at Sheen all the lands belonging to the abbey of Lire in England with the exception of the Hinckley prior)','^^ the Valor of 1535 giving the Surrey foundation temporali- ties and spiritualities in this county amounting to j{^44 I Ox. 8^. from estates that had formerly belonged to the late priory of Wareham.'** Priors of Wareham Roger, temp. Richard I "' William, occurs 12 16'** Nicholas Bynet, occurs 1297 '" Peter de Deserto, presented 1302 "' John Mabere, presented 1309,'*' died 1311 Hilderic de Pacoys, presented 131 1 "" Ralph, called Coudray, presented 1323'" William de Bally, presented 1329,'*- resigned 1332 John de Bediers, presented 1332^*' Michael de Molis, presented 1334'** William de Barly, presented 1343"^ William de Noys, presented 1349, resigned 1354 166 Robert de Gascur, or Gascourt, presented 1354^" . Ludovicus de GoulafFe, presented 1362,"^ re- signed in same year Peter de Ultra Aqua, presented 1362,'*' re- signed 1364 William de Minguet, presented 1364"' Stephin de Barra, died 1412"^' John Kyngeston, presented 1412"'^ Walter Eston, presented 1 41 6 "' "■ Pat. 22 Ric. II. pt. 3, m. lo-ii. '" Chart. R. 3 & 4 Hen. V, No. 8 ; Pat. 2 Hen. \I, pt. 4, m. 26-27. '" Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), ii, 52. '"As witness to a charter (1191-7) of Hawys, countess of Gloucester ; Cat. Doc. France, 387. "* Close, 18 John, m. I, 2. '" Pat. 25 Edw. I, pt. I, m. 13. "'' Sarum Epis. Reg. Simon of Ghent. "» Ibid, i, fol. 79 d. >«° Ibid. fol. 106 d. '*' Ibid. Mortival, i, fol. 114. ""Ibid. 178 a". "^^ Ibid. WpiUe, ii (Inst.), fol. 18. '"Ibid. fol. 31. '"Ibid. fol. 131. "« Ibid. fol. 264. '" Ibid. '«' Ibid. fol. 295. ■" Ibid. fol. 298. "" Ibid. fol. 305 d. '•' Ibid. Hallam, fol. 39. '" Ibid. 'n Ibid. fol. 59 d. 122 POLITICAL HISTORY DORSET is tripartite, the three sections being feHx, petraea, de- serta; clay, chalk, sand; vale, down, heath. ^ Sahent high ground stretches between the Axe and the Stour, thrusting to Poole Harbour a southern arm, the Chaldon and Purbeck downs, un- broken but by the gap of Lulworth. ' Dorset fehx ' is the alluvial fringe of this central mass, the valleys of the Stour and Char, and the land drained by the Birt and the Wey. The Frome valley, between the main plateau and the northern hills, is heathland. Dorchester guards it on the west, Wareham on the east, for it is the natural inlet into the heart of the county. Such an area is a geographical nucleus, but lacks naturally defined boundaries. Its borders will impinge on the adjoining districts. Hence Dorset is ever closely connected with Somerset and Wiltshire. But the watershed of the Char and the Axe tended to strengthen the fortuitous circumstances dividing Devon from the West Saxon kingdom ; while the development of Dorset and Hampshire was long differentiated by the marshes and heaths of the Avon, geographical features possibly reproduced in an old tribal boundary.^ Dorset does not, like Hampshire, centre round its main water system. Unlike that of the Avon, the lower Frome valley is sterile, and its estuary difficult of navigation. The marshy flats running west from Chesil ' cause the county to look north, towards the fertile vale of Blackmoor, and to turn its back upon the seaboard, even as Weymouth long faced inland, away from the bay. Dorchester,* communicating at ease with north and south, east and west, is the obvious political centre : Weymouth, called into being for its natural harbour,^ and separated from Dorchester only by the Ridgeway, gave access to the continent. Of the British inhabitants little is known. The Druidic worship of the Poxwell temple, and the phallic rites connected with the Cerne giant, examples of the two types of British remains, point perhaps to occupation by diffisrent tribes (Goidel and Brython), perhaps merely to the Celt and the pre-Celtic Iberian of the round and long barrows respectively, ° Roman exploratory expeditions were succeeded by Roman colonization, but Dorset lay on the western fringe of both movements, and their influence 'H. M. Moule, in Quart. Rev. 1862. 'See Guest, The Four IVays, Be/gic Ditches ; Early Engl. Settlements ; Warne and Smart, Ancient Dorset; Warne, Map of Ancient Dorset ; Camden, Britannia (ed. Gibson, 1722), i, 51 ; Hubbard, Early Man on the Diwns ; Neolithic Dewponds and Cattleivays. ^ Middendorf, Altenglische Flurnamen (WUrzburg, 1900), i, 27. * For the origin of the names Dorset and Dorchester, see Guest, Orig. Celt, i, 46, 372 ; Freeman, Norm. Conq. i, 49, 571. ' It would seem that Weymouth was always the sea-station for Dorchester ; Warne, Celtic TumuR of Dorset, 1,2. ° See Rhys and Brynmor-Jones, Welsh People, map, p. 75 (ed. 1902) ; see also p. 83 ; Seebohm, Tribal Custom in Anglo-Saxon Law, 397 (ed. 1 902) ; Willls-Bund, Celtic Church in Wales, 12. 1-3 A HISTORY OF DORSET lacked intensity. No Dorset town received the higher municipal franchise ; while the villa-remains end at Lyme Regis.^ The long prevailing view of the West Saxon conquest was that, after their first settlement round the Solent, the Gewissas received a check at Badbury,^ that the thick forests then covering the present Dorset caused a check in their incursions, and led ultimately to the conquest of the Selwood by way of Wiltshire and Somerset, and not by sea. This conquest is said to have been very gradual, and to have taken place by distinct stages, between the conquest of Old Sarum,^ and the beginning of the eighth century. The victory of Deorham (577) threw open the Severn valley, and the invaders, (forced back upon the territories in their rear, by the insurrection of the Hwiccas, and loss of the Severn valley and the Cotswolds), poured thence over Mendip.* Cenwalh's victory in 658 ' aet Peonnum ' is placed at Poyntington, near Sherborne, and called an incident in the attempted pene- tration of the forest barrier.' Under Ine and his saintly kinsman Aldhelm,' Christianity and education went hand in hand with military conquest, the new frontier-fortress of Taunton ^ precluding help for the Selwood Britons from their hard-pressed kinsmen of Dyvnaint. At the same time the foundation of the West Saxon monastery at Wareham * shows attempts at subjugation and colonization by way of the north-east. Objections to this circumstantial reconstruction are fourfold. It is con- tended that the use of documents is uncritical, that the arguments from philology are faulty, and from archaeology untrustworthy.' Also it is said that Dorset has been planted with ' great stretches of woodland ' on the basis solely of twelfth-century forest perambulations, and to suit the necessities of a preconceived theory. It is true that we have no good evidence of the extent of land under trees in the sixth and seventh centuries. But the assumption, though based on inadmissible evidence, would seem not unreasonable. Physical conditions would render very probable the presence of trees in great numbers. Even at the present day the area under trees is 37,600 acres, out of a total acreage of only 625,578. The clay districts, amounting roughly to nearly half the county, naturally favour the growth of trees, and the chalk uplands ^° show a wide distribution of superficial gravels, particularly along the borders of the vale of Blackmoor, on the chalk hills along the Piddle, at Durweston (where the chalk abuts on the Stour valley), on the chalk between Blandford and Dorchester, and at Dewlish.^' They also cover many even of ' See Smart, InltoJ. to Primaeval Ethnology of Dorset ; Warne, Ancient Dorset ; Sussex Arch. Coll. xxxiv, 239, sqq. ; F. J. Haverfield, ' Romanization of Roman Britain ' (Proc. Brit. Acad.), ii, 8. ' Gildas, Hisi. Sec. ; Bede, Ecc/. Hist. (ed. Plummer) ; Notes and Queries for Som. and Dors, i, 43 ; Notes and Queries (6th Ser.), xii, 461 ; (7th Sen), iv, 208, 372. 'An. 552. Angl.-Sax. Ckron. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 17. *J. R. Green, Making of Engl. 129, 339 ; Guest, in Arch. foum. xvi, 109-17. ' Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 24, 26 ; T. Kerslake, ' The Welsh in Dorset ' {^Proc. Dors. Field Club), iii, 81. * Bede, op. cit. (ed. Plummer), ii, 308, note. ^Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 39 ; Freeman, in Som. Arch. foum. xx, 31, xviii, 37. 'Dugdale, Mon. Ar.gl. vi, pt. iii, 1617 ; see Freeman, Engl. Totvns and Dists. 151. 'W. H. Stevenson in Engl. Hist. Rev. 1902, p. 625 sqq. '° Geol. Sirv. Maps, ii, plate ; and ibid. Memoirs, 'Cretaceous Rocks,' i, 144-91. "Analysis of Dorset soils, from Stevenson's Agricultural Report: Chalk, 160,759 acres ; sand, 8;, I 57 ; loam, 37,746; gravel, 59,894; cornbrash, 29,700 ; clay, 117,331 ; miscellaneous, 13,427 acres. Damon, Geology of Weymouth (ed. 1884), 137. POLITICAL HISTORY the highest levels in the county.^ As regards physical conditions there is thus no reason why Dorset should not have been one of the most thickly wooded of the southern counties. The theory of the main inhabited tracts, before the Saxon conquest, being the ' natural clearings ' of the chalk outcrop ' receives confirmation from the fact that Celtic village-remains follow to a large extent the lines of ungravelled down/ Geography makes reasonable, on this supposition, the West Saxon advance from the north. The very places said to have been chosen for incursion upon the forest area are the intrusions of the chalk upon the surrounding clay, that is, of the natural clearings, upon the woodland. And it is that southern shore, supposed so long to have defied the Saxons, which exhibits a clay outcrop along the greater part of its margin, and which has a heavier rainfall and a higher mean temperature than the north of the county. To this day landing-places between Weymouth and Lulworth, and Lulworth and Swanage, are few and difficult ; the chalk cliffs come in many places sheer down to the sea, and the shore is fringed with reefs and ledges. Such an inhospitable coast-line, flanked by a range of hills all but continuous and averaging 500 ft. in height, was unlikely to tempt, till earlier conquests had been exhausted. Whether the generally accepted story is correct or not, of the main issues there can be no doubt. The Saxon conquest took place at a suffi- ciently late period, when either Christianity, or the satiation of the need of land and of plunder, or both forces acting together, prevented the exter- mination or expulsion of the earlier inhabitants. Proofs of this are both direct and inferential. No such close analysis of the Dorset dialect has been undertaken as would reveal the percentage of pre-Saxon words yet in use.* But the laws of Ine make it plain that an appreciable British population remained side by side with the later Saxon settlers.' The ' Ordinance Respecting the Dun-Saetas ' is conclusive, and could only have been necessitated by the presence of such a population in large numbers in Dorset.' How large a proportion that was, is shown by anthropological evidence. The Welsh physical type is, and it would seem has always been, dark and tall.'' Giraldus contrasts his countrymen, in their ' brunetness,' with the fair-complexioned Saxons.* The relative brunetness of Dorset ( I o per cent, excess brunet over blond) is even now greater than that of Somerset and Wiltshire (5 per cent, brunet excess), and much greater than that of Hampshire. It is in fact as high as Cornwall,' and this in spite of the fact that in elevated districts some factor tends to increase blondness.^" The average Dorset stature is the same as that of Devon, whereas the averages ' Hutchins, Hist. Dorset (ed. 3), i, Ixxxvi ; Mansel-Pleydell, Botany of Dorset ; H. Rider Haggard, Rural Engl. 1,257 and map. 'J. R. Green, op. cit. 8-9. ' Warne, Map of Anct. Dorset ; Pitt-Rivers, Excavations in Cranborne Chase, etc. 1887-98. * Prior, 'Introduction to a Som. Glossary' {Som. Arch. Soc. Proc. xviii). 'Thorpe, Laws and Institutes (Rec. Com.), 45, 51, 53, 57, 60; see also Seebohm, Tribal Custom in Jngl.-Sax. Law, 402-4 ; W. H. Stevenson, Life of Asser, 36, 37, 249 ; and Proc. Dors. Field Club, iii, 80, sqq., for a further philological argument, and for the argument from church invocations. A theory put forward by Sir H. Howarth {Engl. Hist. Rev. 1898, p. 670) was answered ibid. 1899, p. 32, sqq. 'Thorpe, op. cit. I 50 ; see also T. Kerslaice, op. cit. ; Lappenberg, Engl, under the Angl.-Sax. Kings, \, 1 20. 'J. Loth, V Emigration bretonne en Armorijue, xix ; Reclus, Geographie universelle, II, viii, 612, is here incorrect. 'Giraldus Cambrensis, Opera (Rolls Ser.), vi, 193. » W. Z. Ripley, Races of Europe, 318. '° Ibid. 7 5 . A HISTORY OF DORSET for Somerset and Wiltshire are lower.^ But such evidence as can be safely- drawn from place-names does not give much support to the theory of a widespread and persisting Celtic remnant.* Typical house-grouping is regarded as a constant race-characteristic,' nucleated villages being considered Germanic in their origin, while ' in the land of hamlets and scattered steads ' Celtic communities are traced. The accompanying map shows the disposition of nucleated and hamleted tenements. The later hidation may also show Celtic influence still surviving, the relation between the hides and team-lands of Domesday being the basis of calculation. ' Where the Saxon was thick on the ground, the hides were more,' * for the Saxon is the better agriculturist, and can make a smaller area support himself and his family, and pay Danegeld as well." The ratio of team- lands to hides changes gradually throughout southern England, rising steadily towards the west. It has been held to correspond to the waves of Saxon conquest, ' in each successive conquest the hides are fewer.' In the West Dorset hundreds of Whitchurch and Beaminster there are 249 team-lands to 200 hides, or 1-25 per hide. The county average is practically one to one.* This would seem to show a fair clearance of Welsh in West Dorset ; and their survival in the east of the county goes to support the traditional view of the conquest of Dorset, not by sea, by way of the Frome valley, but by land, west before east, by way of Somerset and the vale of Blackmoor. Once conquered, the speedy political absorption of Dorset in Wessex had been assured by the division of the West Saxon diocese and erection of a bishop's stool at Sherborne.^ But far more influential in removing any remnants of old ' folk ' feeling, as opposed to sentiment already semi-national, were the invasions of the Danes. These, both by chronology and by char- acter, fall into two distinct groups — those of the ninth century which were mere plunder-raids (though not less dreaded on that account), and those of the later tenth and early eleventh centuries. The eff^ect of these was political suzerainty, involving even in Wessex supersession of the old aristocracy, and in the non-noble classes admixture of blood. Both series of descents were made coastwise, thus differing materially, in method and conduct, from previous invasions. Unlike the Romans, whose normal method was to seize a point of coast and overrun the country thence with land forces, the Danes, attacked all round the coast, their superior seamanship enabling them to. make use of landing-places hitherto impracticable, such as Ringstead, Arish- mill and Portland.^ The civilization of the West Saxons, and consequent abundance of provisions and value of booty, both facilitated and encouraged attacks from many points, and by many different war-bands. Resistance was of a nature calculated to be ultimately successful. Naval battles were frequent. Ethelwulf was defeated (840) off Charmouth, but in ' W. Z. Ripley, Races of Europe, 327. ^Taylor, JVords an J Places ; Proc. Anthrop. Inst. (1885), 66. • Maitland, Dom. Bk. and Beyond, 222, 15 ; Meitzen, Siedelung u. Agraruesen der Germanen, ii, 119 ;, Enqulte sur ks Conditions de P habitation en France. ' Les Maisons Types.' Paris, 1894, pp. 9-18 ; Cotta, Deutschland's Boden ... a. dessen Eintviriung (Leipzig, 1858), ii, 63, 599 ; W. Z. Ripley, Races 0/ Europe, 8, 9, 10 ; J. Loth, Uemigration bretonne, 104, 1 18, 599. * F. Baring in Engl. Hist. Rev. 1899, p. 297. ' Maitland, op. cit. 436-43. ° Eyton : hides, 2,321 ; team-lands, 2,332. Pearson : hides, 2,277 ; carucates, 2,303. ^ Angl.-Sax. Chron. i, 68-9 ; ii, 38 ; Wm. of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 175 ; Haddan,. Counc. and Docts. iii, 276 ; W. H. Jones, Episcopate in Dorset and U'ills. ' See Warne's Map oj Ancient Dorset ; Jng/.-Sax. Chron. i, 118 ; Hutchins, Hist. Dors, ii, 813. 126 POLITICAL HISTORY 875 Alfred, putting out most probably from Wareham, 'fought against the crews of seven ships and took one of them and put the rest to flight.' ^ The land resistance was as thorough and better organized. The alderman ' and the bishop are generally found leading the fyrd of the county. Somerset and Dorset frequently, and Wiltshire sometimes, join forces — an anticipation of their shrieval ties at a later period. In 845 the men of Somerset and Dorset, with their respective aldermen, Eanulf and Osric, and with the bishop of Sherborne, Ealhstan,' defeated the Danes at the mouth of the Parret. But such pitched battles, however successful, did not stem the tide of invasion. Occupations of Wareham, and spoliation of the country thence, were only too frequent.* But the victories of Merton (871) and Ethandun (876), in both of which the men of Dorset took their share, marked the end of Danish attacks for the time being. The interval between the two series of descents was marked by con- structive measures, constitutional and military. The military reorganization comes first in point of time, since it is associated with the name of Edward the Elder. But it cannot in reality be dissociated from the constitutional remodel- ling which went on, perhaps on a large scale, under Edwy and Edgar, to be continued and finally shaped by Cnut. To this period of peace and recon- struction belongs the development of the systems of boroughs and of earldoms. So far as Wessex is concerned, Dorset holds a position somewhat apart. While it was no part of the nucleus of the West Saxon kingdom, and thus included only a moderate portion of royal demesne,'' yet, being not only peculiarly open to attack by sea, but also the gate of the state, special pre- cautions were taken for its defence. From this period probably dates the Burghal Hidage,^ representing a scheme of West Saxon defence, in which figure the Dorset boroughs of Shaftesbury, Wareham, and ' Brydian.' ^ The names of thirty-one burhs (twenty-seven assessments only) are given. They are divided among thirteen counties. Dorset is thus more than ordinarily well provided for. But more important than the number of burhs to a county is the number of supporting hides assessed to each. Of these Shaftes- bury has 700, Wareham 1,600,^ and 'Brydian' 1,760, the latter being only exceeded by Bath and three joint assessments. Of these fortified places, where trade was already no doubt beginning,' the importance of Shaftesbury and Wareham is obvious. A mint was one of the privileges of a borough. The Laws of Athelstan record two moneyers at Shaftesbury and two at Ware- ham.^" But it is to be noticed that the ' monetarii ' of Domesday occur not only at these two places, but also at Dorchester and Bridport, the two latter having, in the interval, attained to borough rank. But ' Brydian ' has been identified with Bredy, rather than with Bridport, on the ground, apparently, ' Jngl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 120, 144. ' H. M. Chadwick, Studies on Angl.-^ax. Institutions, 161, 169. ' Angl.-5ax. Chron. i, 132. Heahmund 8th bishop, and Waerstan 14th bishop (see Napier and Steven- son, Anecdota Oxoniensia, 108, note 14) also died in action against the Danes. Heahmund, bishop, was killed at the battle of Merton (871). Angl.-Sax. Chron. i, 140-141. * Angl.-Sax. Chron. i, 146, 145 (bis). ' Maitland, Dom. Bk. and Beyond, 367, 498. * Ibid. 504. ' The document is printed in Maitland, Dom. Bk. and Beyond, 502 ; Birch, Cart. Sax. iii, 671 ; Lie- bermann. Leges Anghrum, 9, 10. See also ?«<:. Soc. Antiq. xxxiv, 267, 268, for the further distinction between castles, forts, and burhs. * Wareham was fortified at any rate by 876. Asset's Life of Alfred (ed. W. H. Stevenson), 36, 37. ' Maitland, op. cit. 212, sqq. '° Thorpe, Laws and Institutes, 514. 127 A HISTORY OF DORSET that Little Bredy contains a ' King's Tun ' (Kingston Russell).^ It was, if so, important as guarding the one gap in the downs which connects south-east with south-west Dorset. This had been followed by the Roman road from Old Sarum through Dorchester to Exeter, and was rendered still more important through the necessity of rounding, in the alternative sea route, the dangerous Portland Bill. Constitutional reorganization was more tentative and uncertain than that of the defensive system. Fluctuation in ideas as to the status of the alderman is a marked characteristic of this period. The alderman (the Danish word earl was only just beginning to be used) is sometimes military leader of the individual county, sometimes political head oi a group of counties, possessed of powers only not royal. Both experiments were tried, and it would seem that Dorset had sometimes an earl of its own,^ while more than once it was a member of the great south-western group of shires.' Want of political stability in Wessex no doubt contributed to Danish successes. In 982 Portland was ravaged by ' three ships of vikings,' * and six years later the Danish army ' again wended eastward into the mouth of the Frome, and everywhere they went up as far as they would into Dorset ; and a great force was often gathered together against them, but as soon as they came together, then was there ever through something flight deter- mined on, and in the end they ever had the victory.' ^ It is probable that the growing sense of religion in public feeling had been thoroughly outraged by the murder of Edward ' the Martyr ' in 978,* The solemn splendour of the translation of his body by Dunstan and the alderman Alfliere,^ from Wareham to Shaftesbury,* and the fresh charters granted to Sherborne Abbey* do but express the spirit of ecclesiasticism then dominant in Dorset, and unlikely to succeed against the determined attacks of a virile nation. It is to Domesday Book that we look to trace the process of substitution of a Norman for the Anglo-Danish land-holding class. Incidentally we may hope for further evidence upon uncertain happenings. To deal first with the latter question. It is stated that ' the Dorset towns ' joined ' the Western Rebellion ' of 1068, and that William, on his way to dispose of the Exeter resistance, delayed to make an example of Dorset.'" The rebellion is said to have been engineered by Gytha and the sons of Harold by Edith Swanneck, who certainly were old enough, in 1069, to gather an Irish fleet and ravage the Devon coast." The territorial influence of Harold himself in Dorset was inconsiderable for an English king in a county which later possessed so- much royal demesne. That of his family, considering the notorious rapacity of the house of Godwin, was small. If Dorset was, indeed, concerned in the rising, and received its punishment accordingly, we should expect to find either a widespread desolation throughout the county, as in the north, or else ' Maidand, op. cit. 502, note ; Kemble, CoJ. Dipl. iii, 224-5, ^°- 636. ' Edgar, Laws (Rec. Com.), iii, 5 ; Cnut, Laws (Rec. Com.), ii, 18, ^nct. Laws and Inst. 165. ' H. M. Chadwick, Studies on Jng/.-Sax. Institutions, 168-80. • Jngl.-Sax. Chron. i, 236. ' Ibid. 247-8. ° Ibid, i, 234. Henry of Huntingdon, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 167. 'His festival was kept four times a year, Wynkyn de Worde, The Martirhge, 1526, who claims to follow Sarum use. ' Jngl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 234 ; Jnn. Jf'ig. ii, 13. ' Jnn. Theokcsb. (Rolls Ser.), i, 183. '" Freeman, liorm. Conq. iv, 1 5 I, and Exeter (Hist. Towns Ser.), 36 ; Palgrave, Engl, and Normandy,. iii, 345. " Diet. Nat. Biog. xxiv, 425. 128 POLITICAL HISTORY a line of wasted manors along William's route to Exeter. The Worcester chronicler says, ' he harried all the land he overran.' ^ The traces of a conquering army, supported by the lands it traverses, will hardly be obliter- ated after twenty years, even though a January campaign will not cause the same damage as one undertaken in spring or early summer. But a map of the decreased or increased values of manors in 1087, as compared with the T.R.E. period, is barren of geographical results. Depreciation here evidently depended upon individual circumstances. Thus the lands of the widow of Hugh FitzGrip (' Hugh of Wareham ' first Norman sheriff) have fallen in value in most cases. No doubt the woman could not manage them as advan- tageously as her husband. It is, however, only fair to add that though Hugh had ' reft unjustly ' one hide of the manor of Abbotsbury from the monks of that foundation, his wife ' since detained six unjustly.' ^ The lands of the church have very generally doubled and even trebled in value,* probably in consequence of a more progressive agriculture and an increase in applied capital, both due to a new personnel. Exceptions tending to prove the rule are the lands of St. Mary of Glastonbury and of Bishop Odo of Bayeux. Against the former William had ever a grudge, and he seized 4 hides in Bagbere, part of the manor of Sturminster Newton, belonging to this monas- tery, and gave them to his cook Goscelin. The Bishop of Bayeux was under forfeiture at the date of the survey.* Far otherwise was it with the Dorset boroughs.^ Dorchester, Bridport, Shaftesbury, and Wareham suffered heavily, on the authority of Domesday itself. Wareham illustrates the ' tenurial heterogeneity ' of the typical old English borough. T.R.E. there were 143 houses of the king's, now there are only 70 houses, 73 are waste. The Abbey of Fontanelle (the Norman house, S. Wandragesil) had 62 houses, 45 remain and 1 7 are waste. Other holders had 80 houses, of which 20 still remain, and 60 are destroyed.* It is this destruction of town houses which has given rise to the story of the participation of the Dorset towns in ' the Civic League.' But there are at least two other causes which would account for such house destruction at that date. One such was castle-building, and the necessity for an open space around the castle to prevent fire or the use of adjacent houses by a hostile body of troops.^ But Bridport certainly and Shaftesbury probably did not so early possess Norman castles ; and though it has been claimed, but without certainty, that Dorchester Castle dates from this time,* the case of Wareham is beset with difficulties. The ' castellum de Warham ' surveyed under Kingston ^ is undoubtedly Corfe,^" and yet the wars of Stephen and Matilda and the Pipe Rolls of John " show the presence of a castle at Wareham likewise, which may or may not have been built by ' Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Sen), i, 340. ' Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 78. Hugh also took a virgate at Portisham from Abbotsbury Abbey, and the manor of Tatton from the Abbey of Cerne. ' Dugdale, Mon. Angl. (cd. 18 17), ii, 472. * His manor of Rampisham T.R.E. was worth ^^lo ; T.R.W. only [fi ; Dom. Bk. i, 77. ' Round, Feudal Engl. 436, 437. ° Dom. Bk. \, 75. ' Engl. Hist. Rev. xx, 7 1 o. ' Hutchins, op. cit. ii, 365. It only certainly existed in 1 176. Pipe R. 22 Hen. II, m. 9 J. ' Dom. Bk. i, 78. '" Eyton, Key to Dorset Dom. 43, iii, n. 2. ; Round, Feudal Engl. 339. " Pipe Rolls, 6, 8, 9, 10 John, under ' Honour of Gloucester.' 2 129 ^7 A HISTORY OF DORSET William. It has been pointed out that there is a priori likelihood that William would not leave this important post, which was also a royal fortified borough, without a castle. It seems more likely that the confusion between Corfe and Wareham is a slip in Domesday Book rather than that the castle of Corfe was known as Wareham for a long period. The solitary Pipe Roll of Henry I mentions the castle of Wareham, and in i io6 Henry had imprisoned Robert of Belesme there.^ Domesday itself, however, tells us that the destruction of houses in Dorchester, Shaftesbury, and Wareham dates 'a tempore Hugonis vicecomitis,' the Wareham entry ' further describing it as continuing usque nunc. This clearly points to the exactions of the Norman sheriffs, for Aiulf would appear to have followed Hugh's example. Of Lincoln, Domesday expressly states that seventy-four houses ' which are waste within the limits of the castle are not so as the result of the oppression of the sheriff or his servants, but by misfortune, poverty, or fire,' ' thus plainly showing the frequency of shrieval exactions. None of the Dorset towns had been able to contract with William to hold their liberties by a fee-farm rent. It has been seen that Hugh was an unscrupulous and avaricious man. His exactions would not improbably do much towards bringing these towns to destitution, since, unlike many country manors, they were without the protection of powerful owners, able to look after their interests.* In the process of substitution of a Norman for an Anglo-Danish land- holding class, Dorset, though eventually thoroughly Normanized, suffered a less violent convulsion than some of the eastern or midland counties. Normanizing tendencies had been actively at work during the reign of the Confessor. Certain geographical and personal causes tended to counter- balance the Godwin national party. The harbour of Wareham was more frequented than any port in southern England. This ensured the constant passage through the shire of Normans going to and from Winchester and Westminster. King Edward himself had held in demesne more than a fifth of the county, and his preferences are undoubted. Emma his mother had held Wyke, Elwell, and Weymouth.' His sister. Countess Goda, married successively to Drogo count of the Vexin, Walter count of Mantes, and Eustace count of Boulogne, had held lands in Melcombe and Tarrant Hinton. After the death by poison of her son Walter, King Edward was her rightful heir. Brictric, Matilda's English lover, had lands in Ashmore, Boveridge, Mappowder, Loders, Affrington, Tyneham, and Tarrant Gunville. Further, even had the Godwin territorial influence been greater than was actually the case, the ravages of Godwin at Portland in 1052, during his outlawry,* must have earned him local ill-will. Even before the Conquest large tracts of land were in the hands of the Church, and her sons would be scandalized at the behaviour of Tostig, but still more indignant at the exactions of Harold. In the absence of danger from Welsh or other foes Harold did not become a hero in common eyes. He took from St. Mary of Shaftesbury the fat manor of Sture (East and West Stour) ' Ann. Marg. Wlnt. and Waverl. (Rolls Ser.), i, 10 ; ii, 42, 44, 2 1 5. ^ Dom.Bk.\,-]%. 'Ibid. 33iJ. ' See also Eyton, Dor:et Dom. 72 ; EngL Hist. Rev. xx, 703-11, and ibid. 1902, pp. 296, 297 ; ibid. 25, sqq. ' Hutchins, Dorset, ii, 814. ' Jngl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 319. 130 POLITICAL HISTORY worth £S, and Cheselbourne, worth >Ci6/ and from a certain priest 2 hides in Ilsington, valued at 20s. It must, however, be remembered that such charges were almost matters of course after his death, for all churchmen whose lands had come into his hands, whether rightly or wrongly, would naturally try to get them back, and the Normans would put the worst construction on all his actions.^ This body of public opinion must have assisted the feudal tendencies already at work, the greater since the proportion of Danes among the holders of land T.R.E. was small. Of ninety-eight names of those holding T.R.E. only seven are pure Danish, though others with West Saxon names may possibly, like Gytha herself, have had a Danish descent. Of the twenty who, holding before 1066, were still holding in 1087, only two have Danish names. The Conquest undoubtedly accelerated the concentration of estates in a small number of hands. The Dorset tenants m capite, at the date of the survey, were 146.' To the king, either in demesne or by escheat, belonged in 1087 rather more than one-seventh of the county; to the greater feuda- tories taken conjointly rather more than one-third ; to the lesser feudatories, king's thegns, king's Serjeants, the four boroughs and a few unclassified land- holders, about one-ninth. The various ecclesiastical persons and bodies, headed by the bishop of Salisbury, held little short of a third.* This was the great era of castle-building.' William had obtained the land for his ' castellum de Warham ' by exchange with the abbess of Shaftes- bury for the advowson of Gillingham. It is now generally held that this castle, referred to in Domesday,* is Corfe. It was almost certainly not only a new building, but new on that site. For if ' the religious woman Alfthrith ' to whom Edred granted Purbeck^ was indeed abbess of St. Edward,^ the abbey at Shaftesbury would seem to have held this land since 948. It is not easy to account for Elfrida's palace at Corfe,'* for Edgar's grant to his queen was at Buckland.^" The chronicle states that Edward was killed at ' Corf- geat,' ^' which may possibly have been Coryates ; a charter of Canute to Abbotsbury mentions ' Corfgeat ' near Portisham.^^ There is also a Corfe, anciently a member of the manor of West Milton, now a hamlet in the parish of Powerstock.'^ Camden thought there was a Saxon castle at Corfe, and that it must have been built after 941,'* citing an inquisition of the time of Henry III ' before the building of the castle of Corfe, the abbess and nuns of S. Edward at Shasten had the wreck of the sea within their manor of Kingston.' He gives 941 as the date of the foundation of this abbey by Edmund, but Dugdale considers it to have been founded, perhaps by Alfred, at any rate before 900." Research goes to show that there was no castle at Corfe before the Conquest.'* ' Dom. Bk. i, 78. ' Article ' Harold,' in Diet. Nat. Biog. xxiv, 418. ' Ellis,/n/;W. to Dom. ii, 438. * See Eyton, op. cit. i 56. ' G. T. Clarke, Mediaeval Milit. Anhit. i, 23. * Dom. Bk. \, 78, b. 2. See also Testa de Nevill (Rcc. Com.), 164^. ' Birch, Cartul. Sax. iii, 12, No. 868. * Dugdale, Mon. Angl. ii, 473. ' Sec Bond, Corfe Castle, 9. '° Birch, Cartul. Sa.v. iii, 436, No. 1 177. " Jngl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Set.), i, 232-3. " Mon. Angl. ii, 55, charter ii. " Hutchins, Dorset, ii, 319. '* Camden, Britannia (ed. Gibson, 1 721), i, 57. " Mon. Angl. ii, 47 1 . '° Round, in Archaeologia, LVIII, i, 313 sqq. and Quart. Rev. July, 1894 ; Mrs. Armitage, in Engl. Hist. Rev. 1904, pp. 227, 450, and I905,p.7ii ; and in Proc. of Scottish Antij.-nyixvr, lij . See also Round, Geoffrey de Mandeville, 328 ; Arfh. Journ. Ix, and Antij. xiii, 241. A HISTORY OF DORSET The remaining Dorset castles present almost equal difficulties. Gervase, in the Mappa Mundi (about whose date, unhappily, there is some obscurity),^ mentions Corfe, Sherborne, and Dorchester. But Lul worth and possibly Cerne are mentioned in 1139 and 1142.^ Bow and Arrow Castle, Portland, is said to have been built by Rufus.' At any rate, Portland had a castle in 11 42.* There are also earthworks of the motte-and-bailey type at Sturminster Newton, Shaftesbury, Chelborough, and Powerstock.^ Power- stock was held, at the date of Domesday, by Roger Arundel, but may possibly have been fortified by John, into whose hands it came by exchange with Robert of Newburgh (to whom it had come from the Arundels) for a Somerset manor. ^ It is probable that some of these are among the adulterine castles of the reign of Stephen. Situated on the line of the empress's communications between her English strongholds of Bristol, Oxford, and Devizes, and her continental base, the Dorset castles became important factors in the civil war, which shared with other mediaeval wars the characteristic features of absence of pitched battles and importance of castles. It is impossible to ascertain the sentiment of the county in the struggle between king and empress, for public feeling was both dominated and voiced by the great land-holders alone. Of these Robert of Gloucester, the empress's half-brother, stands above all others. His Dorset lands, part of the honour of Gloucester, came to him with his wife Mabel, daughter of Robert FitzHamon, who himself had married Sybil, daughter of Roger of Montgomery, and sister of Robert of Belesme, who suffered perpetual imprisonment in Wareham Castle. To FitzHamon Rufus, probably about 1090,^ had given the inheritance called of Gloucester, which had originally been held by the Saxon Brictric, then by William's Queen Matilda, and which on her death had reverted to the crown. It included many Dorset manors.* Among the empress's men were also Baldwin of Redvers, and William of Mohun. Baldwin descended from the ' francus ' who in Domesday Book held three and a half hides in Mosterton in South Perrot, and not from the ' Baldwinus Vicecomes ' or Baldwin of Moeles, sheriff of Devon, and constable of Rougemont Castle, Exeter. William of Mohun was lord of Dunster.^ The Mohun holding in Dorset included lands in Todber, Spettisbury, Winterborne Houghton, Hammoon, Chalbury, Iwerne Courtney, Broadwinsor, and Mapperton in Aimer.'" Robert of Bampton (co. Devon), who was in rebellion against Stephen," had succeeded, by the female line, to the Domesday fief of Walter of Douai, which included lands in Winterborne Clenston and Purse Caundle. William de Cahaignes, who made the king prisoner at the battle of Lincoln (1141), had ' Stubbs places it about 1 199, Intnd. to Gervase (Rolls Ser.), i, p. xxix. ' Will. Malms. Hist. Novella (Rolls Ser.), ii, 557, 59+. 595 ; Gesta Stephani (Rolls Sen), iii, 58. The latter, however, is quite as likely to be Cerney, near Cirencester. See Ramsay, Found, of Engl, ii, 388. » Hutchins, Dorset, ii, 816. * Will. Malms, op. cit. ii, 595. ' Information supplied by Mrs. Armitage. See also Hutchins, op. cit. iv, 336, 339 ; ii, 655, 318 ; Coker, Surv. of Dors. 100. « Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), 97. ' Ord. Vit. Hist. Eccl. iii, 350. ' See Round in Genealogist (New Ser.), iv, 129-40. Hutchins, op. cit. iii, 369, and 375, 376 follows Dugdale about the three FitzHamon heiresses, one of whom, he says, was abbess of Shaftesbury. But see the art. ' Fitzhamon,' in Diet. Nat. Biog. ° See H. Maxwell Lyte, Dunster and its Lords, 2, 3. «° Dom. Bk. i, 82. " Round, Feud. Engl. 486 ; Engl. Hist. Rev. v, 746. 132 POLITICAL HISTORY obtained in maritagio Tarrant Keynston and Coombe Keynes, with his wife Alice, daughter of Hugh Maminot, the nephew and heir of Gilbert Maminot bishop of Lisieux. The bishop's Dorset holding was a lay fief, i.e. descended to his secular heir.^ William of Saint Clare ' was, at least in 1 140, on Stephen's side, for he witnesses the first charter to Geoffrey de Mandeville.' The castle of ' Cernei ' built by Miles of Gloucester,* as has i been said, may have been Cerne (co. Dorset), or Cerney. Some of the abbot's tenants in the vill of Cerne however owed duty of castle-ward at Corfe Castle,^ not at Cerne. Robert of Gloucester in 11 37, after the Exeter rebellion of Baldwin of Redvers, fortified Wimborne, Corfe, Dorchester and Wareham against Stephen," probably encouraged by the king's absence in Normandy. When he returned, at the end of that year, Stephen most probably landed in Dorset.'' The following year, probably during the campaign in Somerset, he took Wareham, making Robert de Nicole castellan.^ Robert of Gloucester recaptured it in 1138.' Baldwin of Redvers, in August, 1139, landed there with an advance army.^° He was now the empress's devoted adherent. Stephen hurried down to cut him off, but he threw himself into Corfe Castle, where the king laid siege to him ; but hearing of the approach of the empress and Earl Robert, who had by this time landed in Sussex and were making for Bristol, he raised the siege." On his way back Stephen besieged and took ' Cernei ' castle, which Earl Robert however garrisoned again the following year." Some time before 1141 the empress made de Redvers earl of Devon, and Mohun earl of Dorset or Somerset — a fact noteworthy, since to Stephen alone are sometimes attributed the creations of this period. The status of the Mohun earldom is doubtful. The Gesta Stephanl states " that he was made earl of Dorset. He founded Bruton Priory in 1142 as earl of Somerset.^* It was unimportant that he took his distinguishing name from either county, for they were under one sheriff. But de Redvers himself already held the manor of Puddletown,^^ which carried with it the third penny of the pleas of the county." The empress's own charter of 1 142 to Aubrey de Vere, confirmed by her son Henry, offered de Vere a choice of Dorset or Oxfordshire, Berkshire or Wiltshire, for his new earldom. ^^ Robert of Gloucester committed Wareham to the safe-keeping of his eldest son William, and departed in June, 1142, also from Wareham, 'the empress's family haven,' on his mission to Geoffrey of Anjou.'* Stephen, recovered from his sickness, seized the opportunity to raid the enemy's own country. He marched on Wareham, burned the town, and took the castle." Sherborne Castle, built by the Justiciar, Bishop Roger of Salisbury, in 1137,'° ' Liber Niger (ed. Hearne), i, 8; ; Pipe R. Dors. 14 Hen. II, m. 2. ' Pipe R. Dors. 31 Hen. I. * Printed Round, G. Je Mandcville, 51,52. * Gesta Stefh. 58. ' Dom. Bk. i, 76 ; Liber Niger, i, 77 ; Red Bk. of the Exch. (Rolls Ser.), i, 212. ' Ann. Man. ii, 226. ' Jnct. Chart. (Pipe R. Soc. ed. Round), x, 37. " Ann. Theokeib. (Rolls Ser.), i, 46 ; Hen. Hunt. Hist. Engl 261 ; Jnn. JVav. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 229. ' Ann. Wav. ii, 226. '" Gesta Stefh. 53, and Intr. xxi-xxv ; Round, G. de MandeviUe, 278, 279. " Gesta Steph. 53. " Will. Malms, op. cit. 557. "p. 80. " Round, G. de MandeviUe, 271, 274, 277. " Eyton, Dors. Dom. 75. " Dom. Bk. i, 75. " Round, op. cit. 180-3. '* Will. Malms, op. cit. 592. " Ibid. 593 ; Gesta Slefh. 93. " Ann. Winton, ii, 51 ; Will. Malms, op. cit. 547, 549 ; Gesta Steph. 49, 50. A HISTORY OF DORSET (a time when all who could fortified themselves), was already in his hands, from his seizure of the bishop in 1139. So when in December Robert of Gloucester returned, not with the empress's husband, but with her son Henry, her cause seemed hopeless. She was at the time closely besieged in Oxford. Instead of going to her help, the earl lingered to retake Wareham ^ (which Stephen allowed to fall into his hands, sooner than abandon the siege of Oxford to go to its relief), and to occupy the two small castles of Lulworth and Portland.' The former castle had been held by William de Glastonia, who had lately turned traitor to the empress : Portland had been previously fortified by Stephen.' Immediately on the surrender of Oxford, Stephen marched on Wareham, reaching it probably about i January. Earl Robert, on its recapture, had most strongly fortified it.* The king laid waste the adjoining country with fire and sword. Next year he lost Sherborne Castle ; William Martel the Dapifer, who was holding it for the king, was captured at Wilton, and was compelled to give up this castle, to regain his liberty.^ After the withdrawal of the empress, Dorset took no further part in the Civil War. The reconstructions of Henry II are generally said to have involved the degradation of the fiscal earls, and the destruction of adulterine castles. The Mohun earldom of Dorset does not occur, even after 1 142. But of the fate of the adulterine castles, or which of them were adulterine, we have no know- ledge. The custody of Dorchester Castle was eventually granted to Earl Reginald of Cornwall.* Eleven years later it appears under the honour of Gloucester.'' A bull of Eugenius III in 11 46 had confirmed to the bishop of Salisbury the possession of his two castles of Sherborne and Devizes.* But two agreements, in 1152 and 1157, between Henry II and Bishop Jocelin, restoring the castle of Devizes conditionally to the bishop, do not seem to have been copied with regard to Sherborne Castle, which was taken into the king's hands. The hundred of Sherborne was restored in 11 60 by the widowed countess Mabel of Gloucester and her son William to Bishop Jocelin.' In 1 1 89 John married Isabel of Gloucester, third daughter of this William Fitz Robert. She was made heiress of the honour, for the benefit of her husband, who received confirmation of the earldom,^" but no castles were committed to his keeping. In 1189, no place being assigned to him in the government, Richard purchased, or hoped to purchase, his loyalty by lavish grants, which included all crown rights over Dorset, Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall." Whether or not he had by this means attained possession of the castles of these counties, he lost them again in 1 191, at the Grand Council of Winchester (28 July), for the pacification of the ' Will. Malms, op. cit. 594, 595. ' Arm. Winton, ii, 53 ; Ann. U'ig. iv, 379 ; Will. Malms, op. cit. loc. cit.; Gesta Stiph. 93. ' Will. Malms, op. cit. 595. The Newburghs probably did not acquire Lulworth before 1300. They appear at Winfrith in 1210. * Gesta Steph. 94. ' Hen. Hunt. Hist. Ar.gl. 276 ; Gesta Stefh. 96 ; Ann. Theokcsb. (Rolls Ser.), i, 46. See Round, op. cit. I47. ' Pipe R. 22 Hen. II, m. 9 ^. ' Pipe R. 33 Hen. II. ' ^arum Chart. (Rolls Scr. 97), 13. ' Ibid. 32. '" Bened. Pet. Gesla Regis (Rolls Ser.), 78 ; Gervase, Opera, i, 458. " Bened. Pet. op. cit. 99. Roger of Hoveden, Chron. (Rolls Ser. 51), 27. 134 POLITICAL HISTORY count and Longchamps over the Camville case. But in October he again got control of the royal castles, on the deposition of Longchamps. After the release of Richard from captivity John sent w^ord from Normandy to have his castles put in order for a fresh rising. But Hubert Walter pro- ceeding against the places fortified, and the king landing in England, John surrendered. A special iter of the justices that September (1194) had, as one of its objects, to take account of all lands and goods forfeited by John or his foUow^ers under decrees issued against them, and not subsequently re-granted by the king to them. It appears that Dorset had been impli- cated, to some extent, in the last rising. Reginald of Saint Leodegar in Todber, Brian de Goviz in Kingston, and Lucia de Broil in Milborne^ lost their lands entirely. Walter de Turberville in Toller,^ and Eustace de Stokes in Lulworth,'' recovered them eventually, after temporary dispossession. Eustace de Stokes was a knight of Alured of Lincoln.* The time spent by John, when king, in the county has sometimes been exaggerated. Of 1,314 changes of place recorded of his court,' ninety- four only relate to Dorset. According to the Itinerary he spent 131 days in the county, out of a rough total of 4, i 59, about three per cent, only.' This was remarkably little, since to a parsimonious king (whose frequent move- ments necessitated the seventeenth clause of Magna Carta) it was of import to have his court maintained free for a few nights at a time.'' He spent much money on strengthening his castles, and the Pipe Rolls for this reign have frequent mentions of expenses incurred for work on the castles of Dorchester, Sherborne, Gillingham, and Corfe.' The king had been reinstated with the honour of Gloucester in 1195, while still only count, but without its castles. On his accession he divorced his wife Isabel, on the pretext of Archbishop Baldwin's early objections to the marriage, on grounds of consanguinity. He deprived her of her patrimony, conferring the estates and earldom upon her sister's husband, Amaury of Montfort, but by the ninth year of his reign the honour was again in his own hands. He used Corfe Castle as a state prison as well as a fortress. Among its prisoners were the nobles of Poitou and Guienne whom he captured at Mirebeau ' {1202), the Lusignans, from whom he had abducted his new wife, Isabel of Angouleme. There also were confined Griffith, king of Wales,^" the princesses of Scotland," given by their father as hostages in 1209, William of Albini,'^ afterwards one of the twenty-five elected barones^'^ and even his own queen." In 1205 the king, having been successfully resisted by the barons in the matter of service abroad, embarked, and put out to sea for three days, landing again at Studland, probably as a kind of protest against ' Pipe R. 6 Ric. I, m. 13 -j". ' Ibid, i John, ra. 17 Ci°- John Okey, 'chaplain' of Buckland Newton, paid £10, and John Mabbe, vicar of Netherbury, £1. The king treated the rebels with great leniency,' pro- claiming a general pardon in the western counties on their submission to his mercy.* But the collection of the fine was accompanied by much unfairness, extortion, and embezzlement ; Harry Uvedale, bailiff of Pur- beck, was the chief offender, while the complaints were voiced by one of the Claviles, and brought before Sir John Turberville (whose name occurs in Warbeck's Northumberland Proclamation), one of the king's council. The Dorset commissioners were Sir Amyas Paulet and Robert Sherborne.* ' IVey mouth Chart, i, lo. 'Bankes, Corfe Castle, 29. ' Memorials of Hen. I'll (Rolls Ser. lo), xxxix, 24. * Cal L. and P. Hen. Fill, i, 334, 563. ' Pat. 14 Eliz. pt. xii. ^MS. Reg. 14 B. vii, B.M. is a list of the fines exacted. L. and P. Ric. Ill and Hen. VII (Rolls Ser.), App. B. vol. ii. ' Cal. Venet. State Papers, i 202-1 509, p. 260. * Cal. of Pat. R. 24-25 July, 1497, m. 4 ; Pat. 13 Hen. VII, m. 6 d. ^Letters of Ric. Ill and Hen. VII (Rolls. Ser.), ii, 75-6. See also Notes and Queries for Som and Dors. VII, Win, 102. 142 POLITICAL HISTORY In the second rising also, the king had full confidence in the loyalty of the landed classes. He wrote (September 20) to the Bishop of Bath and Wells (Warbeck being then engaged in besieging Exeter) : 'The Perkin and his company, if they come forward, shall find before them . . . the noblemen of South Wales, and of our counties of Gloucester, Wiltshire, Hampshire, Somerset, and Dorset.'^ The list of the fined was practically confined to the Pretender's line of flight from Taunton, by way of Sherborne, Blackmoor, and Cranborne Chase to Beaulieu. There was evidently no discontent with the Tudor monarchy, but merely pity extended to a fugitive. The loyalty of the country gentlemen showed itself a few years later (1501) on the bridal progress of Catherine of Arragon. She was received with much ceremonial, and escorted from stage to stage ; two or three miles before she came to Sherborne (from Exeter and Crewkerne) she was met by Sir Thomas de la Lynde, William Martin, Sir John Turberville, Sir Roger Newburgh, Richard Willoughby, William Barket, and Henry Strangways. These conveyed her to Shaftesbury, where she was met by another set of important gentlemen, and accompanied to Amesbury.^ At the Field of the Cloth of Gold Dorset was represented by Sir Giles Strangways, Sir Thomas Trenchard, and Sir Thomas Lynde. ^ And to the suppression of the Northern Rebellion of 1536 the county contributed 1,0 £;o men, viz. Sir Giles Strangways 300, Sir Thomas Arundel and Sir Edward Willoughby 200 each. Sir Thomas More and John Rogers, esq. 100 each, and Sir John Horsey 150.* In 1538 there was some slight disaffection,' but on the whole the Tudor period is barren of any stirring events. It is con- cerned mainly with questions of defence, and in it we get glimpses of electoral procedure, following on the borough controversies whose roots lay centuries deep. The county was fairly heavily charged for coat and conduct money, besides having to furnish contingents at frequent intervals. Thus in 1546 the coat and conduct money of 100 men raised by the county was £^K, 16s. 8^.,° while in 1600, ^19 16s. \d. was the coat and conduct money charged for 50 men.'' Not so many men were apparently demanded for the wars of Henry VIII as for those of Elizabeth. Henry wanted money and men for his castles and garrisons. Sandsfoot Castle, built by him in 1540, was carefully munitioned,* and gunners for the Isle of Purbeck and for Portland were not reduced in number till 1552.' The execution of Lady Jane Grey and reconciliation of England with Rome seem to have produced slight disturbances in 1554, for a letter from the Privy Council to the sheriff and justices of the peace mentions the late false rumours of a ' commocion ' in Dorset, ' to the evil stirring of the people.' Two days later (3 1 July) a second letter thanks them for their diligence and prays them to continue the same ; and because they have a commission of oyer and terminer they are to proceed against the spreaders of these reports. In this connexion Edward Horsey was specially mentioned as ' of evill demeanour.' ^^ In 1557 the county was still suffering disturbance ' Ellis, Original Letters, i, 35, ser. i. ' Letters of Ric. Ill and Hen. Vll (Rolls Ser.), i, 406, 407. ' L. and P. Hen. Fill, iii, pt. i, 241. * Ibid, xi, 232. ' Ibid, xiii, pt. ii, 473. * Jets of P. C. (ed. Dasent), 1542-7, p. 393. ' Ibid. 1600, pp. 102, 185. ' Ibid. 1550-2, p. 172 ; ibid. 1549-50, p. 393. * Ibid. 184 ; ibid. I 5 52-4, pp. 32, 34. '" Ibid. I 5 54-6, pp. 1 68-9. A HISTORY OF DORSET from this cause, and ' the whole force of the shire ' was to be held ready ' in case of rebellion.' ^ In spite of this strong though evidently suppressed Protestant feeling there were a certain number of recusants in the reign of Elizabeth. No notice was taken of them till 1582, when the apprehension was ordered of one Slade, a very dangerous Papist, also of any Jesuit or seminary priest.* This followed hard upon riots against the sheriff, instigated by Henry Howard, son and heir of Lord Bindon.' A prosecution for witchcraft had taken place in 1564.* On 7 February, 1585, a regular assessment of fines for recusancy was enforced, under the lord-lieutenancy of the Marquis of Winchester.* In 1590 there was some sympathy with the recusants displayed:* and in 1598 certain recusants were fined ^^15 each towards the Irish Light Horse.'' The names of the fined were Lady Sturton, Charles Sturton, esq., Mrs. Martin of Athelhampton, Henry Cary of Hamworthy, and Mr. Slade of Mawston. The need of men for Irish service had been constantly brought home. Three hundred Dorset men served in 1573, a hundred more were sent out in 1578, another hundred the next year, a further hundred in 1598, and another hundred and fifty in 1600, with fifty more for the plantation of Lough Foyle, reinforced later in the year by an additional twenty ; while in the same year resort was had to the method of levying from each of the principal gentlemen (viz. Sir George Trenchard, Sir Ralph Horsey, Thomas Freake, and John Fitzjames) ' one light horse and equipment and man and equipment.'* The preparations to meet the Armada included the furnishing of Corfe Castle, Portland Castle, and the Isle of Purbeck with ordnance,* a contribution of ship-money from Weymouth, Shaftesbury, Wareham, Dorchester, Bland- ford, Sherborne, and Cerne Abbas, for the ' two ships and one pinnace ' to be set forth by Weymouth. The rest of the county, and Lyme and Chard, were afterwards also forced to contribute. A thousand foot, but no horse, were ordered to be sent to London by 6 August. This led to a lively but unavailing protest from the rest of the inhabitants, who feared the Spanish fleet and French attacks. ' Lances and light horse ' were commanded to London by the 8th. The clergy also raised a troop. ^^ Next year the lord- lieutenant received instructions as to the levies and military stores, and how far they were to be kept on a war footing. A sale of powder in store at Dorchester was also ordered ' awaie nowe, when there is occasion to use yt, for yt is but bad powder, and the longer yt is kept the worse it wilbe.' " The expenses of the repelling of the Armada were met by a loan borrowed from 2,416 of the queen's subjects in the thirty-six counties, which amounted to nearly ^75,000 ; it was impossible to meet them by ordinary subsidies, and an extraordinary subsidy large enough to bring in the sum required ' AcU ofP.C. (ed. Dasent), 1556-8, p. 87. ' Ibid. 1 581-2, p. 446. ' Ibid. 1 580-1, p. 217. • Ibid. 1558-70, pp. 200-1. ' Ibid. 1586-7, p. 16. * Ibid. 1590-1, p. 358. ' Ibid. 1598-9, p. 499 ; see also Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vi, 252J. 'Jets of P. C. 1571-5, pp. 125-6; 1577-8, P- 24°; 1598-9, P- 499; 1597-8. P- 329; '600, pp. 102, 247, 416, 439, 790, 798. See also Dorch. Corp. MSS. and Weymouth Chart, v, 28. ^ Acts of P. C. 1588, p. 259. '" Ibid. 133, 301, 353, 171, 192, 181, 267. See also Ellis, Hist. Weymouth, 15 ; Weymouth Charters, V, 26, 32. " Acts of P. C. i;88-o, p. 389. 144 POLITICAL HISTORY would have ruined the country and caused widespread ill-feeUng. In the spring of 1587 the loan was called for by circular letters, addressed under sanction, or by command of the Privy Seal, to the wealthier inhabitants of each county, whose names were furnished by the lords-lieutenant. In some cases the names given were of those who really could not pay. But in Dorset no remissions were allowed, and jri,g^o was paid by forty-seven of its gentry. Robert Freke of Cerne, John Miller of Came, Henry Coker of Mappowder, Robert Harley of Stalbridge, Thomas Chafyn, and James Hannam of Purse Caundle paid >Ci°o each.^ Matthew Chubb of Dorchester, assessed at £S'^, wrote to Secretary WoUy, saying that ' neither the Lord Lieutenant, nor the Deputy Lieutenant, have certified the sufficiency of your suppliant to be able to lend Her Majesty any sum of money.' There is no record of how he fared.' All this while the twin towns of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis had been carrying on a bitter quarrel. The old competitors of Dorchester (Lyme, Wareham, and Poole) had all withdrawn from the contest. Wey- mouth and Melcombe, however, continued their strife with unabated vigour, in spite of the so-called Act of Union of 1571, which united the two boroughs ' in government, the peace, and entire jurisdiction,' also as to the receipt of the petty customs of ' the haven and watercourse ; ' but for ' private actions, suits, etc. ... in leets and lawdays . . . they retained the same divided in their several towns.' ' This apparent settlement had been arrived at by a commission from the Privy Council, consisting of the Lords Justices Jeffisry and Manwood. But the disturbances ran so high* that in 1586 a fresh commission was sent to settle them. The matter was not ended till 1616, all the local lawyers being kept busy, on both sides, and ' Holand- shed, a keeper of recordes in the Tower, delivered a ^0 Warranto to Best, and Best thought it to be forged, because he had it so good cheape.'^ Interference with elections for Parliament is a common feature of this period. The Earl of Pembroke (steward of Weymouth, Wyke, Portland, and other royal manors) with 'E. Philippes gent.' selected the two representa- tives for Weymouth in 1585.' Lord Warwick chose the opposing two for Melcombe.^ Lord Bedford, in 1576, wrote to the bailiffs of the former proposing that ' upon the return of your indentures you will send the same, with a blank for the name,' as he wished to nominate one of the members.' In 1 57 1 he had already selected one of the members for Poole ; in 1581 the Earl of Leicester assumed this privilege, in 1584 the recorder, Giles Estcourt, and in 1585 the Earl of Warwick. In Poole, at any rate, this state of affairs continued till the Commonwealth.' So late as the county election of 1675 the Bishop of Bristol sent circulars to all his clergy instructing them which way to vote : — I have sent my secretary into Dorsetshire on purpose to disperse these letters amongst you, and I hope you will be careful so to send these from one to another that the whole diocese will be sensible of my desire to them.^" ' T. C. Noble : ' The names of those persons . . . who subscribed to the Armada.' Notes and Queries fir Som. and Dors, i, 3 3 sqq. ' Cal. S.P. Dom. E/iz. 1581-90, p. 223 (114). ' Weymouth Chart, ii, 4. * j4cts of P. C. iSJ^-Jy P- 3^8. ' Weymouth Chart, ii, 70. ' Ibid, ii, 4; iii, 15. ' Ibid, i, 25. ' Ibid, iv, I J. " Hutchins, Dorset, i, 25-7. '° Christie, Life of the First Lord Shaftesbury, ii, 2 1 8. 2 145 ^9 A HISTORY OF DORSET In 1592 the grievance of purveyance, long felt, came to a head, owing to the extra burden imposed on the rest of the county by the exemptions claimed by the Isle of Purbeck, the liberties of Gillingham, Wyke Regis, Stour Preaux, the hundred of Whitchurch, and the liberties of Sutton Pointz and Sydling.^ In 1593, on inquiry, the exemptions were repealed, in spite of the great efforts on behalf of the Isle of Purbeck made by William Bond. Purbeck also had to contribute towards the provision for Her Majesty's household.- This redressed the local exactions complained of in the Blandford division in 1591/ which were heavier, from the exemptions of the town of Poole, the island of Purbeck, and the hundred of Whiteway. In 1566 the joint shrievalty of Dorset and Somerset was discontinued, each county henceforth being administered by a separate sheriff.* The chief place among the illegal exactions of Charles I is generally accorded to the unauthorized collection of ship-money ; the first general writ for this was dated 1634. The illegalities of billeting soldiers upon private persons, and of enforcing service for the public works were, however, more annoying in the years immediately preceding 1634. The justices of the peace for the county complained in July 1632 that 'this little county ' was taxed ' in equality with Hampshire and Wiltshire,' which was the more unjust, that they have performed the service of many thousand loads of stones in the Isle of Port- land, for building the banqueting house, and that service is still continued upon them towards His Majest)''s buildings, besides that there is ^5,000 and upwards due to this county for billeting soldiers. They, therefore, begged to be spared the carriage of 1,290 loads of timber out of the New Forest.' It appears that the county eventually tacitly declined the service of this carriage. William Twyne, who did perform his share, could get no money therefor.^ In 1626 a thousand soldiers from Devon and Corn- wall, under martial law, had been quartered in Dorset.'' In 1629 the cor- poration of Dorchester complained to the Council of the billeting of soldiers ' by along space, for which they have received no satisfaction,' viz. in particular from 23 April to 3 August, 1628, 'amounting to £^jj i6j., whereof ^^b only is paid and ^^51 i6j. reste unpaid.'* With other similar items the sum soon mounted to ^^260 \C)s. But in 1632 the lord treasurer wrote to the mayor of Dorchester to pay the ^(^260 odd, which was said to be 'in the hands of three or four men who collected the loan-money of the county.' ' This ' loan-money ' was just possibly contributions, somewhat forced, towards the Cadiz expedition of 1625,^° or the later recovery of the Palatinate." But it is more probable that the reference was to an early ship-money writ. The corporation of Bridport possesses such a writ dated 5 November, 1628.^^ It provides for the outfit of a man-of-war of 400 tons, with equipment and provisions tor twenty-six weeks, and for an assessment to cover the cost. It contains the clause : ' Should any person be found rebel- lious, they shall be committed to prison until further order is made for their delivery.' ' Acts oj P.C. 1592-3, pp. 354-6- ' Ibid. 452, 457-8, 468-9. ' Ibid. 1 591-2, p. 306. ' Slatutei at Large, 8 llliz. cip. i6. ^ Cal. S.P. Dom. 1631-3, p. 381. 'Ibid. 1633-4, p. "o. ' Weymouth Chart, iv, 71. * Dorch. Corp. MSS. C. 9. ' Ibid. '" Cal. S.P. Dm. 1635-6, p. 66. " Ibid. 163 1-3, p. 210, an. 1 631. " Notes and Queries for Som. and Dors, viii, 14. 146 POLITICAL HISTORY The nominal objects of the levy of ship-money were defence against inva- sion and defence against the pirates who had troubled the Dorset coast all through the preceding century, and whose raids were only ended by the sea-power of the Protectorate. It is probable that the government honestly believed in efforts then said to be making to invade England. A letter from Lord Suffolk in 1626 to the mayor and corporation of Weymouth and Mel- combe speaks of the preparations for an invasion by Spain from Flanders.^ It seems to have been caused by a letter to him from the Privy Council, to order him to have the militia drilled, as the king had cause to expect an invasion from Spain and Flanders.^ Yet, in spite of continued levies of ship- money, Dorset had no help against the pirates — Turkish and Algerian and often helped by the Dutch — whose attacks became worse, from 16 10 on. Weymouth often joined Exeter and Dartmouth in attempts at repelling them, and resort was had to petitions to the Council. In 1636 the corporation endeavoured to enlist the favour of Laud, who did protest (strikeing his hands upon his brest), that whilst hee had breath in his bodie, he would doe his uttmost endeavor to advance so necessary and consequential! a business . . . that within this twelve monethes, not a Turkish ship should be able to putt out.^ But nothing was done to help the county against this scourge. It was, there- fore, all the more irritating to find that ship-money writs continued to be issued, the sums demanded having increased in severity. By 2 i March, 1635, the sum received from the Dorset maritime towns under the writ of the preceding year was ^^1,400, Gloucestershire and Hampshire having paid only ^1,000 each.* The method of procedure was to assess the county in a certain sum, and to make the sheriff responsible. He then divided this sum among the various corporate towns, and the remaining parts of the county. The corporate towns rated themselves and forwarded their contributions through their mayors. The sheriff assessed the sums to be paid by the various hundreds and parishes not included in the corporate towns, and collected from these by his ' servants' or bailiffs. So early as 1635 the men of Poole protested against the levy.° But about the same time Sir Thomas Trenchard, sheriff (remonstrated with by the Council because he had not sent in a note to say how the ship-money was assessed by him, and how much to be paid by every hundred and corporate town), replied that he had already paid to Sir William Russell ^^3,100, and to his own successor in office (John Freke) jCgoS is. bd., with a memorial of the sum still owing, >C99i i8j. dd. He had been delayed in returning his account by the daily concourse of people to pay in their moneys to him.' A list, drawn up by him in April, 1636, of those who had not paid, shows that Sir Walter Erie, afterwards Parliamentary general, owed £^t^ 6s. Sd. for lands in Morden, £^ 3J. for lands in Combe Aimer, and ^4 i is. for lands in Chelborough. Sir William Strode would not pay, but suffered his goods to be distrained.'' This case is the first mention of distraint. But the method was necessarily soon resorted to in the collection of so unpopular a tax, at a time of peculiar hardship, when the county was suffering severely from plague ravages. In the assessment of 1636 Shaftesbury paid nothing, so heavy was ' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. v, 581. » Weymouth Chart, iv, 56. ' Ibid, vi, 103. * Cal. S.P. Dom. 1633-4, P- 594 ' C<7/. S.?. DuOT. 1635-6, p. 12. ' Ibid. 211, 356. ' Ibid. 395-6. 147 A HISTORY OF DORSET the loss from the disease. Poole then paid ^(^30, Dorchester ^^45, Wareham >r25, Corfe Castle £^0, Weymouth and Melcombe £2 5^ Lyme £^0, Brid- port ^C^o, and Blandford £2^. This was the sheriffs own assessment, the mayor of Dorchester having declined, with the other mayors of the county, at a meeting held 23 November, 1636, to make any rate towards the ;^5,ooo demanded.^ John Freke, the sheriff, wrote that autumn that the money was paid ' like drops of blood, and some sell their only cow, which should feed their children, and some come to the parish.' ' Next year Richard Rogers, the new sheriff, took forty days ' expediting the agreements of the mayors of the corporate towns, and at the expiration was put to make the assessments himself.'' The assessment of 1637 was heavier on the towns than that of 1636. Shaftesbury now paid ^^5, Poole £24., Wareham £2^, Corfe Castle ^40, Weymouth and Melcombe £8^, Lyme jr4o, Bridport ^20, and Dorchester >C45-* Sir Walter Erie was distrained, which with the similar treatment of 'some great ones, reduced the rest to conformity ' for the time being.' By i September only ^^200 of the whole >r^,ooo was wanting. Arrears under the writ of 4 August, 1635, still came in, in driblets, and the official return of the whole arrears of the county, in October, 1637, was ^1,200.^ But the old arrears were never all got in before new writs were issued, and disputes as to rating became more and more common,'' occasioning ' more than ordinary pains and trouble.' Richard Bingham, the new sheriff, who endeavoured to collect under a new writ of December, 1638, found that the corporate towns could not agree upon their rating.' So late as 4 Feb- ruary, 1640, Sir John Croke, sheriff in 1639, had received no money under the writ of 1637, though he had 'sent throughout the whole county the present sheriffs schedules and warrants.' He promised to 'do his best endeavours to collect so much of these arrears as may be had,'' but evidently was not optimistic. The 'present sheriff' of Sir John's letter was William Churchill, who began office evidently meaning to collect all arrears." But in spite of his most active measures, he was as unsuccessful as his predecessors in collecting a tax which the county could not possibly pay, and against which feeling was running very high. Even in 1631 there had been serious rioting, and the Council wrote to the Justices of Assize to use extra- ordinary diligence in finding and punishing ' the offenders and encouragers of certain rebellions rather than riots lately committed on their circuit,' His Majesty charging them to proceed against the delinquents with all severity." Matters had not been improved by further vexatious illegalities, the tax of 6(/. per 1 2 lb. on all the hard soap made in the county,^' and the close monopoly of this manufacture, the obligation imposed in 1636 on every alehouse-keeper to become bound in _^2o not to dress any venison, red or fallow, or any hares, pheasants, partridges, or heath pout,^' and the abuses in the collection of the ship-money itself, the common report being that nearly jTijOOO more was collected than was actually required.^* ' Dorch. Corp. MSS. C. 9. * Ca,. S.P. Dom. 1636-7, p. 151. ' Ibid. 419. * Ibid. 542. ' Ibid. 1637, p. 400. * Ibid. 504. ' Ibid. 150-1, and ibid. 1637-8, p. 169. 'Ibid. 1639, p. 17. See also Dorch. Corp. MSS. 'Minute Book of Council Meetings,' 22 Jan. 1639. ' Cai.S.P. Dom. 1639-40, p. 426. '" Ibid. 454, 556. " Ibid. 1631-3, p. 107. " Ibid. 1637-8, p. 292. " Ibid. 1635-6, p. 247. " Ibid. 1637, p. 419. 148 POLITICAL HISTORY Resistance by 1640 had come to a head. The goods distrained yielded no money, for want of buyers. When there came buyers, the sale was a farce, and could not be proceeded with. Offers of 'jd. and (^d. were made for an ox worth ^8.^ The people also rescued their goods when distrained, beating off the bailiffs with bills and stones. Of ^6,000 the sheriff could, in half a year, get but >r300 from the entire county.^ One specimen of procedure will suffice : sending his servants to levy ^<^ i 2j. \d. on the goods of Lady Anne Ashley, on her farm at Martinstown, William Churchill, the sheriff, found that her servants, William and Roger Samways, came with violence and rescued two of her horses which had been seized. Two days later. Lady Anne having horses at Dorchester, the sheriffs servants en- deavoured to distrain them, but William Samways again violently rescued them, saying that Denzil Holies (M.P. for the shire, and son-in-law to the lady) would bear them out in what they had done, ' The places and parishes adjacent take notice of these attempts, and by this evil example, many will be drawn away and presume to do the like.'' At length even the civil authorities openly set their faces against the levy of the money. In 1 640 none of the mayors of corporate towns had paid in anything at all five months after the issue of the writ,* and the constables and bailiffs themselves refused, in many cases, to distrain. The Dorset troop in Yorkshire broke into something very like mutiny, and Sir Jacob Astley was obliged to court-martial and shoot one of th e men. Poole has been called the head quarters of the Parliamentary cause in Dorset,* but Clarendon says that there was no place in England more zealously Presbyterian than Dorchester.'' The citizens of the latter were stirred by the teaching and example of John White,* rector of Holy Trinity parish, a man of powerful mind and personality. From having been a moderate Puritan, he became an ardent Covenanter, probably in consequence of the petty persecution to which he was subjected by the Court of High Commission. In 1632 a high churchman wrote of him, 'Good men are shy of this man in places where he is most and best known.'* In 1635 his letters and papers were seized, probably in his study,^" and on 10 No- vember, he appeared before the Court and took the oath to answer the articles against him." He was several times remanded for the ' insufficiency of his answers,' and incurred a rebuke for his non-observance of Good Friday." He had already shown the tendency of his mind by promoting and organizing the settlement of New Dorchester, near Boston, Mass. The Calvin of Dorchester, in November, 1640, he took the Covenant himself, and induced many of his fellow-townsmen to follow his example. In his zeal for the Puritan cause he was emulated by his friend and rival, Ezra Benn, who became with him during the Commonwealth one of the ' Triers ' for examining^' the qualifications of candidates for the cure of souls. Sir Robert ' Cal. S.P. Dom. 1639-40, p. 241, and ibid. 1640, p. 599. ' Ibid. 1640, pp. 599, 551. Mbid. p. 536. * Ibid. 'Ibid. p. 559. ' Hutchins, Dorset, i, 8-10. ' Hist, of the Rebellion, iv, 201. ' Hutchins, op. cit. ii, 375, 376 ; Athen. Oxon. ii, 1 14, 1 15. ' Cat. S.P. Dom. 1 63 1-3, p. 402. '" Ibid. 163 5-6, p. 79. " Ibid. p. 108. " Ibid. pp. 1 16, 125, 470, 503, 512, 513. " Minute Bks. Dorset Standing Committee (ed. Mayo), p. xi. Dorch. Corp. MSS. 149 A HISTORY OF DORSET Foster, now the only Justice of Assize for the Western Circuit,' was warned of the trend of local feeling by Lord Hertford : ' I find that many of the gentlemen and others of this county that stand well affected to the king's serv^ice . . . are very apprehensive what may pass at this your assizes, few of them will adventure themselves into that town, being at present in such a posture of war.' * The report of Sir Robert himself, when he came into the west, was that ' the most appearance of arms was at Exeter and Dor- chester.' ' The town * was the rendezvous for many volunteers of the Parliament. In February, 1642—3, many came to Dorchester for the great enrolment of that month, the townsmen supplementing any shortage in their accoutrements.' The other Dorset towns did not thus' prepare themselves from the very first to take an active part in hostilities. Nevertheless the sympathies of Lyme, Poole, and Weymouth were always with the Parlia- ment. And though each in turn was later occupied by the king's troops, yet each made a more gallant show than the county town. In smaller towns, where the influence of the territorial magnate was greater than the development of self-government, the tendency was to take as little part as possible in the war. Wareham alone, dominated by the influence of Corfe Castle," firmly held out for the king. The importance of Dorset in the Civil War arose from its geographical position. It lay between the Royalist strongholds of the south-west and of Oxford. While the towns of Somerset were Parliamentarian, the fortresses of Sherborne and Corfe afforded keys respectively to the northern and southern communications with the west. On the other hand the sea-board towns, with their excellent harbours and proximity to the French coast, were of untold importance in the Royalist communications with their continental friends and helpers. Hence, while the county never saw any first-class engagement, its importance, both military and naval, never ceased during the whole war. The first move in Dorset came from Lord Hertford, who threw himself into Sherborne Castle immediately upon the outbreak of war.'' This delayed the occupation of the towns by the local Parliamentary captains, Denzil Holies (M.P. for Dorchester) and Sir Walter Erie (D.L. of the county). Under the Earl of Bedford, they besieged the castle with 7,000 foot, but were dispirited by the vigorous and constant sallies of Lord Hertford, and the mutiny and desertion of the trained bands,' who were deliberately dis- banded by the sheriff of Dorset,* Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, a man, according to Lord Hertford, ' so loyal and affectionate for His Majesty's service.' "^ Lord Bedford, unable to continue the siege, retired to Yeovil ' Cal. S.P. Dom. 1641-3, p. 364 ; Docquets of Letters Patent (Rec. Com.), lo. • Cal. S.P. Dom. 1641-3, p. 371. ' Ibid. p. 375. • 'The magazine from whence the other places were supplied with principles of rebellion,' Clarendon, Hist, of the Rebellion, iv, 213. ' Dorch. Corp. MSS. printed, Hutchins, op. cit. ii, 242. ' On the death /. /. of William, nephew and heir of Sir Chris. Hatton, his widow married Sir Edw. Coke. Their only child Frances married John Villiers, brother to the Duke of Buckingham, and created Viscount Purbcck. Lords' Rep. on Dignity of a Peer, ^i- On Coke's death. Lady Coke and her daughter sold the castle to Sir Jn. Bankes, of a Cumberland family, Attorney-General 1635, Chief Justice of Com. Pleas, 1640. ' Docquets of Letters Patent (Rec. Com ), 27, 28. ' liist. MSS. Com. Rep. x, pt. i, vi, 147. Exceeding Joyful News, 6 Sept. 1642. • Dorch. Corp. MSS. B. 28^. '" Cal. S.P. Dom. 1641-3, p. 369. 150 POLITICAL HISTORY before a small force under Sir Ralph Hopton and Colonel Digby.^ Sherborne however, soon fell into the hands* of the Parliament; for Lord Hertford, who feared Lord Brook. ^ was about to join Lord Bedford, and learning of the capitulation of Portsmouth (7 September), which gave all the south into the hands of the Parliament, abandoned the castle, and crossed from Minehead into Wales. The castle was not slighted, owing to the spirited conduct of Lady Digby, Bedford's sister, who swore to him that if he destroyed it she would die with it.* All through that winter and spring (1642—3), when Hopton, from his Cornish base, was gaining successes in Devon, Charles making headway in the midlands, and the Parliament gradually garrisoning the towns of Somerset, Dorset was still unattached to the national campaign. With Stamford's defeat by Hopton in May at Stratton (co. Devon) Waller was ordered to proceed against the Royalist army of the south-west. This he attempted by way of Hereford. But as a counter move (19 May) Hert- ford and Prince Maurice left Oxford for Salisbury to join hands with Hopton in Devon. Early in June the two forces met at Chard. Waller was now at Bath, and, after his defeat at Roundway Down, Bristol surrendered to the victorious Royalist cavalry (26 July). This changed the fate of the Dorset towns. Hitherto Dorchester, Lyme, Weymouth, Melcombe, and Poole had been occupied by local Parliamentary troops, under Sir Walter Erie and Sir Thomas Trenchard ; and Portland and Wareham " being now garrisoned by the Parliament,* Corfe alone remained to the king. Two minor Parlia- mentary successes in February were the defeat of Lord Inchiquin's Irish regiment by the garrisons of Poole and Wareham,^ and the capture near Dorchester of one of Rupert's convoys with ^^3,000 ' to be sent into his own country.' * These had emboldened Erie and Trenchard to sit down before Corfe, defended by Lady Bankes. In spite of the ingenious 'filling their men with strong waters even to madnesse ' ' they failed to inspire in them sufficient berserk courage to storm the castle. Erie (who had, on that occasion, ' like Caesar been the only man that came sober to the assault, lest he should be valiant against his will ') found the presence of Prince Maurice's army in Blandford, in June, enough for his fears. He departed, leaving Trenchard and Sydenham to continue the siege. The capitulation of Bristol, however, meant the king's success in Dorset. Prince Maurice sent on Lord Carnarvon to summon the Dorset towns ; Dorchester, Weymouth, and Portland ^° surrendered at once, without a blow struck, Strode having told in Dorchester horrid tales of the valour of the Royalist soldiers." Freedom from plunder was one of the conditions of capitulation. But Maurice on his arrival from Bristol with his foot and cannon, did not respect the agreement entered into by Carnarvon. John White suffered severely by this cavalier ' Vicars, Pari. Chron. 146-9. ' It was not garrisoned by them till 20 April, 1643. Vicars, op. cit. ii, 302-4. ' See Docquets of Letters Patent (Rec. Com.), 395. * Vicars, op. cit. 146-302. 'Which had been fortified for the Parliament in March, 1 642, but had soon fallen into the king's hands. Vicars, op. cit. 81, 82 ; Whitelocke, Memorials, 74. * Rushworth, Collections, iii (ii), 684. ' Whitelocke, op. cit. 79. ' Vicars, op. cit. 3. ' Mercurius Rusticus, 20 July, 1643. '° 'A place not enough understood, but of wonderful importance.' Clarendon, Hist, of the Rebellion, \\, 213. " Clarendon, op. cit. iv, 211-12 ; Tanner MSS. 62, fol. 218. Erie to Lenthall. 151 A HISTORY OF DORSET looting, losing the whole of his library, as a revenge for his zeal in the popular cause.^ All Dorset, except Lyme and Poole, was now in the king's hands ; and • had not Lord Carnarvon, stung in his honourable pride, retired to the king, the Prince would have been compelled to follow up these victories. But ' staying too long at Dorchester and Weymouth, he summoned Poole, which returned so peremptory an answer, that he declined to attack it.' " Waller, who had now been made general in the west to oppose Prince Maurice, began to take measures for its defence." But the king's forces in the west were affected by the unfortunate disputes of Rupert and Hertford over the capitulation of Bristol, and of Maurice and Carnarvon over that of Dor- chester. These, and the presence of the Parliamentary garrison at Plymouth, caused the abandonment of the advance on London. Maurice, leaving Poole untouched, was detailed to turn his attention to Exeter and Plymouth. The capitulation of Exeter (4 September) and the surrender, a few days previously, of Barnstaple and Bideford, had increased the importance of the two Dorset garrisons remaining in Parliamentary hands. In the autumn Poole Harbour was occupied by Lord Warwick, their admiral. But the former losses, together with that of Dartmouth (October 16) and the con- sequent danger to Plymouth, had the unlooked-for effect of forcing a reconciliation between Essex and Waller, the latter of whom was charged, at this crisis, with the raising of a western force.* The outcome of the summer's negotiations in English troops from Ireland landed at Minehead and Bristol, and the threatened landing of Irish soldiers themselves, caused a danger of a Parliamentary reaction in the south- west. Charles, with the double view of placating merchants and conveying his own despatches, established in November a weekly passage between Wey- mouth and Cherbourg.' Hopton's advance in December was checked by the Royalist defeats of Alton (20 December, 1643) and Cheriton (29 March, 1644).* On his advance Waller immediately overran Wiltshire, and occupied Christchurch (Hants), threatening a move on Dorset. This calamity would have more than offset the capture of Wareham by Hopton on his eastw^ard march in January, which had ' gained the king all Dorset save a sea town called Poole.' ^ But the city regiments declined to operate so far from their homes, and he, unable to advance into Dorset, had to draw back to Farnham, a reversion to the state of affairs before Cheriton. In March (1644) Maurice, declining to join the king's main army (a necessary step to the securing of Gloucester for the king),' blockaded Lyme ' He was appointed one of the Assembly of Divines, i July, 164.3 ; see list in Masson's Li/e of Milton, * Vicars, op. cit. ii, 285 ; Clarendon, op. cit. iv, 213. ' Commons 'Journals, iii, 590 (15 Aug. 1643). ' Agostini to the Doge, -^r°', Venetian Transcripts, P.R.O. ' Lord Warwicli to Com'" of Both Kingdoms. 1644, 19 June. 'Weymouth has been most serviceable to the enemy's designs and supplies of any port in England.' Cal. S. P. Dom. 1644, p. 252. See also pp. 6 and 7. * He had wished to secure his rear, before advancing, by the capture of the Parliamentary garrisons in Dorset and Wilts, but was overruled by Charles, anxious for his old plan of a southern advance on Sussex and Kent. ' Cal. S. P. Dom. 1644, p. II. The surrender of Wareham w.is attributed to the treachery of the captain of the watch, and was said to have been accompanied by 'divers rapes and cruelties.' Whitelocke, op. cit. 82. But see S. R. Gardiner, Hist. Civ. War, \, vii. ' A reader has to be ... on his guard against stories of cavalier outrages, specially upon women, which are probably . . . imaginary.' ' Walker, Historical Discourses, 7. 152 POLITICAL HISTORY with 6,000 men. In April, by Rupert's counsel, he was formally entrusted with the suppression ^ of the south-western resistance. Charles having abandoned Reading and Abingdon to Essex went (3 June) to Worcester. Instead of crushing him there, Essex decided to go himself to relieve Lyme, while Waller was to pursue the king alone. ^ The Committee of Both Kingdoms ordered Essex not to separate from Waller, but to send sufficient cavalry to relieve Lyme, and then to hasten to Oxford with his main army.* This letter overtook him at Blandford. He replied that, in going to relieve Lyme, he was only carrying out their orders, which was true.* He also pointed out that horse were no use in Lyme, and ' even if they could and should succeed. ... I know not what my army should do without the horse the whilst, or how the horse should ever return to my foot again.' ° A day or two later, while still at Blandford with 1,300 horse and foot, he detailed Sir William Balfour to go and occupy Weymouth. On its capture by Lord Carnarvon the previous summer it had been commanded by Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, then still a Royalist. He was high sheriff in 1643—4, and a commission from Charles to impress men in Dorset was addressed to him and to Ashburnham, who succeeded him in the governorship of Weymouth.* Cooper's change of side took place in the early spring of 1644 ; ^ on 6 March, information about him came before the Committee for Compounding.' His reason for coming over was declared to be that ' he was fully satisfied that there was no intention of that side for promoting or preserving the Protestant religion and liberties of the kingdom.' He was a valuable recruit, having well-stocked property at Wimborne St. Giles worth >r8oo a year. He declared that he had not made known his intention to any, and that, a month before he heard of the Declaration (which promised life and liberty to all who should come in before 6 March), he delivered up his commissions as sheriff of Dorset and governor of Weymouth, and was resolved to return to the ParHament. One of the committee said that he was ' very cordial for the ParHament, and able to do good service by discovery of the enemy's designs and strength, and how to prepare against them, both at Poole and Wareham.' ' Upon the approach of the Parliamentary force William Ashburnham, now governor of Weymouth, garrisoned and retired into Portland Castle, alleging orders from Prince Maurice contingent upon such circumstances. Essex then himself advanced upon Weymouth, which at the request of the inhabitants he occupied (16 June), the Royal garrison retiring to join the Prince before Lyme." On the way Essex had ' delivered an elegant speech ' at Dorchester, and Hugh Peters ' stirred up the town to see the miseries of the war,' and ' that God now offered them an opportunity to ' He was made Lieut.-Gen. of the South — including Dorset — in February ; Docquets of Letters Patent, 163. ' A Dorset regiment (under Col. Sydenham) which Waller had with him was no more dependable, when far from home, than other county levies. Cal. S.P. Dom. 1644, p. 220. See also S. R. Gardiner, Hht. Gt. Civ. War, \, 340 ; ii, 4. ' Com. Both Kingdoms to Essex, 13 June, 1644 ; Cal. S.P. Dom. 1644, p. 228. ' See Committee's Letters, insisting on its relief by him ; Ap. 28, May 7, 30 ; June 3, 1 1 (bis) in Ca/. S.P. Dm. 1644, pp. 182-3, 138, 150, 223, 226, 198. ' Ibid. 234. ' Docquets of Letters Patent (Rec. Com.), 75. ' Christie, Life of the First Lord Shaftesbury, i, 47. ' Cal. Com. Compounding, ii, 839. " Ibid. '" Clarendon, op. cit. iv, 496-7 ; Mercurius Aulicus, 20 June, 1644 ; Cal.S. P. Dom. 1644, p. 270. 2 153 20 A HISTORY OF DORSET free themselves from the barbarous invaders,' which opportunity they forth- with embraced.^ Meanvvfhile the Royal cause was losing Lyme also. On 23 May Warwick, had appeared off the town,' to whose defence Blake,' afterwards admiral of the Commonwealth, was heroically contributing. A few days later Warwick wrote : ' the assistance of the ships saved the town ; ' * yet the Prince, whose operations had lately been much hampered by the bickerings of his own officers,'' was not compelled to give up the siege till 15 June. That morning about 2 a.m. the garrison made a splendid sally. The admiral, writing to the Commissioners of the Navy about the men of Lyme, reported ' they have most valiantly defended themselves,' and the women behaved no less gallantly.* Wareham, in spite of an attempt made upon it by Essex in June,' held out for the king until early in August. Then Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper ' and Colonel Sydenham ' with 1,200 horse and foot stormed the outworks, whereupon the town surrendered upon articles. Most of the garrison were sent into Ireland, Lord Inchiquin" having 'ordered his brother, Colonel O'Brien," to come over to his assistance, which was the occasion of so easy a surrender.' Dorset enjoyed a temporary immunity from war in the late summer of this year (1644), during the western march of Essex, prior to his defeat at Lostwithiel (31 August). The occupation of Weymouth in June had been followed by the presence of the admiral in Portland Roads frustrating the original plans for the queen's escape. ^^ The town was not without secret Royalist sympathizers,^' and the admiral laboured to make the fortifications more secure, utilizing some beginnings made by the Royalists on the Nothe peninsula. He also proposed to build a fort on ' another hill on the Weymouth side' (Jordan Hill .?), and to add ' three small bastions' to Sands- foot Castle.^* Melcombe, he thought, ' being separated from the main by a causey only, will be sufficiently secured by a work already raised on the beach.' ^* He estimated the cost at jT 1,200, and the requisite number of men at 500, ' to which, if 200 horse be added, they will not only secure these towns, but also keep the county of Dorset thereabouts in awe.' The Parlia- ment allocated these resources for the defence of the town, the Committee of the West adding to them on their own account. By 18 September, ' the citadel is almost complete,' but ' there is still much to do.' " ' Cal. S.P. Dom. 1644, pp. 270-1. 'Ibid. pp. 365, 371. Hugh Peters accompanied him on this naval expedition. He preached a thanksgiving sermon at Lyme on its relief. ' ' Journal of the Siege,' printed Roberts, Hist, of Lyme Re^s, 82-9. * Cal. S.P. Dom. 1644, May 30, p. 554. ' Ibid. 160. ' Ibid. 535 ; Prince, lyortkia of Devon, 84. ' Rushworth, Collections, iii (ii), 7S4 ; Vicars, op. cit. 285. ' Commons fount. 10 July, 1644. ' Of Wynford Eagle, restored this month to the post of Governor of We}-mouth, which he had held before the Royalist occupation. He was ' a gentleman of approved courage and industry, whose intention is to purge the town of all malignants ' ; Cal. S.P. Dom. 1644. '" Disappointed, Feb. 1644, in not obtaining the vacant Presidency of Munster, which was given to Lord Portland, he changed sides on his return to Ireland, and fought for the Parliament. " Made Governor on the Royalist occupation the previous January ; see Christie's Z,/;^ of Shaftesbury, \, 60. " Cal. S.P. Dom. 1644, pp. 10, 133, 263, 278, 309, 555. " Ibid. 301. " Built by Henry \'11I (1539), when fortifying the south coast. " Cal. S. P. Dom. 1644, pp. 309, 310. '* Ibid. pp. 461, 489, 516. 154 POLITICAL HISTORY Charles's pursuit of Essex had been made by way of Somerset, but his return, after Lostwithiel, was through Dorset. Early in August Rupert, unable himself after Marston Moor and the surrender of York to leave his post in the north, had sent down into the west Goring, ' that double traitor,, drunken, and dissolute.' The securing of Dorset against the return of the victorious Cavaliers became thus a necessity to the Parliament. Their horse, under Sir William Balfour, had escaped at Lostwithiel, and Essex himself, who had slipped away and gone by sea to Plymouth, had still some shreds of credit with the Houses. He was assured that Manchester and Waller had been ordered to march to Dorchester, to hold the ground till his own troops could be re-equipped.^ Through the intervention of Prince Maurice they were however unable immediately to effect the desired junction at Dorchester.^ But by 12 September they had joined forces. Their first step was to strengthen the port towns and ' block up Corfe Castle ' by an addition of 500 men to the Wareham garrison.'* ' Then to Blandford, to endeavour the gathering of the Dorset and Wilts horse into a body.' Their position in Shaftesbury, the quarters chosen, was sufficiently insecure. The enemy were already near the county, the king expected daily, and Waller ' knew of nothing to hinder them from marching to London.'* He wrote from Poole (15 September), 'I have not one horse come to me out of this county to mount a musketeer, so that if the King advance, all I can do is to retire, before I be forced to run.' ' He and his colleague, Sir Arthur Hazelrigg, had in fact been misled by the lavish promises of troops made to them by the frightened people. ' All the thousands we heard of . . . are now one troop of horse.' * Among what troops he had disaffection was rife, and even desertion to the Rovalists was in the air.'' This arose from the distress, amounting to absolute want, among both officers and men, from long with- holding of pay due.' A major of horse was fain to borrow sixpence of the general to get his horse shod.' Waller, writing (14 November) to the Committee of Both Kingdoms, begged for even a fortnight's pay for ' those poor foot ... in Dorsetshire, which will be a great encouragement.' '" Nevertheless the Royalists were not much better off than was the Parliamentary army in East Dorset, watching their advance. So late as 29 September, Charles had got no further than Chard, and Waller reported that ' though he calls in the county, yet we cannot learn that his army increases.' ^^ The king's march eastward was hindered, and his forces weakened, by the necessity of leaving men behind to block up the Parlia- mentary garrisons of Plymouth, Taunton, and Lyme, in order to safeguard his rear.'^ On 30 September he left Chard, and at South Perrott met Rupert, who undertook to bring up 4,000 men from Bristol to join the army at Sherborne.^* Charles was at Sherborne from 2 October to 8 October.^* Waller ' Lords Journ. vi, 699. ' Cal. S. P. Dom. 1644, pp. 477, 480, 482, 486. ' Ibid. 423, 502, 506. * Ibid. 489, 542. ' Ibid. p. 506. ^ Ibid. 502. ' Ibid. 1644-5, p. 114. « Ibid. 124. Mbid. "Ibid. 135. " Ibid. p. 542. He himself at this time made a short expedition to Bridport (which h.- "3> 124. 156 POLITICAL HISTORY not to waste further money on fortifying such a weak position. There was however, no lack of valour in the inhabitants, and particularly in the women. ^ The two Sydenhams were Dives's protagonists in these skir- mishes : and after the governor of Poole (Major Sydenham) had defeated a troop of the queen's regiment' near Blandford ' Sir Lewis Dives dislodged the victors from Blandford, but returning with his own men to Dor- chester, was set upon at night by the rest of the Poole garrison, and ' charged through and through.' * All this winter there was talk of a Royalist ' Associated Counties,' to consist of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Dorset, which should balance the Parliamentary eastern association. Prince Maurice and Lord Hopton had for months been endeavouring to mature the scheme." But the diffi- culties in the way were too great to allow of its being carried out. The hilly character of the districts chosen, and their deep inlets of the sea * hindered alike easy communication and the growth of a common principle and sentiments. The two more eastern counties were not sufficiently stable in their attachment to the royal cause to make up for the presence of Parlia- mentary garrisons at Plymouth, Taunton, and Lyme. Yet Charles, reduced to catch at straws, sent down the Prince of Wales to hold court at Bristol in March.^ During the winter Goring* had been carrying on minor operations based upon Devon and Dorset, and culminating in the siege of Taunton. Waller was ordered to relieve the town (6 November, 1644) and Major- General Holborne had orders to push through Dorset towards it. In this relief column Cooper was in command of the Dorset contingent, which consisted of men drawn from the garrisons of Weymouth, Wareham, and Poole.' News reached Westminster on 1 2 February, that a force under Dives and Sir Walter Hastings, governor of Portland, had seized one of the Weymouth forts,^" and on 9 February had taken the town itself." The rebels entrenched themselves across the river in Melcombe. Goring then came up with 3,000 horse and 1,500 foot and artillery, and took over the command. Despite the strategic disadvantage of their position, the mere handful of men whom he, with characteristic insolence and carelessness, had neglected to crush, pro- ceeded from Melcombe to retake the town of Weymouth, and force him back on Dorchester (25 February) with heavy loss.^'' On the receipt of the original ill news from Weymouth, Waller had been ordered to its relief ;^' but owing to the mutiny of his cavalry at Leatherhead he was unable to go further. A few days later, however. Parliamentary, and indeed national, feeling was far more deeply stirred by the revelation of Glamorgan's schemes, and on the 27th it was decided to send Cromwell himself into the west. Pending the organization of the New Model, which could not be put into ' Rushworth, Coll. iii (ii), 685. Whitelocke, op. cit. 91. Vicars, iii, 286 ; Merc. Chicus, Ix, 579-80. ' See Gardiner, op. cit. i, 326. ^ Vicars, op. cit. i, 44 ; Whitelocke, op. cit. 103. • Perfect Diumall, No. 71. ' Cal. S.P. Dom. 1644, p. 49 ; Clarendon, Hist, of the Rebellion, ix, 6, 7. ' See Gardiner, Hist. Gt. Civil War, i, 71. ' Clarendon, Hist, of the Rebellion, ix, 6, 7. ' Sent down into the west, Aug. 1 644, vide supra. ' Shaftesbury Papers (P.R.O.), ii, 46. " Commons Joum. iv, 46 ; The True Informer, E. 269, zi. " Warburton, Prince Rupert, iii, 58. " Clarendon, op. cit. ix, 7-9 ; Whitelocke, op. cit. 130 ; W. M. Harvey, Hist, of the Hundred of Vf'ilky, 91-94 ; Vicars, Burning Bush, 118. " Cal. S.P. Dom. 1644-5, PP- 306-7. 157 A HISTORY OF DORSET the field for a few weeks yet, he was ordered to join Waller, and both to march to the capture of Bristol. All this time Goring was before Taunton. Before Cromwell came, he took the opportunity to make a dash for Waller at Shaftesbury and Gilling- ham. He ' beat up his quarters ' twice in one week, thus costing the Parliament the palpably exaggerated loss of a thousand men.^ A slight success of Goring's over Cromwell the same month (March, 1645) was also exaggerated by the Royalists till it became a defeat of some magnitude.* Tradition of a Cromwellian skirmish lingers still at Fordington.* The Royalists made it into a defeat of Cromwell, with all his own horse and the united forces from Taunton, Poole, and Weymouth, 4,000 in all, Goring's own numbers being put at 1,500.* But Goring was notoriously untrust- worthy, particularly where his vanity was concerned, and even Clarendon makes but little of it.^ It is true that Goring received congratulations on his victory* from Sir Francis Mackworth ; but Mackworth had at this time need of his help in procuring supplies. Cromwell himself, not needing the support of exaggeration or falsehood, though he does not mention this particular skirmish, tells a different tale of a few days later : ' General Goring would not stand us, but marched away upon our appearance.'^ Waller gave up his command 17 April (1645), at his own earnest wish and in obedience to the Second Self-Denying Ordinance, and took his seat in the House. Early in May Goring left Somerset to join the king at Oxford. Fairfax, in command of the New Model, arrived at Blandford on the 7th, marching to the relief of Taunton.' Meanwhile Charles and Rupert marched freely out of Oxford to go north ; Fairfax was sent back to besiege Oxford, and Goring went back as supreme Royalist commander in the west. Even there the king's star was waning. After Naseby (13 June) it was a question how long he could continue to keep an army in the field. The reorganization of the Parliamentary forces had been but the last link in a chain which began with the resentment against plunderings of the royal troops. And in the west the summer of 1645 was memorable for the struggle between the representatives of these two forces. The New Model Army, which expressed dependence upon the professional soldier, and not the county levy, had to contend with the Clubmen, who originated in hostility to the war as it affected non-combatants.' The movement known as that of the Clubmen was strongest in the three south-western counties of Dorset, Wilts, and Somerset. In Somerset it was not in line with the feeling in Dorset ' Clarendon, op. cit. ix. ^ Merc. Aulk. 29 March, App. 11, 12, 19 : ' Mercurius Aulicus, the Oxford organ, remains untrust- worthy to the end ' ; Gardiner, His!. Gt. Civil fFar, i, p. vi. * Moule, Old Dorset, 199. See Ludloiv Memoirs (ed. Firth), i, 471. ' Goring to Culpepper, 30 March, 1645, gives the same figures. Clarendon MSS. No. 1856. The account in Mercurius Aulicus is taken in ioto from this letter. * Hist, of the RebeKon, v, 143 (ed. 1826). ' Clarendon MSS. No. 1855. ^Cromwell's Letters (ed. 1888). Letter xix, 130. See also Carte, Ormonde Papers, i, 79; Commons Joum. 9 April, 1645 ; Whitelocke, op. cit. 411-12 ; Cal. S.P. Dom. 1644-5, PP- 376> 3^4, 393- *' The state of Dorset when H.E. Sir Thomas Fairfax marched forth. The king had Portland Castle and Island, Corfe Castle and Sherborne Castle. The Parliament had the port towns of Poole, Lyme, and Weymouth.' S'pixggc, Anglia Rediviva, x\\, 16, 17. * For the presence of foreign mercenaries in Dorset among the royal troops, see Clarendon MSS. 1738 (4); Whitelocke, Memoirs, 171 ; Cal. S.P. Dom. 1643, 24 Nov.; Merc. AuRc. 3 Oct. 1644. A Copie of the King's Message, 1644 (printed by the Dorset Standing Committee, and obviously unfair). For similar evils from the other side see the admissions of Essex in Cal. S.P. Dom. 1642, p. 402, and ibid. 1644, p. 335. 15S POLITICAL HISTORY and Wilts,^ In Dorset it was serious and widcsprcading ; although it had seen no pitched battle of importance, the county had borne the brunt of the war, being constantly occupied by both parties ' ; and many marches to or from Devon were deflected into the county owing to the necessity of attacking or preserving communication with its seaports. Determination to declare neutrality and support it by force of arms was thus the original and ostensible cause of the rise of this third party. One of their banners bore the words : If you offer to plunder, or take our cattel, Be assured we will bid you battel.' The regulations which they drew up to govern their own conduct* show that the rank and file of the Clubmen were simple unlettered countrymen ; but their leaders were not of the same stamp. They fall into two classes. The typical ' younger brother out of means,' ^ with everything to win and nothing to lose, was drawn for the most part from a social stratum between that of the gentry, who were mainly Royalist, and the shop-keeping classes. The latter, having a shrewd political judgement, and a financial stake in the county, yet little sense of family, tended towards Parliamentarianism. There were also present certain avowedly Royalist divines,' who, among an uneducated rabble, would necessarily have some authority. But though the bona fides of the mass of Clubmen was undoubted, their aim was higher than to enforce the neutrality of certain districts. They wished to 'give a law to either side,' ^ and desired that the garrisons of Dorset and Wiltshire should be put into their hands 'till the King and Parliament agreed about their disposal.' They further sent a petition to the king* begging him to ' lend his most favourable ear ' to renewed peace proposals, when he should be invited thereto by both Houses, ' for which Proposalls the Petitioners have made their addresses unto them.' Such a force was, however, bound to become the tool of one of the existing parties. Circumstances contributed early to throw the Dorset and Wiltshire Clubmen into the arms of the Royalists. In Dorset there was no Royalist army under Goring to plunder the homesteads of the people : and the garrisons, being commanded by the gentry of the county, . . . were not likely to commit outrages, as long as the contributions for their support were regularly paid.' The initial vague tolerance of the Parliament^" was outweighed by a disastrous affray at Sturminster Newton (29 June, 1645) with Massey's men, and by the encouragement of the immediate advisers of the king." In July the Club- men made a hostile attack on the garrison of Lyme. ^^ On Fairfax's arrival at Dorchester (3 July) with the New Model, after Naseby,^' he was met by a ' See Clarendon MSS. 1894, and Perfect Occurrences, 30 June, 164.5; also Gardiner, Hist. Gt. Civil ff^ar, ii, 264-5. '' 'The Humble Petition of the Inhabitants of Dorset ... 8 July, 1645.' Oxford, 1645. ^ Sprigge, Anglia Rediviva, 89. * ' The Desires and Resolutions of the Clubmen of the Counties of Dorset and Wilts ' ; B.M. King's Pamphlets, 102, 47. ' 'A List of the Country Gentlemen called the Leaders of the Clubmen for Dorset,' 1645. ^ Sprigge, jinglia Rediviva, 64. ' Ibid. 65. ' ' The Humble Petition,' &c. vide supra. ' G.irdiner, Hist. Gt. Civil War, ii, 305. '° Sprigge, Anglia Rediviva, 7. " Clarendon, op. cit. v, 196-7, 199 ; Sprigge, op. cit. 63, 90. " Whitelocke, Memorials, 131, and ii, 156. " Sprigge, op. cit. xi. 159 A HISTORY OF DORSET menacing deputation of Clubmen, and also by Colonel Sydenham, governor of Weymouth, with urgent accounts of the danger from 'these club risers.'* Fairfax himself considered them, in spite of their ostensible neutrality, inclined to Royalism.' Next day Fairfax, at Beaminster (burned ' by Prince Maurice, by reason of a falling out between the French and Cornish'),' heard that Goring had finally abandoned the siege of Taunton. On the loth Fairfax routed him at Langport, and on the 23rd Bridgwater surrendered. The Parliamentary forces in Dorset had now only to reduce Sherborne Castle and disperse the Clubmen, for Corfe, now as ever, remained outside the general campaign. Till this was done, however, the army could not with safety turn to the conquest of the districts west of the Parret. At a council of war (25 July) it was decided to begin both operations at once.* On Friday, i, and Saturday, 2 August, Cromwell and Fairfax together viewed the castle and its defences. At the second inspection they ' conceived the place might shortly be reduced.' The siege was begun, but it was decided not to attempt assault till after the reduction of the Clubmen. These, hearing of the strict blockade of their ally, who had with him his own regiment, 150 veterans, and some horse, assembled in force that Saturday, 2 August, at Shaftesbury, intending to drive off Cromwell and Fairfax.^ Having information of their meeting places, Cromwell sent Fleetwood with 1,000 horse to surround the town. About fifty of the leaders were captured.* On the following Monday Cromwell marched himself towards Shaftesbury, no doubt to intercept that body of Clubmen whose appointed meeting at Sutton Waldron had been accidentally revealed to him.^ His scouts discovered a party encamped on Duncliff Hill, a place ' full of wood and almost inaccessible.'* Resolving not to hazard men under such conditions, he sent word to parley. He went him- self up the hill alone, and pointing out the error of their ways, ended by a successful appeal to their pockets. They were either convinced by his argu- ments or dismayed by his firmness, for they dispersed and went quietly to their homes.' The next day he found a further and more formidable force of about 4,000 entrenched in an ' old Romane work ' on Hambledon Hill, near Shroton (Iwerne Courtney). Again he attempted parley, but through the determined action of Mr. Bravell, minister of Compton,^" who said ' he would pistoll them that gave back,' they refused a peaceful settlement. They repulsed a direct charge ; but, Desborough taking them in the rear, some fled, many were made prisoners. These were quartered that night in the church at Shroton, and Cromwell, who tried his eloquence upon them, 'made them confess they saw themselves misled.'" * Sprigge, op. cit. 62. ' Ludlow, Memoirs, \, 473-4. ' Sprigge, op. cit. 66-7. Its rebuilding was ordered to be paid for out of the estate of George Penny, a recusant of Toller, 9 Jan. 1646. Minute Bis. of Dorset Standing Com. 140, 271 (ed. Mayo). 'The Dorset Committee is the only County Committee whose records are now available.' Gardiner, Hist. Gt. Civil War, iii, 200. * Sprigge, Ang. Rediv. 83. ' Carlyle, Cromwell, i, 221. ' Sprigge, op. cit. 86. 'A List of the Country Gentlemen,' &c. ' See the letter to Col. Bingham, printed Hutchins, i, 13. * Warne, And. Dorset, 67. ' Sprigge, op. cit. 86-7 ; CromwelPs Letters (ed. 1846), p. 141 ; Whitelocke, Memorials, 159. '" Whom Sprigge calls the leader of the movement, lable of the Motion of the Army. He was seques- trated for joining the Clubmen, but was later restored (Triers : J. White, W. Benn, Symon Forde) on submission to the ' discipline of the Church of England as it is established.' See Min. Bks. of Dorset Standing Committee, II, 19, 45, 58, 220, 232. " Sprigge, op. cit. 88 ; Carlyle, Cromwell's Letter, rot. 'Two Great Victories.' 'Two Letters.' 'The Proceedings of the Army.' 160 POLITICAL HISTORY Cannon from Portsmouth and miners from Mendip set to work on the 1 2th, and by the 15th forced Dives to surrender Sherborne Castle. It was an irreparable loss to Charles, for with it he lost many officers, gentlemen, and soldiers, valuable artillery and arms, and many important papers, which, immediately published by the Parliament, did much harm to his cause.^ In October the castle was utterly demolished. The fall of Sherborne gave to the Parliamentary generals the command of the North Dorset route to the west ; and with Bristol (surrendered 1 1 September) it completed the chain of fortresses from the Channel to the Severn which hemmed in the king's Devon and Cornish forces, rendering them valueless through inability to co-operate with those of the Oxfordshire district. So far as the south-west was concerned, the strategy of the winter of 1645—6 depended on this cordon drawn from Bristol to Lyme. The siege and fall of Corfe Castle was no integral part of these operations. But the grandeur of Lady Bankes's resistance and the pathos of her surrender have given to the episode a prominence disproportionate with its historical setting. In June (1645), after the receipt of the news of Naseby, Captain Butler, governor of Wareham, had straitened the siege, A month earlier Cooper had been ordered to ' sufficiently block it up ' with a force drawn from the garrisons of Poole, Wareham, Lulworth, and Weymouth.^ Three of the signatories of this document are Dorset men : Denis Bond, Denzil Holies, and Thomas Erie. But Cooper's own opinion of the right method of dealing with the fortress had been strongly expressed the previous November : ' A few foot in Lulworth with a troop of horse will keep Corfe far better than Wareham.'^ In September a party of horse from Oxford made an unsuccessful attempt at relief.* In October, Bingham, governor of Poole, drew the blockade closer, and in December he was reinforced by 400 men from Fairfax,^ now engaged in the subjugation of Devon and Cornwall. The garrison at Chichester, commanded by Algernon Sidney, contributed 100 foot to the siege in February,' and on the loth Pitman, one of the officers of the garrison who had formerly served under Lord Inchiquin, offered to betray the castle to the Parliament. The offisr was accepted, and the castle was taken, by this treachery, 26 February .'^ Sprigge gives forty-eight days as the length of this second siege, and puts Lady Bankes's losses at eleven killed.* The castle was deliberately slighted on its capture.' After the Battle of Worcester and the well-known episode in the oak tree. Prince Charles came to Colonel Wyndham's house in South Somerset. Here he remained some while in hiding, hoping to effisct an escape by one of the Dorset ports. Sir John Strangways of Melbury and his son both attempted, but in vain, to arrange for the escape of the royal fugitive. At length Colonel Wyndham managed to prepare all for the Prince's departure from Charmouth. The plan, however, miscarried through the aroused ' Sprigge, Table ef the Motion of the Army, and Ang. Rediv. 75-6 ; Whitelocke, op. cit. 1 5 2-3 ; Vicars, iii, 255, 257-9 ; Rushworth, op. cit. iv, i, 59, 64, 77-8, 82, 88. ' Cal. S.P. Dom. 1645. ' Christie, Shaftabury, \, 70. * Ludlow, Memoirs, i, 131 ; Sprigge, op. cit. 188, 194 ; Whitelocke, op. cit. i, 5 7 1, 580. ' Cal. S.P. Dom. 1645-7, PP- '^o, 281, 269, 319. ^ Ibid. 348. ' Vicars, op. cit. 4, 372-3. * Tab/e of the Motion of the Army. " Engl. Towns and Districts, 149. Mr. Freeman apparently imagines the havoc wrought on the building to have been entirely due to siege operations. 2 l6l 21 A HISTORY OF DORSET suspicions of the wife of the sailing-master upon whom all depended. The Prince and Wyndham spent an anxious night at Charmouth, and got safely away in the morning, owing to the dilatoriness of the parson Bartholomew Wesley,^ great-great-grandfather of John Wesley. From Charmouth they rode to Bridport (a journey said to be commemorated in the local field-name ' Girtups ') and thence on to Broadwindsor. Here they took shelter with a Royalist inn-keeper and his wife. Forty Parliamentarian troopers came to quarter in the very inn where they were, but while these slept the fugitives got away to Trent. Thence Charles went to Salisbury, and so after many adventures to the continent.' The Royalist rising in the west in 1655 was not joined by any very large body of Dorset men. On the other hand, there can be no doubt that an appreciable Royalist sentiment did exist at that time in north-east Dorset, stimulated probably by dislike of existing militarism. On Sun- day, II March, 1654—5, 100 men, under the leadership of Sir Joseph WagstafFe, Colonel John Penruddock, and Mr. Hugh Grove, met at Clarendon Park, 3 miles from Salisbury. The leaders were all Wiltshire men, though Penruddock's mother was the daughter of John Frcke of Iwerne Courtney and Melcombe, a well-known Dorset family. From Clarendon Park they rode to Blandford, where they were joined by eighty more men. Having vainly waited for further reinforcements, the whole force, now numbering nearly two hundred, rode back to Salisbury, and early on the Monday morning occupied the town, seizing the judges in their beds, for the western assizes were then on. Penruddock proclaimed Charles II. Again failing to attract recruits, they decided to make for Devon and Cornwall, hoping to get shelter with their friends, or at the worst to escape by sea. They took the road through Downton to Blandford, which they reached on Monday afternoon. Here Penruddocke forced the crier to go to the Market Cross, to proclaim Charles Stuart King, who made 'Ho Yes' four times, but still when Penruddock (who dictated to him) said Charles II King, he the crier stopped, and said he could not say that word, and he was every time much beaten by them and yet told them they might kill him, but he could not say that word, though they should call for faggots and burn him presently ; his constancy and faith- fulness is taken notice of.' From Blandford they rode to Sherborne, where they stayed two hours, and then to Babylon Hill, east of Yeovil ; they entered Yeovil at i p.m. on Tues- day. Going by Cullompton, 10 miles only from Exeter, they were attacked by Crook at South Molton with a detachment of the Exeter garrison. Thinned in numbers, and disheartened, after some stand they surrendered, late on the Wednesday evening.* By Friday, the i6th, the indefatigable Desborough, major-general of the western counties, had arrived at Shaftesbury. He garrisoned Bridport to prevent escape,^ and wrote at once to the sheriffs of the five counties to appre- ' Gentltmon's Mag. Ix, 427. ' See Hutchins, ii, 218. The Bcscobel Tracts, ed. J. Hughes {1857). W. Wilson, Life and Times of Daniel Defoe, \, 1 12. Pulman, The Book of the Axe, 212 (4th. ed.). Pnc. Dors. Field Club, viii, 9-28. l\otes and Queries for Som. and Dors., i, 80, 136-7 ; iii, 306 ; iv, 6 ; v, 150, 216. ' Perfect Proceedings, 29 March to 6 April, 1654-5. ' See the account in ff'ilts. Arch. Mag. 3utxviii, 135, sqq. W. W. Ravenhill. ' Thurloe Papers, iii, 263. 162 POLITICAL HISTORY hend all suspicious persons, and to the justices of the peace to make diligent inquiries what persons had been absent from their habitations within the space of ten days past. He sent to Cromwell, a few days later, from Taunton, a list of the prisoners.^ Out of a total of 109 names twenty-four came from Dorset. Nineteen of these were imprisoned at Exeter, and five at Taunton. Only three 'gentlemen' appear in the list, namely Thomas Fitzjames of 'Henley' (Sixpenny Handley), James Huish of Kimmeridge, and Oxen- bridge Fowell of Cerne Abbas. The rest are a very representative list of tradesmen (two clothiers, a tailor, a tanner, two weavers, a tapster, a miller, a cooper, two feltmakers, a baker, a chapman, and a currier), with a gardener, three husbandmen, and a warrener. The spring circuit had been interrupted at Salisbury. The assizes were to have been held at Dorchester 15 March. It appears that they were omitted altogether that spring; but the prisoners were proceeded against by a regular commission of oyer and terminer, and by no extraordinary court. The court was to sit at New Sarum i i April, at Exeter on the i8th, and at Chard on the 2 3rd.^ Some of the commissioners and the Attorney-General did go to Dorchester, but it was merely to rest over Sunday on their way to Exeter. On the return journey they stopped at Chard, and returned thence to London. Practically all the prisoners came from north-east Dorset, mostly from the Blandford and Sherborne district. One, however, came from Kimmeridge, and one from Cerne Abbas. St. Loe, though wrongly described in the indictment as of Salisbury, was a Dorset man. He had been taken up to London at once on his capture. On his examination' he implicated also Captain Twyne, who lived near Blandford, and Captain Kirles of Wood- yates. Arthur Collens of the Isle of Purbeck, who had been servant to Sir Joseph Wagstaffe, was also examined in London.* The Attorney-General was Edmund Prideaux, member for Lyme, and a friend of Ludlow's. The first junior counsel for the Government was Roger, who had been member for Bridport in 1645. ^^ ^he Dorset prisoners tried at Salisbury William Willoughby was the most interesting.^ An old man, he had had no hand in the plot, such as it was ; but friendship had caused him to try to rescue one of the Royalists, and he was apprehended with the rest. After the trials at Salisbury, the court, on its way to Exeter, stopped at Dorchester, spending Sunday, 15 April, there. Prideaux wrote to Thurloe that day : ' I will give you a little account of some passages this day at church. Mr. Gower in his prayer after sermon blessed God for suppressing these people, and prayed the Lord to direct the judges that justice might be done. Mr. Bence (Benn ?) in his prayers in the afternoon said that a treason was plotted, but blessed the Lord that nothing came to execution but the traitors.' ' The Dorset prisoners tried at Exeter were Thomas Fitzjames of Handley, and Robert Harris of Blandford, who were pronounced guilty by verdict ; William Wake of Blandford, Charles Haviland of Langton, and Nicholas (Richard .?) Broadgate of Blandford Forum all three confessed to the ' IVilts. Arch. Mag. xxxviii, 139. ' Cal. S.P. Dom. 1655, pp. 90, 91, 97, 112, 114. ' Thurhe Papers, iii, 314. IVilts. Arch. Mag. xxxviii, 147. * Perfect Diurnall, 26 March to 2 April, 1654-5. ' Coker's Fisitation of Dorset (Harl. Soc), xx, 99, 100. ' Thurloe Papers, iii, 379 163 A HISTORY OF DORSET fact upon their arraignment. All five were condemned to death.^ Various persons sympathetic to the rebellion were examined at Maiden Newton in July.* Apparently there had been some vague idea of seizing the town of Poole, for in May the justices of the peace were ordered to take bail of such as were taken upon this design.' The finances of the Monthly Assessment Commissioner were thrown into confusion by the seizure, during the insurrec- tion, of £i2 assessment money from Blandford, Sherborne, and other places.* There is ample material for ascertaining the working of the civil administration during this period, for the minute books of the Dorset Standing Committee have now been printed.* They are the only records of such a county committee now available. The committee grew out of the ordinance of 31 May, 1643, for the appointment of county committees to sequestrate the estates of delinquents. It was placed upon a working basis and its powers defined 19 August, 1643. Since the preceding March it had had a more or less informal existence, its sole object having then been to raise money. ^ It consisted of seventeen members for the county, among whom were the M.P.'s for Dorchester, Lyme, and Melcombe (Denis Bond, Richard Rose, and William Sydenham), of eight members for the town and county of Poole (the mayor and seven aldermen), and of three for the town of Dorchester (the mayor and ex officio two aldermen). The committee had assessed the county in a weekly sum on 3 August.'^ A month later the powers of county committees were extended by the Commons to the exami- nation of witnesses against ' scandalous ministers ' and those who had left their cures and joined the king's troops.* The following year (i July, 1644) the committee was invested with comprehensive powers. It was now empowered to administer the ordinances' for the taking of the covenant, for the payment of fifths and twentieths, for sequestrations, for weekly assess- ments, and for the general maintenance of order and of freedom from plunder. Meanwhile the personnel was slightly different from that of the former committee, the Earls of Gloucester and Elgin having been added, and, while all the prominent members of the old committee had been retained, the numbers had been increased, but a few aldermen had dropped out, and Dorchester was no longer officially represented. The Association Ordinance for the Five Western Counties was passed 19 August, 1644 ; by it, to the committee of i July were added the Earls of Northumberland and Pembroke, John Lord Roberts, and Thomas Lord Bruce, and the members of Parliament for the county and for each borough. The county was assessed by the committee (18 October) for the relief of the army in Ireland at a weekly sum of ^"ji 6s. %d., while the contribution of Poole was fixed at i 6j. 8^. But by the following summer (26 August, 1645) the committee decided to put in force a weekly assessment for six months of only /43 js. lod'. from the county and £^ from Poole.'" ' An Act for the Better Ordering and Managing the Estates of Papists and Delinquents' was passed 25 January, 1649—50, which" resulted in a ' If'Uts. Arch. Mag. xxx\iii, 25;, 299. ' Cal. S.P. Dom. 1655, p. 249. ' Ibid. 162. ' Ibid. 1655-6, 26 Sept. ' By Canon Mayo. '' Scobell, Coll. of Jets and Ordinances, 1658, xriiii ; Lords Jcurn. v, 632 ; Husband, Coll. of PubRc Orders, 1646, p. 9. ' Husband, op. cit. App. 4. " Ibid. 311; Walker, bufferings of the Cler^, i, 74. ' Lords Jcurn. vi, 61 2 ; Husband, op. cit. 514. '" Husband, op. cit. 563. " Scobell, op. cit. 101. 164 POLITICAL HISTORY new sequestrating body for Dorset. This continued' till 14 March, 1653—4, when, in consequence of an Act of the previous February,'' one of their number. Dewy, was appointed sub-commissioner in the county.* The functions of the committees had been varied. They included the seizing and scheduling of the real and personal estates of delinquents, the control over payments made by the treasurer of the county, the grant of compensation for damages, assessment and rating of obligations, and the alteration of such assessments. The committee also administered the National Covenant, and gave probate of wills. It controlled the county levies, and in 1647 (6 May) disbanded the county troop, raising two new troops of horse in 1648 (6 July),* and disbanding them again in November.^ The committee had complete control of ecclesiastical affairs, administering the directory, examining into the delinquency of incumbents (an office delegated for convenience to certain unofficial sub-committees of 'Triers'), filling the places of sequestered clergy, and administering * not only the benefices and the schools, but concerning themselves with details of appoint- ments of parish clerks, repair of the churches and parsonages, and storage of the church keys. In May, 1660, an address of congratulation to the king on his Restora- tion, ' numerously signed,' was sent from Dorset.^ But almost immediately signs of the old spirit began to come to light. These were invariably connected with the religious question. In February, 1661, John Wesley (great-grandfather of the famous Methodist), vicar of Winterborne Whit- church, was informed against for ' diabolically railing against the late king and his posterity, and praising Cromwell.' ' The three deputy lieutenants of Dorset and Somerset had by this time ' just cause of suspicion of a general disturbance,' and feared lest the disaffected should assist one another." Walter Stone of Sherborne prophesied a rising before November, and said that though only fifty of that town were in the plot the old soldiers would join.^" Next year ' the sectaries boast that they shall have their day soon, a rising in Somerset and Dorset is daily expected.' " The severities of the Clarendon Code, however, reduced the malcontents to outward submission, and it was reported in October, 1664, that all was again peaceable. The Dissenters had indeed suffered greatly. The Quakers again fell victims, two hundred of them being imprisoned in Dorset in 1662.'' In Decem- ber, 1664, out of nine Nonconformist ministers at Dorchester five had been imprisoned upon suspicion of being implicated in the ' plot ' above mentioned. Six ministers and seventy other persons were then in prison for Nonconformity. ' The town,' it was said, ' is most factious, and has daily conventicles.' ^' Loyalty to the Stuarts, never very marked, was for the moment strengthened by the issue of the Declaration of Indulgence (15 March, 1672). A large number of nonconforming ministers instantly availed themselves of it at Dorchester.'* Charles II was received with much ' Cal. CommUtei fir Compounding (1643), xiv ; C. H. Mayo, op. cit. xxii. ' Scobell, op. cit. 278. ^ Thurke Papers, iii, 263. * Min. Bb. Dors. Com. fol. 205, 252;printedMayo, 208, 273. ' Fol. 125, 159; Mayo, 408, 471. '^ Jt'ey mouth Chart, vii, 22-4. ' Cal. S.P. Dom. 1 660- 1, p. 4. ' Ibid. 504. = Ibid. 1661-2, p. 439. '° Ibid. 526. " Ibid. 1663-4, P- 'SO- " ibid. 1661-2, p. 426. " Ibid. 1664-5, P- ^O- " Dorch. Corp. MSS. c. 15, under dates 17 May, 4 April, 8 May, &c. 1672. 165 A HISTORY OF DORSET loyalty when he came to Dorset during the plague-scare of 1665,^ and in 1683 there were loyal rejoicings over his escape from the Rye House Plot.' Yet there was much sore feeling about the tampering with borough charters which marked the last years of his reign. In 1662 Charles had caused a Quo Warranto to be brought against Dorchester, which seems, however, to have been successfully resisted.' In i 677 Charles granted a new charter to Shaftesbury, as the result of a Quo Warranto brought concerning the privileges of the borough.* It is more precisely worded than that of 1604, and contains two clauses ensuring the taking of the oaths of obedience and supremacy by all members of the corporation and their officers, and the reservation to the crown of power to declare void the election of any recorder or town clerk, in which case the mayor and burgesses are to proceed to the election of another in his stead. In 1684 Charles attempted to set aside this charter, and issued letters patent providing a process for removal of the mayor, recorder, town clerk, or any of the capital burgesses, by Orders in Council, in return for substantial trading privileges. But the charter was never surrendered, and James II, in dealing with the town, did not grant it a new charter, but only acted under one of the clauses of the letters patent of 1684.* Lyme had, at the Restoration, professed strong loyalist sentiments, but shortly succumbed to nonconforming influences.* In 1684, warned by the example of Shaftesbury, the corporation decided freely to surrender their charter without waiting for a Quo Warranto. In December, only six weeks before his death, Charles granted a new charter, but without calling in or taking a surrender of any of the former charters.^ In 1687 James II brought a Quo Warranto against Weymouth ; the town clerk was ordered to ride to London and plead the charter, with apparent success." The ancient strongly Protestant feeling was still alive, encouraged no doubt by the presence of Holies, who lived near Dorchester still, and was very popular.' Monmouth, who had accompanied Charles II on his visit in 1665, had been very well received in Dorset. He landed at Lyme (11 June, 1685), and lingered there a fortnight, 'training and animating his men,' ^^ instead of pushing on at once to Exeter or Bristol. The men of Lyme received him with great rejoicings, and recruits poured in from all sides. In his grateful enthusiasm, he was moved to write — Lyme, although a little place, I think it wondrous pretty ; If 'tis my fate to wear the crown, I'll make of it a city.^^ The militia of Dorset and Somerset, hastily called out, assembled at Brid- port, where on the 14th they were attacked by part of Monmouth's force. This was defeated, and retired on Lyme. Meanwhile George Alford, mayor of Lyme (who had been forward, as an ex-royalist, to avenge himself after ' Hutchins, Dorset, i, 14 ; Weymouth Chart, v, 61. ' Weymouth Chart, v, 64. 'Dorch. Corp. MSS. c. 15. ' Hutchins, op. cit. iii, 104-12 ; Mayo, Shaston Records, 10, II. ' Mayo, Shaston Records, 12, 13. • Roberts, Hist. Lyme, 120-1. ' Ibid. 122. ' Weymouth Chart, iii, 141, and p. 122. ' Dorch. Corp. Minute Bk. 28 Oct. 1661 ; 19 June, 1668. '" Burnet, Hist. (ed. 1724), i, 641. " Quoted Roberts, Hist. Lyme, 152. 166 POLITICAL HISTORY the Restoration upon the Independents of the borough, and who had waited upon Charles II in 1684 about the surrender of the charter^), had ridden to Honiton and to London to raise the alarm.'' On the 18 th Monmouth marched to Taunton. After Sedgemoor, making his way towards Hampshire he was captured at Woodyates, just within the Dorset boundary, the horses having failed in Cranborne Chase.' Lord Lumley's scouts — sent out all over Dorset — had done their work. Kirke and his 'Lambs' did not, it is true, make Dorsetshire the scene of their operations. But the vengeance of James, though delayed till Jeffreys appeared, was not less certain. Early in September, the day after the execution of Alice, styled Lady Lisle, Jeffreys came to Dorchester.* A copy survives of the Presentment to the Court at these ' Bloody Assizes,' made for one of the four judges, or for the Clerk of the Assize.' Two hundred and fifty-one were sentenced at Dorchester ; they were drawn from each of the coast towns, with twelve from Sherborne." A terrible ' Butchers' Bill,' methodically calculated, in the manuscripts of the Weymouth Corporation,^ testifies to their sufferings. But in Dorset, as elsewhere, the rebels were entirely confined to the middle and lower classes, none of the gentry supporting Monmouth.' Dorset was no better satisfied with the accession of William and Mary than it had been with the return of the Stuarts. There was no active sedition, but a certain amount of quiet non-juring, and one may suspect much concealed dissatisfaction. Weymouth, which in 1662 had restored certain Royalist aldermen displaced in 1 648,' suffered disqualification of no less than seventeen aldermen and capital burgesses, through their not taking the oaths under William and Mary." At the same time Howson, minister of All Saints, Dorchester, wrote : ' Our little government of this borough is composed of very ill members, who have been very backward in all public demonstration of joy, either for His Majesty's glorious accession, or his success against his enemies.' " In 1705 Defoe was concerned in scheming for Harley, apparently of no very dangerous or matured character, his correspondent and accomplice at Weymouth being a certain Fenner, a dissenting minister. Jonathan Edwards (the Anglican, not the American divine) was also concerned in it. The bearer of letters between them, James Turner of the Diligence privateer, turned queen's evidence, and they were all included in a warrant to bring them to Dorchester, as having received traitorous letters.^' Defoe speaks of the matter in his Review of the Affairs of France}^ ' Roberts Hist. Lyme, 121, 122. ' Lords Joum. 13 June, 1685. ' 'Account of the Manner of Taking the late Duke of Monmouth.' -\^^ B.M. ; Burnet, Hist. \, 644. * See 'A Relation of the Great Sufferings of H. Pitman,' reprinted in Arber's English Gamer, 337. ' B.M. Add. MS. 30077. ' Account of the Proceedings against the Rebels '^^-. A list of the names of the Rebels ~^. ' Weymouth Chart, (ed. Moule), p. 85. ' Broadsides illustrating the history of the rebellion in Dorset are printed in cxtenso in Somers. and Dors. Notes and Queries, viii, 160 et seq. ; viii, 224 et seq. ; viii, 342 et scq. ' Weymouth Chart. 119. '" Ibid. 122. " Cal. S.P. Dom. 1689-90, p. 280. " Weymouth Chart, iii, 142. " Preface to vol. vi, reprinted G. A. Aitken, Later Stuart Tracts, 245 ; Etig. Hist. Rev. xv, 243 ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xv, 10. 167 A HISTORY OF DORSET The eighteenth century was characterized by a number of disputed elections, turning mainly on the struggle between the freeholders and the mere householders as to the right to vote for members of Parliament. In Lyme the charter of Charles II in 1684 had provided that 'the burgesses to sit in Parliament for ever hereafter shall be elected by the mayor, capital burgesses, or freemen, or greater part, as heretofore in times past has been used and accustomed.' Ellis, writing of Weymouth in 1829, admits that ' the inhabitants themselves have very little to do with the bona-fide election, as from the numerous frauds and subterfuges resorted to . . . persons who are not at all connected with the town are made, for a bounty averaging from 5/. to 30J., to profess themselves as bona-fide voters.' ^ The number of voters, normally 200, was in 1704 increased by malpractices to 648. After a severely con- tested election in 1830 counsel on both sides agreed to the extension of the franchise to persons seised of freeholds within the borough, not being in receipt of alms. But almost immediately the old close system was re- verted to.' Bribery was apparently as rife at Corfe as at Weymouth : in 1784 the election expenses of John Bond, junior, and Henry Banks of Kingston Hall included the two items: 'To 45 voters at i 3J. each, ^2() 5J.,' and 'To two Persons to protect the Beer, 2s. 6d.' ^ Poole, owing to the acuteness of this question, constantly suffered from double returns. In 1654, in the first Parliament assembled under the Instrument of Govern- ment, Cooper was returned for three constituencies — Poole, Wiltshire, and Tewkesbury. He elected to sit as member for Wiltshire.* In 1 66 1 the election was impeded by the claims of certain non-resident burgesses. The question was referred to the House of Commons, who decided against the candidates returned by the votes of the non-residents. There was another double return in 1688. In the disputed election of 1774 Sir Eyre Coote and Joshua Manger were nominated by the one party, and were opposed by Charles James Fox and John Williams, as candidates for the householders' party, which was now termed 'the commonalty interest.' At the election on 1 1 October 1 30 householders voted for Fox and Williams, but their claims were not allowed by the sheriff, who accepted and returned only the votes of adm.itted burgesses, and returned Coote and Manger. Fox and Williams protested, alleging not only partiality of the sheriff towards the sitting members, but that by the law and custom of the land, as well as by the particular constitution of that borough, the right to exercise the franchise lay with 'the inhabitants and householders of the borough paying scot and bearing lot.' A committee of the House of Commons sat in 1775 to try the case, and decided that, down to the charter of Elizabeth, 'burgenses' in Poole charters meant inhabitants : that that year, by the new charter, the inhabitants were formed into a commonalty, as distinct from the burgesses. At the next two elections, in 1780 and 1790, the returns were however again disputed, and were each again followed by the adjudication of a parliamentary committee, in 1780 with the same result as in 1775, in 1790 ending in a compromise. The election of 1791 led to the final victory of the right of election by select burgesses only. This continued till the Reform Act of 1832.' By that Act Corfe Castle was deprived of ' Op. cit. 44. ' Ibid. 80. ' Somers. and Dors. Notes and Queries, vii, 65. * Christie, Shaftesbury, i, 1 12. ' Sydenham, Hist. Poole, 256-66. 16S POLITICAL HISTORY representation, while Lyme, Wareham, and Shaftesbury were reduced to returning one member each ; Weymouth and Melcombe (which had pre- viously sent four between them, two for each) now returned two only, as a united borough. The county members, on the other hand, were increased from two to three, as some compensation for this decrease in borough representation.^ An Act passed the following year settled the inconvenience of the out- lying portions of the county. Stockland parish and Dalwood township, lying geographically in Devon, but being hitherto part of Dorset, were now united with Devon; Thorncombe parish, and Burhall Downs and Easthay (part of the parish of Axminster), hitherto part of Devon, were made part of Dorset. Holwell parish, including the tithing of Buckshaw, which lay in Dorset geographically, was henceforth to be part of Dorset, instead of being an outlying part of Somerset.' By the Reform Bill of 1867 (Representation of the People Act) * Lyme entirely ceased to be represented, not having a sufficient number of inhabited houses (683 only). Dorchester, Bridport, and Poole were each reduced to one member only. The Boundary Commissioners of 1867-8 did not see their way to recommending an extension of any of the existing boundaries of any of the Dorset boroughs. The population, stationary in the mid-Victorian period, decreased between 1871 and 1881 from 143,478 to 137,146.* Further reduction of representation was the natural outcome. The Act of 1885 merged in the county the Dorset boroughs still remaining ; thus Bridport, Dorchester, Poole, Shaftesbury (part of which lay however in Wiltshire), Wareham, and Weymouth and Melcombe vote now in the four divisions of the county.' The number of county members was increased from three to four. The petty sessional divisions had only been adopted to a limited extent in the Boundary Acts of 1832 and 1868, the hundred being still in theory the basis of electoral divisions. But it was growing obsolete, and the inconveniences of its often detached portions, together with the increasing difficulty of ascertaining its exact boundaries, led to the adoption, in the Act of 1885, of the petty sessional division. The North Dorset division, under the new Act, accordingly includes the sessional divisions of Blandford, Shaftesbury, Sturminster, and part of Sherborne. The division of East Dorset includes the sessional division of Wimborne and part of that of Wareham with the municipal borough of Poole. South Dorset includes the municipal boroughs of Dorchester, and Weymouth and Mel- combe, with part of the sessional divisions of Dorchester and of Wareham. The West Dorset division comprises the municipal boroughs of Bridport and Lyme Regis, the sessional divisions of Bridport and Cerne, and certain poor- law parishes in the sessional division of Dorchester. In 1685, after the rebellion of Monmouth, the Duke of Beaufort was appointed colonel of a corps of musketeers and pikemen composed of men of distinguished loyalty, from the disturbed districts of Dorset, Somerset, and Devon. This, however, afterwards became known as the i ith North Devon ' 2 Will. IV, cap. 45. ' 2 and 3 Will. IV, c.ip. 64. For acreage and population involved see Notts and Queries for Somers. and Dors. X, 86, 87. ' 30 & 31 Vict. cap. 102. * Re/). 0/ Boundary Com. 1885, pt. i, c. 4287. ^ 48 & 49 Vict. cap. 23. 2 169 22 A HISTORY OF DORSET Foot. A commission to raise troops for another regiment of dragoons, issued inter alia to Thomas Maxwell at Shaftesbury, resulted in the form- ation of a regiment in July, 1685, which was joined by many Dorset loyalists who had fought against Monmouth, and which was afterwards known as the Princess Anne of Denmark's Regiment of Dragoons (now 4th Dragoons).' The Dorset Regiment itself was not formed till 1702, during the preparations for war with France and Spain. It was raised in Ireland in 1702, and was stationed there for five years. In 1707 it was sent to Portugal, to reinforce the troops after the battle of Almanza, gaining con- spicuous honour, from making a determined stand with the 5th and 20th and Lord Paston's regiments, to cover the retreat of the Portuguese Army at the passage of the Caya. On the conclusion of the Treaty of Utrecht (11 April, 17 1 3), the 39th went to Gibraltar, but later in the year was sent to form part of the garrison of Minorca, where it remained till 1719. It then passed some years in Ireland.'' In 1727 it took part in the recovery of Gibraltar, and in 1729, on the conclusion of peace, was sent to Jamaica, where it arrived in 1730. In 1732 it returned to Ireland, and in 1737 the Duke of Argyle was colonel. In 1744 the regiment was sent to England, and was employed for two years as marines on board the fleet. In 1746 it took part in the expedition to Brittany which attacked L'Orient, the head quarters of the French East India Company's shipping and stores in Europe. In 1747 and 1748 the 39th again served as marines.' After the Peace of Aachen in 1748 the regiment spent five years in Ireland, going in 1754 to the East Indies. It remained at Madras till 1756, and being the first king's regiment employed in India earned the motto still borne of ' Primus in Indis.' The gallant behaviour of the 39th at Plassy in 1757 earned it the royal authority to bear the word upon the regimental colours. In 1758, on its return to Ireland, it was shipwrecked upon the Irish coast. A large detachment joined Ferdinand of Brunswick in 1759. In 1769 the regiment was besieged in Gibraltar, a siege which, in spite of three reliefs and reinforcements, was not finally abandoned till 1783. The loss of the regiment during the whole siege was only five officers, ten sergeants, two drummers, and one hundred and thirteen of the rank and file.* On 31 August, 1782, the 39th became the East Middlesex regiment, territorial denominations being then adopted. From 1783 to 1792 it con- tinued in Ireland ; in February 1793 it was sent to the French West Indies, and assisted at the captures of Martinique and Guadaloupe. The stay in Guadaloupe proved very deleterious to the health of the men. In 1794 it was in Ireland, in 1795 in Barbadoes. From Barbadoes in 1796, the 39th, together with a detachment of the Royal Artillery, proceeded against the Dutch colonies of Demerara, Essequibo, and Berbice, which were taken in April. They remained in Demerara till November, 1799. In October, 1800, they went to Surinam, and spent 1801 there. On the conclusion of the Peace of Amiens in 1802 they returned to Barbadoes, and went thence to Antigua, reaching England in March, 1803. During the South American years they lost 2,000 men from climatic diseases alone. ' Hist. Rec. of Brit. Army (ed. Cannon), i ith Foot, 1,2; 4th Dragoons, 10. ' Hist. Rec. of Brit. Amy, 39th Dorset Rcgt. 8. * Ibid. 12, 13. * Ibid. 170 POLITICAL HISTORY On the renewal of hostilities in 1803, under the Army of Reserve Act, a second battalion was added to the 39th,' composed of men from Cheshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire. In 1804, under the Addi- tional Forces Act,* 548 additional men were raised in Dorset' for the 9th Regiment, and the 2nd battalion of the 39th was augmented by nien from Shropshire. In 1804 the 2nd battalion was in Guernsey, the ist guarded the Sussex shore against the feared invasion by the Boulogne flotilla. The flank companies of the ist battalion took part in the Mediter- ranean Expedition of 1805, and in January 1806 went to Sicily with the King and Queen of Naples, returning to Malta in February. The 2nd bat- talion remained in Guernsey till February 1806, when, after a short time at Cork and Dublin, all its united service men were transferred to a garrison battalion of the latter, and its disposable men were drafted into the ist bat- talion at Malta. In 1807 the officers and non-commissioned officers of the 2nd battalion were recruiting in England. On 29 October, 1807, the name of the regiment was changed from the East Middlesex to the Dorset. The 2nd battalion was largely recruited from the Militia, and spent 1808 in Guernsey. The flank companies of the ist battalion went that year from Malta to Sicily, and in 1809 took from Murat, then king of Naples, the two islands of Ischia and Procida. They spent 18 10 in Sicily. The 2nd battalion went to Spain in 1809, and in 18 10 took part in the operations of Busaco, and distinguished itself greatly at the battle of Albuera (16 May). The ist battalion arrived at Lisbon in 181 1, and was made up to full strength by all the effective men of the 2nd battalion, the skeleton of which then embarked for England and arrived at Weymouth 2 March, 18 12. The ist battalion took part in the battle of Salamanca in 1812.* The 2nd battalion remained at Weymouth till October, when they went to Exeter, but returned to Weymouth in December. The ist bat- talion, which had lost heavily, but behaved with great gallantry at Vittoria (21 June), was in all the operations against Soult in the Pyrenees, and on the Nive that winter, and was at Orthes and Toulouse in the spring of 18 14. The 2nd battalion spent 18 13 at Weymouth. After the end of the war in Europe the ist battalion went to North America, and was at Plattsburg, and in the ineffisctive Lake Champlain operations,' returning to Europe just after the battle of Waterloo, in time to join the British Army at Paris. In the same year the effective men of the 2nd battalion were transferred to the ist, and the former was disbanded 24 December, 18 15. The regiment remained in the Pas de Calais till 1818, in December of which year it went to Ireland. In 1825 it was sent to New South Wales to keep order among the convicts. A depot company was left in England, but by 1830 all the rest of the regiment was in New South Wales. It was at this time that Captain Charles Sturt, himself of a well-known Dorset family, made his two journeys into the interior of the conti- nent (1829, 1830) to assist Darling. In 1830 the 39th helped to put ' 43 Geo. Ill, cap. Ixxxii. ' 44 Geo. Ill, cap. Ivi. ' Somen, and Dors. N. and O. i, 1 54-5. ' Hist. Rec. of the Brit. Army, 39th Dors. Regt. 54. Ibid. 63. 17X A HISTORY OF DORSET down convict disturbances in the Bathurst district. In 1833 they were at Madras and Bangalore, in 1834 took part in a punitive expedition against the Rajah of Coorg,^ and in 1837 quelled an insurrection in Malabar. In 1843 ^^^ regiment formed part of the 5th brigade of the 'Army of Exercise ' in Gwalior. It took, part in the succeeding operations, and was distinguished at the battle of Maharajpore.* Part of the 39th was with Sir Charles Napier's expedition in 1845 against the hill-tribes of Baluchistan, the mountain desert robbers. In 1847 the regiment returned to England. The ist battalion of the Dorset Regiment is nicknamed ' the Green Linnets,' from the old green facings, and from the habit of singing while on the march. The 2nd battalion is nicknamed ' the Flamers.' This battalion is the old 54th regiment, formerly called the West Norfolk. Cobbett served in it as a sergeant-major. The 2nd battalion was sent out to Natal immedi- ately on the outbreak of the South African War in 1899.^ It served with distinction under General Buller, taking part in all the battles leading to the relief of Ladysmith. At Alleman's Nek the heights were carried by the Dorsets. In October, 1902, it returned to Portland,* and it embarked for India 4 October, 1906. The ist battalion saw no active service during the South African War, remaining in India, chiefly in the Punjab, during the entire campaign. The 3rd battalion (the Dorset Militia) was embodied at ShornclifFe, 14 December, 1899, and proceeded to Kinsale in March, 1900.' It returned, however, to Dorchester in October, 1901.' The earliest in date of the twelve Dorset volunteer corps raised by June i860 was the Wareham Corps. It was formed by 28 January, i860 ; one of its earliest supporters was His Majesty King Edward. There is a Cadet Corps at Sherborne School. Six troops of Dorset Yeomanry were raised in 1794, viz. Lieutenant- Colonel Darner's (Dorchester) troop, Major Frampton's (Moreton) troop. Captain Churchill's (Wimborne) troop. Captain Grosvenor's (Wareham and Charborough) troop. Captain Weld's (Lulworth) troop, and Captain Browne's (Maiden Newton) troop. The latter recruited as far south as Weymouth and Abbotsbury. Later in the year a seventh troop, under Captain Travers, was formed at Bridport.'' The troops met for the first time for exercise at Dorchester, 8 May, 1794, under Colonel Lord Milton. After that they met at different places once a week, as appointed by the captains. On 17 September the king reviewed them under Maiden Castle. Exercise was continued till 22 October, when it ceased for the winter. The strength of the force at this time was 250. They clothed and horsed themselves, receiving from the Government only a sword, one pistol, and holsters. They also requested the colonel to refuse any money offered by the county to assist them in expenses. No exercise apparently took place during haymaking and harvesting.* In 1795 the number of the troops was reduced to five, since the king could not sign the commissions of Captain Weld and his son (the cornet of the Lulworth troop) as they were Roman Catholics. ' Hist. Rec. of the Brit. Jrmy, 39th Dors. Regt. 73. ' Ibid. 90. ' Jrmy Lists, Sept. 1 899, Jan. 1 900. ' Ibid. Oct. 1 902, Jan. 1903. ' Ibid. J.in. 1900, March 1900. ' Ibid. 'Captain M. F. Gage, Rec. of the Dorset 1'eomanry, 173. ' C. W. Thompson, Dorset Teomanry, 12, 14-15. 173 POLITICAL HISTORY In 1797, however, a fresh troop was raised in the vale of Blackmoor under Captain Meggs. Under the fear of a French attack upon the Dorset coast, not only the volunteers, but the whole posse comitatus, consisting of 20,857 able-bodied men over fifteen years old, excluding peers and ecclesiastics, were ordered to be in readiness. This was done by the authority of the sheriff, not of the lord-lieutenant.^ During the second invasion-scare of 1798 three fresh troops were raised. Captain Tregonwell's at Cranborne, Captain Clavell's in the Isle of Purbeck, and a second in the vale of Blackmoor under Captain Bower at Shaftesbury. ° In 1801 there were only nine troops, but as Captain Bower was now adjutant it is probable that the Shaftesbury troop was the one disbanded. This first Dorset Corps of Volunteer Rangers came to an end on the signature of peace between England and France, in March, 1802. Frampton, in his Memoirs, gives three reasons against the maintenance of a permanent yeomanry force in the county. He says the poor disliked yeomen forces of armed farmers, who could keep up the price of provisions, that the farmers themselves suffered under the sense of being always obliged to belong, if they had once joined, and that the attendance of yeomen diminished much as soon as the imme- diate fear of invasion was withdrawn.' On the rupture of the Peace of Amiens the yeomanry was again raised, and consented to receive the allowance granted by Government for accoutrements ; preparations made for removing stock were put under the control of such deputy-lieutenants and other gentlemen as were not engaged in any other military duty, thus relieving the Yeomanry officers. With the increased fears of invasion the regiment became more efficient. Their alertness was tested, in 1804, by a rumour that the French had landed at Portland. Weymouth was thrown into confusion, till it was found that a fishing-fleet had taken refuge in the Roads during a fog.* Lieutenant-Colonel Damer's death in May, 1807, led to the command of Frampton, under whom the numbers of the corps greatly increased, the Secretary of State giving permission for the strength to be raised to twenty- four officers and 450 non-commissioned officers and men.' The regiment was disbanded in 18 14 on the conclusion of peace. Frampton, with 150 mounted men armed with constables' staves, dispersed the agrarian rioters at Winfrith in 1830^ : and in December of that year the Dorset- shire Yeomanry Cavalry was again raised. It now consisted of five troops, recruited mainly from West Dorset. A scheme to raise a regiment in East Dorset in 1831 came to nothing. Instead, four independent troops were raised at Wimborne, Blandford, Wareham and the Isle of Purbeck, and Charborough. These were, however, disbanded in 1838, with the exception of the Charborough troop, which had been disbanded in 1835.^ The throwing out of the Reform Bill caused a serious riot at Sherborne in October, 1831 ; the yeomanry were called out. The regiment assembled for 'permanent duty ' for the first time in May, 1832, at Dorchester.* In June, 1843, the title of ' Queen's Own ' was given to it. ' C. W. Thompson, Dorset Teomanry, 23, 25. ' Gage, Dorset Teomanry, 174. ' C. W. Thompson, Dorset Yeomanry, 49. ' Ibid. 69. Mbid. 84, 86, 89. Mbid. 108-9. ' Gage, Dorset Yeomanry, 174. * C. W. Thompson, Dorset Yeomanry, 127. A HISTORY OF DORSET In 1879 the Yeomanry did not assemble for 'permanent duty' owing to the depressed condition of agriculture. It then consisted of six troops, viz. the Dorchester, Melbury, Blackmoor Vale, Sherborne, Blandford, and Wimborne troops.^ In 1893 the regiment was formed in two squadrons, the field troops of Melbury, Sherborne, and Dorchester having head quarters at Maiden Newton, and those of Blandford, Wimborne, and the vale of Blackmoor having head- quarters at Blandford. In 1 90 1 the Queen's Own Dorsetshire Yeomanry was again reorganized and formed in three squadrons, with head quarters at Dorchester, Sherborne, and Blandford respectively. There is also a machine-gun section.* A meeting was held at Dorchester on New Year's Day, 1900, in response to the Government's demand for 10,000 Imperial Yeomanry. By 8 January 120 men had applied to join the company, 115 only being required from each county. A machine-gun section was also formed, with two Colt guns, mounted on galloping carriages.' The company was ordered to form part of the seventh battalion of Imperial Yeomanry. They entrained at Dorchester, 28 February, and reached the front 7 April. On 18 April a reinforcing draft, consisting of one officer and fourteen non-commissioned officers, was sent out. Altogether, there served in South Africa, of the original Dorset Yeomanry, ten officers and 1 1 5 non-commissioned officers and troopers, two non-commissioned officers and twelve men of the machine- gun section, the above-mentioned draft of April, 1900, and a 1901 draft consisting of one lieutenant and seventy-two men. The casualties were twenty-four, including two killed in action. To the 26th Company of Imperial Yeomanry Dorset contributed seven officers and their thirteen servants, and seven non-commissioned officers and men, with a reinforcing draft of one lieutenant, one corporal, and thirteen troopers.* On arrival in South Africa the Dorset Yeomanry acted temporarily under General Sir Leslie Rundle, and took part in the operations for the relief of Wepener. In May, joining Lord Roberts's army at Kroonstad, they advanced along the ruined railway lines on Vereeniging, across the Vaal. The Dorsets were the first to cross into Transvaal territory at this point. They participated in the advance on Johannesburg and Pretoria. After the armistice of early June they took part in the Diamond Hill action, and later some of the force formed part of the Pretoria garrison. Later they joined in the chase of De Wet, and were thus constantly on the move. They had the honour of protecting the retirement after Nooitgedacht,' during which action they had been under fire fourteen hours, and in the saddle twenty-six hours. In January, 1901, they were in the action at Middlefontein. Much uneventful trekking followed, chiefly in the neigh- bourhood of Naauwport. They then took part in the operations in the Western Transvaal. New drafts of yeomanry, drawn from a somewhat different class of men, were sent out in May, 1901, and the original Dorset Yeomanry was then ordered home. The battalion left Cape Town on 3 June, 1 90 1, and arrived at Southampton 25 June. 'Gage, Dorset yeomanry, 175. 'Royal Warrant, Yeomanry Reorganization, 1901. ' Gage, Dorset Yeomanry, 75-9, * Ibid. Appendix C. ' Ibid. 127-30. MARITIME HISTORY IN considering accessibility to invasion the development of shipbuilding in relation to harbours must, as well as other facts, be borne in mind. In early centuries the minor Dorset ports and river mouths admitted the vessels of small tonnage then in use, or in some places they could be beached ; from the sixteenth century onwards a whole stretch of coast such as the West Bay, extending from Portland to the border of Devon, passed out of the sphere of possible operations because to be caught there in a gale from the westward was certain destruction as the larger ships then built could find no shelter except, in limited number, at Lyme. The eastern half of the county offered, in recent centuries, equally few advantages to an invader, Poole, at high tide, looks a capacious harbour, but its waterways are narrow and its anchorage limited, while the contracted entrance is further obstructed by a shifting bar which has not more than 14 ft. of water on it at high water spring tides. Studland and Swanage bays are sheltered from the westward ; but the former will not admit anything drawing more than 12 ft., and the latter gives but a shallow and indifferent anchorage. From Durlstone Head to Weymouth Roads runs a line of lofty cliffs broken by a few coves and landing-places which may have received the vessels of Saxon and Danish marauders, and later coasters, but are of no avail for modern shipping. As in the case of the West Bay it would be the object of an invader to keep clear of this coast rather than to approach it. Thus of the 75 miles of Dorset coast at least three-fourths became a negligible quantity as facilities of transport increased and the national risk of invasion grew greater generally. From the point of view of naval war, therefore, the interest strategically is confined to the projecting point of Portland, with its accessories Portland Roads and Weymouth Roads. The modern naval base is seldom a great com- mercial port ; the mediaeval base, unless far outside the radius of action and merely a feeder to supply the fleets, was invariably a place of commerce because its offensive capacity in war grew out of its success in the paths of peace. Thus Sandwich, Rye, Winchelsea, Weymouth, and Plymouth became bases for offence as they increased in maritime strength, as commerce caused the accumulation of ships, men, and materiel, all interchangeable for trade or war, and as the area of maritime action widened. Melcombe, when ruined by the French in the fourteenth century, was becoming an important naval centre ; its harbour, suitable for the vessels of that age and probably deeper than it is now, held the position relative to Cherbourg and St. Malo that Plymouth, later, stood in towards Brest ; and Weymouth Roads, like Portland Roads covered from all winds except those from east to south, was of equal 175 A HISTORY OF DORSET value commercially. The forbidding bluiF of Portland guarded by its cliffs, by the westerly gales that sweep over it, by the dangerous Race, and by the Shambles, never allured a mediaeval invader to any attempt to secure a per- manent foothold upon it ; the natural strength which daunted the enemy of that period was the principal defence then of Portland Roads, but is still more effective now when improved by engineering and military art. Torbay, although not so safe an anchorage, was preferred in the eighteenth century because nearer Brest ; when Cherbourg was suddenly enlarged into a great naval base and arsenal, the development of Portland, nearly opposite, but to windward, was the natural answer. The use of steam has greatly increased the strategical value of Portland. Although not a primary base, because it lacks appliances for docking and repairs, it holds a first place among those of its class, for, as it flanks Portsmouth and Plymouth,^ no enemy could venture to attack either of those places while an English fleet, even of inferior strength but able to fight, lay in the naval harbour. He must therefore deal with the Portland fleet first and either mask it with sufficient force while he carried out his main purpose or await its pleasure as to the time of action. Except as following a series of disasters which would, by their direct and indirect effects, render a further struggle here useless, no enemy or combination of enemies is likely to possess sufficient strength simultaneously to hold quiescent a fighting fleet at Portland and to attack one of the great naval arsenals. For his fleet there would be far more risk of disaster than probability of success about a serious bombardment at any useful range ; and if he succeeded the English loss would not be so great as would be involved in the destruction of a huge dockyard, with the private property around it. The methods of attack in modern naval war are likely to enforce the use of Portland as a centre for ships delayed in sailing or awaiting admission to Portsmouth, for Spithead can never be used again with the confidence permissible before the era of torpedoes and drifting mines. The name of the British tribe inhabiting Dorset, the Durotriges, or ' water dwellers,' seems to imply some especial relation with the sea ; but a recent suggestion that the water in question was that of the marshes of Poole Harbour, and of the rivers emptying themselves into it, is a far more probable one than the supposition that the natives possessed any particular maritime aptitude. Unlike some of the other counties whose coast-line is broken by long beaches or stretches of salt-water marshes, that of Dorset offers little encouragement to beginners in navigation. If the Celtic appellation referred to the sea it involves the inference that the Durotriges were far more advanced in maritime affairs than any of the other races in Britain, for which there is no evidence either in history or in the numerous Celtic remains which have been found in the county. We may safely assume that such sea life as existed was confined to fishing close inshore from coves and sheltered bays, and that the Durotriges had made even less progress in navigation than their neigh- bours east and west. Omitting the Roman era, considered elsewhere, we find that the principal Saxon advance north-westward was by land from their favourite place of debarkation in Southampton Water. It is both possible and probable that ' Portland to Plymouth, 75 miles ; to Portsmouth, 60 miles ; to Guernsey, 60 miles ; to Alderney, 48 miles ; to Cherbourg, 62 miles. 176 MARITIME HISTORY their failure at first to reach the coast from the centre of the county was re- trieved, later, by a flank attack by way of Poole Harbour, thus turning the strong position of the marshes and forests of the Frome, although no evidence of such a movement has survived. If it did occur it is the only maritime incident connected with the West Saxon conquest of Dorset. In 787, if the date given in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle be correct, came the first appearance of the Northmen in England, and the experience fell upon Dorset. According to one writer the landing-place was Portland ^ ; and the king's reeve, ignorant of the character of the strangers, riding from Dorchester to inquire the cause of their coming, was killed, together with his attendants. Portland seems a less likely place of landing than either Poole or Weymouth Harbours, and, if they came from the eastward, it is difficult to understand why their first appearance should have been in Dorset when, to reach the county, they must have passed much more tempting coasts on their way. We read, however, that in the year 800 the northern shores of France were harassed by the Northmen ^ ; that condition of things had existed for years previously, so that it is likely that the marauders of 787 had come across the Channel, especially as they were said to be from ' Haeretha-land,' now held to be Jutland, which was also the home of the pirates of 800. Nearly half a century elapsed before their next appearance in Dorset, and by that time the lines of advance from the Baltic — eastward by way of the Frisian and French coasts, westward by way of the Orkneys and Ireland — were closing round England. In 833 a fleet appeared at Charmouth, where the Vikings were met by Egbert in person, who was overthrown, and in 837 another force, perhaps one which had just been repulsed in Southampton Water, landed at Portland ; there the ealdorman Ethelhelm was defeated and killed by the enemy who remained in possession of the island. Again, in 840, they came to Charmouth and routed Ethelwulf, if the entry in the Chronicle is not a repetition of the event of 837. The first landing may have been due to chance, but assuming both entries to be correct it is not clear what attraction Charmouth or its neighbourhood can have had sufficient to account for two onslaughts in seven years. On the other hand the second landing may have happened but have been unintentional, in the sense that bad weather forced a roving party to seek a port. Whatever temptation Dorset may have offered at first to invite attacks, in force they soon faded ; the county is not mentioned again until towards the end of the long struggle of nearly fifteen years during which the Danes were fighting for the conquest of England. In 876 Guthrum, with his division, which had wintered in the Midlands, ' stole away ' from Cambridge to Wareham. Probably he embarked in Orwell Haven and went by sea. That Guthrum, or some of those with him, knew the strength of the Wareham position affords reasonable presumption that they must have learned the topography of the district as the result of small raids not noticed by the chroniclers. Notwithstanding a solemn undertaking to leave the kingdom, part of the Danish army escaped and occupied Exeter ; the remainder held Wareham until the spring of 877,* when they left by sea to raise the blockade ' Leland, Collect, iii, Z14 (Chron. St. Neot). ' Pairohgiae, ed. J. P. Migne, civ, 458 {Jnn. Lauriosertses). ' Traditions of Danish slaughter still linger in the neighbourhood of Wool (Moule, OIJ Donef, 139). 2 177 23 A HISTORY OF DORSET instituted by Alfred and relieve their beleaguered comrades in the western capital. The relieving fleet was caught by a storm and driven into Swanage Bay where 120 ships were wrecked. The Danes in Exeter thereupon surrendered, one more illustration of the effects — if not of sea-power — of sea affairs. The supreme tactical advantage possessed by the Danes, in being able to seize a base wherever the sea broke upon a beach round England, was one that the Saxons had themselves used centuries previously although they had t'orgotten the lesson and lost their maritime aptitude. Even after the fifteen years' war which ended with the peace of Wedmore, a war only possible for the Danes because they held the sea, the fierce five years' fight between 893 and 897 was needed to make Alfred decide upon building ships in sufficient number to have some chance of meeting the enemy with success afloat. These ships, when in service, were manned largely by foreign mercenaries, which shows that the counties contained but a small seafaring population. However, the existence of a fleet ensured eventually the collection of a body of trained seamen to man it or it could hardly have continued. Incidental references indicate that Alfred's successors possessed fleets of some strength, while there was a law in force during the reign of Edgar (959—75) that every three hundreds, probably along the coast line, should provide a ship. This law may have fallen into desuetude or have been found insufficient, for in 1008, under the pressure of renewed Danish incursions, it was ordered that every 310 hides of land throughout the country should build and equip a ship. Dorset was not among the leading maritime shires of early centuries, but these laws, with the consequent necessity for serving at sea, must have tended to bring the backward counties into line with those more advanced ; among the former Dorset would have been helped forward in this way in the absence of the stimulus of maritime commerce. After a long interval of comparative peace the Danish ravages recom- menced towards the end of the tenth century. The beginning of the next century showed signs of their preparation for the complete conquest of England. Nearly the first breath of the storm swept over Dorset where a pirate squadron appeared in 982 and ravaged Portland. It may be inferred that they were new to their work or weak in numbers, for otherwise they would surely have chosen some wealthier region. An invasion by Sweyn, king of Denmark, took place in 994 ; he was repulsed from London, and then ravaged the east and south coasts, but did not go further westward than Southampton Water. The turn of Dorset came again in 998, when a force, probably from Ireland, after harrying the west coast during the preceding year, came soutli and sailed up Poole Harbour, from which ' they went up as far as they would' into the interior of the county. Between 1003 and I o 1 1 the Danes overran the eastern half of England from Norfolk to Wiltshire and Hampshire, but Dorset seems to have escaped the main bodies of the enemy. In 10 1 3 came another great invasion under Sweyn, and King Ethelred and his family fled to Normandy. Sweyn died in 1014 ; Ethelred returned but had to contend with Svv'eyn's son, Cnut, who arrived with a great fleet in loi 5 with which he laid waste the coast from Kent westwards, finally harbouring in the favourite covert of Poole from which he marched over Dorset, Wiltshire, and Somerset. Cnut is said to have occupied Brownsea Island ; no doubt MARITIME HISTORY several earlier generations of Danes had also used it. Years of hard fightin >■ followed until the death of Edmund Ironside in 1017 left Cnut king of all England, but the area of struggle was outside Dorset, and a long period of peace succeeded the new settlement of the throne. Only one other maritime event of any importance is associated with the county previous to the Conquest. In 1051 Godwin and his sons had been banished ; Godwin went to Flanders, Harold and his brother Leofwin to Ireland. Both father and sons returned with fleets in 1052, and that of Harold plundered along the coast of Dorset before he met his father at Portland. Godwin's men landed there ' and did whatever harm they were able to do.' In connexion with some of the counties a coasting and foreign trade can be inferred, thus correlating a certain amount of shipping at the date of the Conquest, but there is no evidence concerning Dorset. Bridport and Ware- ham seem rather large places in Domesday, and must have been the principal ports. There was a fishery carried on from Lyme. As Bridport was famous for its cordage by the reign of John there is every probability that the trade was older than the Conquest, and if so it was one which must have especially aided the shipping development of the town until its harbour failed. The events of 1069 show that William had then no fleet available, but he was the last man likely to underrate the importance of maritime power, so that in 1 07 1 and the following years his ships were acting in conjunction with his land forces. Between the last threat of a Danish invasion in 1083 and the loss of Normandy in 1204 there were few occasions for naval levies on a large scale, seeing that the Channel was not then a disputed tract but only the sea road connecting dominions under the same sovereign. In 1 171, at Milford Haven, there were collected 400 vessels to carry Henry II and his army to Ireland. From geographical situation and administrative arrangement,^ it is probable that Dorset furnished a quota to the expedition. A fleet conveying the main body of the Crusaders left Dartmouth in 1190, but most of the vessels were obtained from the continental possessions of the crown. For up- wards of a century only small fleets for transport purposes were required in the desultory dynastic wars occurring, and for these it was sufficient to call upon the Cinque Ports, London, and the adjacent districts. Wareham is the only Dorset port from which the combatants sailed, or at which they arrived, during the civil wars of Stephen's reign. In March, 1208, the authorities in the principal coast counties were ordered to cause all vessels to return to England before the ensuing Easter to be ready for the king's service. Lists of the ships and the names of the owners were also to be sent to London.* Under 1205 we have the first station list of the king's ships, but as none was placed between Southampton and Exeter the Dorset ports were evidently not yet among the leading ones. A similar order to that of 1208 issued again in 12 14, but in the latter year the Hsts were to be confined to ships of 80 tons and upwards.'' If the inclusion of Dorset among the other counties was not a mere matter of routine, and there was a real expectation of finding vessels of 80 or 100 tons in its ports, it implies a considerable growth of trade and shipping during the ' With the exception of a few years Dorset and Somerset were under one sheriff, until 8 Eiiz. ; writs usually applied to both counties. * Pat. 9 John, ra. 2. ' Ibid. 16 John, m. 16. 179 A HISTORY OF DORSET previous century. No doubt a contingent of Dorset ships and seamen was present in the fleet, made up from the ports generally, which won the great victory at Damme in 12 13. In the reigns of John and Henry III we find notices of the Bridport cordage manufacture. In 121 3 John ordered cables for his ships to be made there in such haste that the work was to be carried on night and day.* In 1225 Henry directed the sheriff to buy two cables in the town and send them to Fowey for the use of the royal ships.' In 1224 there was a general arrest of shipping in view of war with France ; in Dorset the bailiffs of Poole were called upon to prepare all its ships for service and to detain any foreign vessels coming there. ^^ This is the first notice of the town in relation to shipping. Weymouth occurs in 1226, as well as Poole, when an order issued to stop any merchantmen sailing for French ports. Lyme is added to a similar writ in 1234.'^ Arrests of shipping were frequent during the reign of Henry, but they were seldom followed by any events requiring notice. In 1254 there was a levy of ships large enough to carry sixteen horses, and writs were directed to Poole, Weymouth, and Lyme.'- The last was becoming strong enough to carry on a war of its own ; in 1265 the king ordered inquiry into the mutual injuries inflicted upon each other at sea by the men of Lyme and Dartmouth, which had led to ' enormous transgressions and homicides ' by both parties. '^ As this was the period of the Barons' Wars, the anarchy existing in the state was reproduced on a smaller scale round the coast. But Dartmouth had long been a great and wealthy port ; if Lyme could now fight it on terms of equality at sea it signifies a remarkable growth of pros- perity in the Dorset town. A distinctive feature of the maritime history of the thirteenth century is the appointment of one or more persons, sometimes for one county and sometimes for a group of counties, as keepers of the coast, a step towards the organization of systematic defence. John Marshal was keeper of the ports of Somerset and Dorset in 121 5, although this appointment was probably not altogether one of the later type.'* In 1224 Ralph Germun was keeper of the Dorset coast ; in 1235 Hamo de Crevecoeur and Walerand Teutonicus had charge from Hastings to Poole.'' The office was not continuous, and most often comes under notice in time of war when the enemy happened to have the upper hand and be in command of the Channel. Thus in the reign of Edward III we find many nominations in the years immediately preceding the battle of Sluys in 1340. The functions of the keeper were chiefly military, but were also judicial in matters relating to the sea and coast ; he was in military command both at sea and on land, and was given somewhat large powers. Practically, he was expected to crush piracy, to beat off raiders, to enable coasters and fishermen to sail in peace, and to summon the county to arms upon invasion. The office did not endure for long because, during the second half of the fourteenth century, the growth of the Admiralty Court, the increased power of the admirals, and, finally, the creation of the post of High Admiral lessened its importance. Historically, however, the keeper may * Close, 1 5 John, m. 6. ' Ibid. 9 Hen. Ill, m. 13. Fishing nets were also made there (ibid. 7 Hen. Ill, m. 22). '" Pat. 8 Hen. Ill, m. 8 J. " Close, 10 Hen. Ill, m. 27./. ; ibid. 18 Hen. Ill, m. 25^ " Ibid. 38 Hen. Ill, m. 5. " Pat 49 Hen. Ill, m. 17. " Pat. 17 John, m. 17. '^ Ibid. 19 Hen. Ill, m. 14. 180 MARITIME HISTORY be considered the ancestor of the conservators of truces instituted locally by Henry V, and of the later vice-admirals of the coast whom we find acting from the middle of the sixteenth century. A part of the system of defence under the care of the keeper was the line of fire beacons, corresponding to the modern coastguard stations, usually placed on a hill near the shore and guarded in war time by a watch from the neighbouring parishes.'" The Poole men were responsible for the beacon on Worbarrow Down.'^ The Welsh wars of 1277 and 1282-3 were mainly fought by the feudal armies. The Cinque Ports furnished most of the squadrons — not large ones — required for the Welsh wars, but the later Scotch campaigns stirred the coasts to greater activity. The advance of Poole is manifested by its being the recipient, in 1291, with the chief ports, of a mandate to execute a truce with France. '^ At the time when Edward was founding the new Winchelsea he apparently designed creating a town in Dorset on a similar plan, for a writ of 1286 recites that he was trying to settle a town and har- bour ' at Gotowre in Studland parish,' at which the people were to enjoy the same liberties as those of the burgesses of Lyme and Melcombe." This seems to have been at Ower, on the south side of Poole Harbour, but as the new port must have been projected with a view to maritime action, it is not easy to see, however busy it may have been then,"" what advantages for the king's fleets it was expected to present greater than those afforded by Poole. War with France followed a battle in the Channel in 1293 between the Cinque Ports and their allies and the French and their allies. The preparations in England included the construction of 1 1 galleys at the king's cost, at various places ; one, of i 20 oars, was ordered at Lyme, which was to be assisted by Weymouth.^* The town is here therefore classed among the great ports. ^^ The Scotch war of 1295 was the cause of levies round the south coast in the shape of a selection from among ships of 40 tons and upwards. °' There was an attempt to keep the intended place of concentration secret, the persons choosing the ships in Dorset and elsewhere being directed to ' bring them on a certain day to a certain place as instructed by word of mouth.' A large fleet was raised in 1297 ^° transport an army to Flanders ; Edward, in call- ing upon the ports, including the three of Dorset, explained that the matter was among ' the greatest and most arduous that he has had to deal with in any times past.'^* In March, 1301, the ports all round the coast were re- quired to send ships by midsummer for the Scotch campaign ; Poole, Lyme, and Weymouth were assessed at one vessel each." Again, in November, 1302, the ports were warned for service to be ready by the following spring, Weymouth and Lyme being rated at one ship each while Wareham and Brownsea were joined with Poole for the third." This time security was '* Cf. Southey, Livts ef the Admirals, i, 360 (quoting Froissart), as to the. method of constructing tlie beacons. See also Stubbs, Const. Hist. \\, 285 (2nd ed.), on mediaeval coast defence. " Sydenham, Hist, of Poole, 99, who refers to a corporation MS. giving the n.imes of those who were to find the hobelers to keep the watch. " Pat. 19 Edvv. I, m. 17. " Ibid. 14 Edw. I, m. 24. " Hutchins {Hist, of Dorset, i, 463, 3rd ed.) notices that Purbeck stone was formerly exported from Ower, and th.it in ancient times it was much frequented, as is shown by the deep tracks across the he.itli. " K. R. Memo. R. 69, No. 77. The account of the expenses incurred still exists (Exch. Accts. K. R. bdle. 5, No. 21). " The seal of Lyme Regis, with a ship which presents some peculiarities, is of this reign. " Pat. 23 Edw. I, m. 7, m. 6. " Close, 25 Edw. I, m. \-] d. '"" Pat. 29 Edw. I, m. 20. '"^ Ibid. 30 Edw. I, m. 2. 181 A HISTORY OF DORSET required from the shipowners that their vessels would appear because some of the ports, amongst them Lyme and Poole, had neglected the orders of the previous year. Two of the king's clerks were sent round the coast to punish the defaulters at their discretion," Probably both shipowners and seamen found piracy or privateering more attractive than the royal service, but notwithstanding occasional disobedience there was no general disinclination to respond to the demands of the crown. The yearly levies of ships and men would seem to be destructive of commerce, but in reality were not nearly so injurious to it as they appear, for it was only during the summer months that the king's fleets were large in the number of ships. Moreover a trading voyage involved great risk of loss from ' wreck, piracy, and privateers, or in the sale of the cargo ; the king's service meant certain pay for the fitting and hire of the ship, besides sixpence a day for the officers, and threepence a day for the men — very liberal wages allow- ing for the greater value of money. Thus both owner and sailor were on a safer footing in serving the king than in trading for themselves. The incessant embargoes that harassed commerce — then much increased — under Edward III were not yet common, and the alacrity with which most of the ports answered the demands made upon them shows that the assistance required was not oppressive, nor even unwelcome, especially as those who contributed to the sea service were freed from any aid towards that by land. There was no permanent naval organization at this time. The king possessed some ships of his own, and the commanders were usually charged with their maintenance. When a fleet was to be raised from the merchant navy a certain extent of coast was allotted to one of the king's clerks, or to a serjeant- at-arms, who acted with the bailiffs of the port towns in selecting ships and men and seeing them dispatched to the place of meeting. If a ship did not appear, or the men deserted, they or the owner might be required to find security to come before the king ; and although there was as yet no statute ■* dealing with the offence they might, as we see, be punished at the discretion of the king or his representatives. Wrecking and piracy were recognized, it illegal, industries, and the Dorset men were no better than their neighbours in practising them. The character and conformation of the coast must have provided much material for wreckers, for the clumsy mediaeval ship was doomed if caught either side of Portland in a gale from an unfavourable quarter. In the human factor appetite grew with what it fed upon until the deeds of the Dorset wreckers were notorious even in the nineteenth century. In 1305 a Spanish ship was wrecked near Portland ; the crew escaped, but a commission of oyer and terminer names 235 persons known to have plundered the ship and broken it up.-' In the following year a Bordeaux vessel was lost under Corfe, and although some of the crew and two dogs escaped alive the people thereabouts carried away the cargo and destroyed the ship.^° Piracy became so prevalent that in 131 1 the county had a commission of inquiry to itself in order to ascertain why so many foreign merchantmen were plundered in " Pat. 30 Edw. I, m. 14. " The first statute was 2 Ric. II, st. 1, cap. 4, by which deserters were fined double their wages and imprisoned for a year. " Pat. 33 Edw. I, pt. i, m. 13 d'. '" Ibid. 3+ Edw. I, m. 28 Ci93 lO-f- being issued for works at Portland, £1^'^ ^^- ^^- ^^^ Sands- foot, jC202 lis. Sd. for Brownsea, j^20 for Peverel Point, and ^^1° ^o^" Handfast Point."' In 1586 the deputy lieutenants of the county informed the Council that Portland Roads were quite unprotected by either of the castles, and that an enemy's fleet could ride there altogether out of range."* This, taken literally, is untrue, but they probably included Weymouth Roads in the anchorage. They recommended the erection at Weymouth, which was defenceless, of two forts; the town, they said, was too poor to build them, but would maintain them if the queen bore the first expense. The Weymouth people had made a previous attempt to obtain ' a small bulwark ' in 1583 when the pirate, Purser, had threatened to burn the town ; the '" S.P. Dom. Chas. II, ccxcv. No. 76. "^ Admlr. Ct. Exemp. xiii, Nos. 211-13. Imperfect. "' S.P. Dom. Eliz. xcvii, No. 8. "" Ibid, clxili, No. 41. '" ^«''', p- i99- '" S.ixton's map of Dorset of 1575 (Harl. MSS. 3324) shows .1 block-house at North Haven Point ; it is not mentioned in any document iinown to the writer. '" S.P. Dom. Eliz. clxx, No. 91. "* Ibid, cxciii, No. 43. 205 A HISTORY OF DORSET Privy Council then agreed that it would be advisable, but that the inhabitants must contribute to the charge."' The proposal therefore fell through, as did that of 1586, for Elizabeth did nothing for her subjects that they could possibly be made to do for themselves. In a narrow sense the queen's policy was shrewd, for the probability of invasion was obvious in 1587 and the Weymouth and Melcombe people were so alarmed by their helpless position that they were considering whether they would leave the town or bear the cost of defence themselves.'^* They chose the latter course, and in a paper of 1588 refer to the fact that they had built ' a platform' at their own charge.'" From a contemporary plan it seems to have been placed on what is now the esplanade at Melcombe, but it remained without guns.'" The ' block-house ' at Melcombe, often referred to in the municipal records, dates from 1567, and a gunner was appointed in 1568.'" There was preparation for war in 1574, when the zeal shown by the leading gentlemen of Dorset caused Elizabeth to send them letters of thanks assurino; them that their ' diligence and forwardness shall be holden in remem- brance to their comfort.''*" No Dorset ship is known to have sailed in Drake's fleets of 1585 and 1587, although men from the county are very likely to have been among the crews. In December, 1587, when the political horizon was very black, military officers were sent into most of the coast counties to advise upon measures of defence ; "' Nicholas Dawtrey went to Dorset, but if he made any report no action was taken upon it. By the following April even Elizabeth was beginning to doubt the success of her diplomacy, and it was thought time to take fresh precautions. Sir John Norreys, a soldier of reputation, was sent round Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, and Dorset to inspect them, and his report on Dorset is dated 24 April.'*' It is not a very illuminating document ; no sufficient distinction is drawn between the small possibilities of landing at such places as Bridport and Charmouth, and the shelter offered by Portland Roads. The Armada carried no invading force of its own ; its purpose was to ensure the crossing of Parma's army by destroying the English fleet, but if it had carried an adequate force Elizabeth and the Council might well have looked on Port- land with anxious eyes. There is no trace in the deliberations of the Council and the soldiers that they ever recognized until the last moment that the junction with Parma was the key to the Spanish plans, and that the strate- gical centre, if attack was awaited, was therefore the eastern Channel, yet Norreys was quite content with garrisons of a few scores of men at Portland and Sandsfoot and a concentration of, nominally, 1,500 men at Weymouth. It was argued that the Armada, riding in Portland Roads, would be exposed to south-east gales, and would therefore not dare to take up the anchorage ; but such gales are rare in summer, and something must inevitably be risked in war. Ralegh, the greatest English strategist of his generation, saw the importance of Portland, and in 1587 urged upon Burghley the necessity for '■' Moule, Charters of Weymouth, 154. '" Ibid. 157. '" S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccix, No. 94. '■« Ibid, ccxiv, No. II ; Cott. MSS. Aug. I, i, 32. '" Pat. 10 Eliz. pt. viii, m. 28. It is called Weymouth in the patent. '* Acts of P.C. 24 Oct. 1574. To Lord Howard of Bindon, Sir Henry Ashley, Sir John Yonge, and Nicholas Turbervile. '" Ibid. 26 Dec. 1587. '«> Hirl. MSS. 3324, fol. 42. 206 MARITIME HISTORY more powerful defences there."' The admirals desired to go to meet the Armada on the Portuguese coast, a course of action which, if they had fought successfully, would have secured the safety of Portland and every other English roadstead. The experience of 1587 and of later years showed that the brunt of the fighting had always to be borne by men-of-war, and that the chief value of armed merchantmen was to inspire the confidence given by number. This was understood in 1588, however, only by a few seamen ; therefore in that year the whole of the English coast was called upon to help, not by a general impressment but by sending ships according to order to join the royal fleet. On 31 March a general embargo on shipping was proclaimed, the object being to retain not so much the vessels as the men. This was followed the next day by orders to the port towns to furnish ships at their own expense, all to be more than 60 tons."* Weymouth and Melcombe were set down for two ships and a pinnace, Poole for one ship and a pinnace, and Lyme was linked with Chard and Axminster for two ships and a pinnace, the two inland towns having of course only to contribute towards the expense. There was an auxiliary order that most of the cost was to be borne by those persons who had profited by privateering. Both now and on subsequent occasions many of the ports sought excuses either to obtain a reduction in the demands made upon them or to have the county and adjacent towns joined with them towards the charges. Within a fortnight all the Dorset ports protested to the Council that there were various reasons why they were too hardly treated. The mayor and aldermen of Poole were the first to enlarge, within forty-eight hours of the receipt of the order, on their disabilities. They said that there was, at the moment, only one ship of above 60 tons in port, and that she was about sailing for New- foundland,"' and that the Council were quite wrong in supposing that any of the Poole owners had made a profit by privateering, or, indeed, that any one of them had indulged in any speculation of the kind. The Council were besought ' to consider of the great decay and disability of this poor town ' due to several causes, including pirates at Studland Bay, ' whereby we are utterly unable to perform your Lordships' commandment.' "° The corpora- tion of Lyme followed on 9 April ; '" they had no ships at home of the required tonnage, but offered one of 40 tons, and complained that certain inhabitants of Axminster had already refused any payments in aid. They suggested that any future levies of the kind should be based on a wider assessment among more towns. The mayor and corporation of Weymouth did not answer until the i6th ; "* they did not deny that prize goods had been brought, to some extent, into the two towns, but said that the owners mostly dwelt elsewhere, and that Weymouth and Melcombe were ' of small ability and in part decayed.' They added that notwithstanding their dis- abilities they would provide the assistance required, but requested the Council to add some other towns as contributories. There was no immediate answer to this, but in June the Council ordered that Dorchester was to help Wey- mouth."' The question of revictualling these ships came up again in July, "' Lansd. MSS. 52, fol. 66. '8' Jets ofP.C. 31 March, I April, 1588. '" She sailed in defiance of the embargo {atite, p. 204). ""' S.P. Dom. Ellz. ccix, No. 70. "' Ibid. No. 81. '" Ibid. No. 94. '™ Jets ofP.C. 23 June, 1588. 207 A HISTORY OF DORSET when Axminster and Chard were again refractory in bearing their share of the expense. ''" The Dorset ports were not singular in their reluctance ; the same unwillingness was being displayed nearly everywhere round the coast and was, in a great measure, due to the decadence of towns which had been relatively wealthy in mediaeval times. From Lyme came the 'Jacobs 90 tons, and the Revef?ge, 60 tons, Captain Richard Bedford ; from Weymouth the Galleon, 100 tons, Captain Richard Millard, and the Katherine, 66 tons ; Poole was unrepresented. When the Spaniards were off Portland four more Weymouth ships, with 300 men on board, put off to share the danger and the honour ; three of these were the Golden Rial, 120 tons, the Heath Hen, 60 tons, and the Bark Sutton, 70 tons ; "' the fourth was probably the Bark Bond. They perhaps helped by their presence to comfort the men-of-war who were really fighting the action off Portland on 23 July. A Spanish flagship was brought into Torbay on 26 July, and Carew Ralegh, elder brother of Sir Walter, at once asked that six of her guns might be sent to Portland Castle. *'" It was late in the day to think of coast defences, but the Weymouth people, taking advantage of the arrival of another captured Spanish flagship, the San Salvador, in Portland Roads, petitioned for some guns out of her for their platform which was built but not armed."* The Council acceded to this request and ordered eight brass and six iron guns to be given to them."* The San Salvador remained at Portland for some months ; she was lost in Studland Bay, on her way to Portsmouth, in November."^ Her crew stayed, as prisoners, in Weymouth, and in December were behaving in a very disorderly manner perhaps because, as in Devon, they were left to starve or to depend on the charity of the country-side ; the Council ordered them to prison and a diet of bread and water."* The armed merchantmen were of little or no use during the Armada campaign, and the government must have regretted the vast expense entailed. In many cases the ships had been equipped by means of advances obtained from private individuals, and sent to sea long before the money necessary was collected. After the crisis it became still more difficult to collect the assess- ments, many of the corporations squabbling about their shares or attempting to evade payment altogether. In September, 1588, Axminster and Chard were still arguing with Lyme about their responsibilities ; at Weymouth Captain Richard Millard had expended ^(^45 i about his ship, the Galleon, and was still unpaid.'" In the latter case the Council, believing that Weymouth was really poor, directed that Blandford, Cerne Abbas, Shaftesbury, and Wareham should be rated in aid. There must have been reasons, satisfac- tory to the Council, for the absence of any assistance from Poole, but there are indications that no great desire was felt in the town to render service to the state. In 1591 troops for France were under orders to embark there ; the mayor did his best to get ships but the owners unrigged them, where- upon the mayor committed the contumacious proprietors to prison, leading "" S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxii, No. 43. '" Ibid, ccxiv. No. 11. They are called volunteers, but the bill sent in to the government for the Golden Rial exists (ibid, ccxv, No. 20 (i)). "■ Ibid, ccxiii. No. 43. "^ Ibid, ccxiv, No. 1 1. "' Ibid. No. 55. "^ Ibid, ccxviii. No. 24. "" Jat o/P.C. 31 Dec. 1588. '" Ibid, xvi, 301 ; S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxvi. No. 27. 208 MARITIME HISTORY them to use ' very bad language ' and to threaten revenge."^ The Council called their language ' lewd and undutiful ' and ordered the principal mis- demeanants to be sent up to London. The 1589 voyage to Portugal was a joint-stock affair under Norreys and Drake who hired their ships. Although nearly 80 were taken up Dorset does not appear to have supplied any. The ports were not again called upon by the queen for ships until the Cadiz voyage of 1596 was under considera- tion ; but in the interval those of Dorset were carrying on what must have been a successful privateering war on their own account. Between 1587 and 1598 we find 23 ships of Weymouth, six of Lyme, and three of Poole engaged in prize-hunting, and that the business was followed so long points to good fortune.'^' One of these vessels, the Bark Bond (owners John Bond and Wm. and Ric. Pitt) made an especial haul in 1592, when she met the Grace of Dover which had on board the passengers and crew of the great carrack, the Madre de Dios, just taken by an English squadron and the richest capture of the reign. They were supposed to have been plundered before being put on board the Grace, but Captain Aire of the Bark Bond brought her to and managed to extract 50,000 ducats and many precious stones from them. A warrant to arrest Captain Aire issued later.""" The failure of the 1589 expedition had made Elizabeth avoid enter- prises on a large scale ; it was not, therefore, until the close of 1595 that an undertaking, of which the destination was then uncertain, was decided upon for the following year. On 2 i December a circular letter was addressed to the ports, generally, requiring ships to be ready by the next spring, armed, manned, and victualled at local charge for five months ; Dorset was called upon for two.^"^ All the port ships were used as transports or for other subsidiary purposes in the Cadiz voyage ; the Expedition and Catherine, which carried soldiers, and both of Weymouth, were the Dorset ones, and 130 seamen as well came from Weymouth and Melcombe.""^ The attempts at evasion of payment were even more marked now than in 1588 ; towns and individuals everywhere shirked their assessments. Weymouth and Melcombe were charged with >C4°°» towards which the other Dorset ports were required to contribute _;^ 160, but there was great difficulty in obtaining it as well as the ratings in Weymouth itself. The only remedy the Council could apply was to order that refractory individuals should be sent to London to appear before them, a punishment which might obviously be made a very heavy one in view of the direct and indirect expense involved. By December, 1596, the mayor of Weymouth had written six times to the Council complaining that the corporation could not obtain payment of the jri6o ; in the following February it was still owing, and their lordships wrote to the deputy-lieutenants of Dorset that 'a great contempt' was being committed, and that if the money was not at once collected one of them was to appear in London.^"'' This threat proved unsuccessful, so that in May it was resolved that personal application should be made by a Council "* S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxiiii, No. 43 ; ^cts ofP.C. 20 Oct. 1592. ''' Harl. MSS. 598. The year gi\en in the text does not mean that the business ceased in 1598, but only that there are no accounts for any later date. '°° Cecil MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), iv, 237 ; Lansd. MSS. 67, fol. 116. "" Acls of P.C. 21 Dec. 1595. *" Moule, Charters of Weymouth, 134 ; Cecil MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), vi, 293. Acts oj P.C. 7 Sept. 7 Dec. 1596, 27 Feb. 1597. 2 209 27 203 A HISTORY OF DORSET messenger to every one in Dorset who was still recalcitrant, and that on further refusal such should be brought before the Council.^"* However, the debts incurred in relation to the Catherine were still unsettled in 1602.""' The revolt against these Cadiz assessments was so widespread, and so many awkward constitutional questions were being raised in some of the counties, that there was no further attempt to levy ships in the same way during the remainder of the reign. Throughout these years of war Elizabeth, partly as the result of her own ignorance and nervousness and partly perhaps as a matter of policy, kept her subjects on tenterhooks of expectation of invasion. Recurrent panics followed year after year, and she did nothing to quiet them even when information in the hands of the government must have shown their baseless- ness. In 1598, when Philip was dying and Spain exhausted, ruined, and helpless, the usual fear recurred, and a new survey of the Dorset coast was ordered.^''^ Who undertook it is not known, but their conclusions, that 500 sail of 1,000 tons each might ride in Worbarrow Bay and Shipman's Pool, and that 600 or 700 sail of 1,000 tons could ride in Swanage and Studland Bays, do not inspire faith in their knowledge or capacity."" They thought that in Poole Harbour 500 sail of 120 tons could find shelter ; as there had been only 12 ft. on Poole Bar in 1539,^°^ and as the depth was no doubt the same in 1598, it was practically prohibited to an enemy's fleet. They said, what everyone knew, that Portland Roads was a tempting objec- tive for an invader, and a Spanish spy in 1599 made the same report with the addition that it was nearly defenceless ; this man also remarked that Poole was unfortified because only 50 or 60-ton vessels could enter the harbour.""^ One of the worst, because one of the most groundless, panics of the reign occurred in 1599 when preparations more befitting such a year as 1588 were made. No Spanish squadron was ever nearer England than Coruna, but a powerful fleet was mobilized in the Downs and thousands of the county levies called under arms. Naturally the towns took alarm ; in August a petition came from Weymouth representing its weak state, and the inhabitants, in terror, were sending away the women and children and removing their property; a garrison of 1,000 men was requested.^'" On 1 1 August they wrote, ' we have armed all sorts of our people that are able to make a stand at a street corner,' but all this desperate preparation to die in the last ditch was quite needless. However, they can scarcely be blamed for keeping step with the Council, who, on i 8 August, wrote to the deputy- lieutenants of Dorset that they were sorry to hear of the little regard which was being paid to the safety of Weymouth 'in this time of great danger.'"'^ As on 14 August they had themselves suspended further military levies, it was scarcely reasonable to write on the i8th blaming their sub- ordinates for neglecting to collect men. The other Dorset towns were less nervous, and only stood ready without troubling the government ; on 7 August the Council ordered the mayor of Lyme to hire a pinnace to scout on the Portuguese coast.''^ •»• Acts ofP.C. 30 May, 1597. "^ Moule, op. cit. 138. *» Harl. MSS. 3324, fol. 6z. '"' Worb.irrow Bay is rather more than a mile long and half a mile wide, but with no anchorage within 400 yards of the shore ; Shipman's (or Chapman's) Pool is less than half the size of Worbarrow Kay. "^ Cott. MSS. Aug. I. i. 31. =>»' S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccl.xx, No. 77. -"' Ibid, cclxxii, Nos. 19, 25. »" Coke MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), i, 22. '" S.P. Dom. Eliz. cclxxii, No. 21. 210 MARITIME HISTORY As piracy died down, the scourge of Dunkirk privateering, which was little different, became more and more virulent. Philip II had always hesi- tated to issue letters of marque, not for humanitarian reasons but because there were so few seamen in Spain, and permission several times given to his subjects had been in each instance speedily withdrawn. Philip III reversed this policy for Spain, and the governors of the Low Countries had never known any reasons for hesitation ; therefore, as Dunkirk, Sluys, Nieuport, and Ostend fell into their hands, they became privateer bases which inflicted terrible injury on English commerce. As early as 1590 the Weymouth burgesses were asked to set out two vessels at their own expense, to help to clear the Channel, with a promise that they might keep all they captured. -^■' In 1600 the masters of storeships, taken up for Ireland at Poole and Weymouth, were refusing to sail because they regarded their capture by Dunkirkers as certain.-'* The accession of James I brought peace with Spain, but the Dutch and Flemish privateers now inflicted on the English the same miseries the latter had imposed on neutrals a generation earlier. What was far worse, because it added the horrors of slavery to material loss, was the appearance in the Channel of Mohammedan pirates, usually Algerines or Saleemen, from the Mediterranean. They came under the guidance of English and Dutch renegades, the former being mostly seamen thrown out of employment by the peace; and before long, aided by the rapid degeneration of the English navy, they established a reign of terror on the south coast. Like the pirates of the preceding reign, they found Swanage and Studland Bays convenient haunts, which caused a petition to be sent to the Privy Council that the block-house at Peverel Point might be repaired and armed as a protection against them.-'° The first naval armament for foreign service of the reign of James was due, nominally, to the necessity for chastising these Moorish pirates by attacking them in their lair at Algiers. The fleet, under Sir Robert Mansel, was really sent to the Mediterranean to give weight to the king's foreign policy at the moment, but it was a good excuse to make the ports, as chiefly interested in the ostensible object, bear most of the expense. A circular letter from the Privy Council in February, 161 8-19, recited that 300 ships and many hundreds of men had been taken by the Algerines within a few years, and that the king was resolved to extirpate them. To help towards this laudable purpose Weymouth and Lyme were each assessed at £4.^0, and Poole at ^^loo.-'* The towns writhed as usual. The mayor of Poole lost no time in replying that their only trade, with one exception, was the Newfoundland fishery, and that they could not raise jTioo but would try to send £s°-~^^ C)n 10 March the mayor of Weymouth and Melcombe wrote to the judge of the Admiralty Court to ask his intercession ; he said that on account of their heavy losses by the Algerines only £100 had been raised ; that the Council had judged of the wealth of the town by the customs returns, but that three-fourths of the customs were paid by inland merchants and that the townspeople were not interested in it."'' The Weymouth cor- poration volunteered a contribution of ^loo in settlement, or offered to *" Jets o/P.C. 4 March, 1589-90. =" Ibid. 10 Oct. 1600. "' S.P. Dom. Jas. I, civ, No. 63. "' Ibid, cv, No. 89. '" Ibid, cvii, No. 39. ^'» Add. MSS. 36J67, fol. 377. 211 A HISTORY OF DORSET advance ^400 if allowed to repay themselves by levying i per cent, on all goods inw^ards and outwards. This last course was adopted, but the result was that the inland shippers transferred their trade to Poole.°" The mayor of Lyme answered so quickly that little time could have been devoted to inquiry ; "" the town, he wrote, could not provide j^450, which should be raised from the merchants of Bristol and Exeter who were the principal shippers through Lyme. In May, 1620, in response to further pressure from the Council, the mayor of Weymouth replied that shipowners in the town had lost ^3,000 at sea since April, 1619.^^^ Mansel sailed in October, 1620, and returned in August, 1621, having done nothing. A commentary on his utility was supplied by the mayor of Weymouth, who wrote in 1622 that nearly every vessel sent to the Mediter- ranean from the town in 1621 had been taken by the Algerines or other Moorish pirates.""' Purely English piracy, although diminished, was by no means extinct. A general piracy commission had issued for all the counties in 1608; several pirates are mentioned as frequenting Dorset waters, and in 1623 an official expressed his opinion that the reason they flocked to Weymouth was that the people there traded with them and that the Admiralty Court officers connived at their presence."^ The plea of poverty constantly put forward by the ports, although relatively true, must not be taken too literally. For the reign of James we are able to measure, roughly, the amount of shipping belonging to most of them, and shipping is necessarily the gauge of their prosperity. Mr. R. G. Marsden has compiled a list of ships' names occurring in legal and historical documents of this period, and also in various printed sources;^''* he has found 17 Lyme vessels mentioned, 19 of Poole, 20 of Weymouth, and one of Purbeck.''" There must have been many others that sailed through an uneventful career without attracting the attention of the law, the Admiralty officials, or the customs. There was also a certain amount of shipbuilding. A list exists of some 380 ships built between 1625 and 1638, the certificate of building being necessary to obtain a licence to buy ordnance."' Four were constructed at Weymouth, one, launched by Nicholas Awdney, being of 240 tons ; the others were of under 100 tons. Only one, of 80 tons, came from Lyme. Weymouth must have had something more than a local repu- tation in shipbuilding for in 1636 two officials came there to press ship- wrights for the Sovereign of the Seas, then under construction at Woolwich. It was necessary to conceal their purpose so they brought the shipwrights together for a drinking bout, pretending to have a ship of their own in hand. But the officials got drunk themselves and revealed the secret, where- upon the shipwrights fled from the town, and one of the press-masters knocked up the mayor at 4 a.m. for assistance while the other one roused the constables an hour earlier to feed his horse. "^ Mansel's abortive expedition of 1 620-1 served only to encourage the Algerines. Often the south-western coast was practically blockaded by them »"S.P. Dom. Jas. I, cix, No. 81. =™ Ibid, cv. No. 141 ; 27 Feb. 1618-19. "' Ibid, cxv, No. 57. "*' Ibid, cxxx, No. 22. "' S.P. Dom. Jas. I, cli, No. 21. '•'* Tram. Roy. Hist. Soc. xix, 311. -" Qy. Swanage. ™ S.P. Dom. Chas. I, xvi, xvil. ''^^ Ibid, cccxxxvii, No. 18 ; cccxliii, No. 4 ; ctcxlviii, No. 90. The story, as told in the State Papers, is amusing but rather involved. 212 MARITIME HISTORY so that the coasting and cross-Channel trade was stopped, and fishermen dared not go out. In 1636 the western ports, including Poole, Weymouth, and Lyme, petitioned that the coast was ' infested ' with Turks, and that they had lost, within the last few years, 87 ships worth nearly jT 100,000 and 1,160 men."' Wrought up to more active measures than writing petitions, the three Dorset joined with five Devon ports to send John Crewkerne, who had been town clerk of Lyme but was then living at Exeter, to London to see the principal members of the Privy Council individually ; of the expenses inci- dental to the mission the three Dorset towns bore three-twenty-fourths. "' Crewkerne saw several members of the Council and found them all sympathetic, but Archbishop Laud was especially earnest ; he ' gave this answer, striking his hands upon his breast, that while he had breath in his body he would to the uttermost of his power advance a business so necessary.' ^"' The king promised, vaguely, such measures as would sweep the Algerines and Saleemen off the seas, but we find that in 1638 Poole and Weymouth were still suffer- ing, and that 27 Algiersmen were then known to be in the Channel or bound for it.^" The inability to deal with these human vermin was only one indica- tion of the general rottenness of administration which, during the reign of Charles I, consumed the resources of the country without result. Under the stimulus of expected invasion some attention had been given to the coast defences, but after 1588 they were again neglected. In 1593 Portland was disarmed and left ' wholly unprovided,' all the brass guns having been taken away for use in the Navy."'' The ruinous condition of Brownsea, where there was not a gun mounted, was reported to Burghley in 1596, but it was in much the same state when the panic of 1599 brought it again under notice ; there was then only a caretaker in it."'' At the same time Portland and Sandsfoot Castles were said to be ' unfurnished,' which may mean much or little."* As regards Sandsfoot it certainly meant much, for from another paper of the same date it is clear that part of the ramparts had fallen down and that the place was going to destruction from neglect."^ In 1610 there was a grant of £2^0 for the repair of Sandsfoot,"* and then the fortifications everywhere were forgotten until 1623, when relations with Spain were becoming strained. In July the Ordnance Office officials were ordered to survey the fortifications from the Thames to Cornwall ; at Portland there were 13 guns and at Sandsfoot 10, but the sea there was undermining the front. "^ To put both castles in good condition it was estimated that ^1,000 would be required. At Weymouth, in 1622, there were guns at the Nothe and in the Bulwark ; in 1625 the corporation resolved that the block-house at Mel- combe should be built up with stone."^ When it appeared probable that war with France was approaching the ports grew fearful of cross-Channel raids, and in 1626 estimates were prepared for two more batteries, one at Weymouth and one at Melcombe ; towards this the corporation offisred jr20 of the cost."' In 1628 there was no fort at the Nothe ; in petitioning for one the corporation •■* S.P. Dom. Chas. I, dxxxvi, No. 97. -' Moule, op. cit. 179. -■■" Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. iii, App. 346. ™ Coke MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), ii, 191, 192. *" Jas o/P.C. 7 Aug. 1593. ''^ S.P. Dom. Eliz. cclvii, No. 77 ; Cecil MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), viii, 152 ; Harl. MSS. 3324, fol. 62. "* S.P. Dom. Eliz. cclxxii, No. 25. '" Cecil MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), viii, 148. "'■ S.P. Dom. Jas. I, Ivii, 1 1 Aug. 1610. "^^ Ibid, cxlix, No. 104 ; Harl. MSS. 1326, fol. 70, 72. "' Moule, op. cit. 171. ^' Ibid. 174. 213 A HISTORY OF DORSET said that 200 sail of any burthen could ride in the harbour.'-^" When the war had commenced 16 guns were sent to Weymouth and five to Lyme; "" to receive these the burgesses of Lyme built a sconce at a cost of ;r2oo, but the mayor complained that many of the inhabitants refused to contribute.^*- The last notice of the county fortifications before the Civil War is of about 1636, when the annual cost of Portland Castle was ^T 1,481 14J. zd. \^^ Sandsfoot is not in the list. The war with Spain gave occasion for the Cadiz expedition of 1625. The fleet was made up of men-of-war and hired transports, the counties not being required to find any armed ships. No Dorset vessel appears in the fleet list but the port of origin is not always given. In 1626 Charles, on the brink, of war with France, resolved to follow the precedent of Elizabeth's reign and called upon the maritime shires for 56 ships to join the royal fleet. On 21 June there was an order to press 250 seamen in the county ; "" this was followed on the 30th by a demand for two ships from Weymouth and Poole, ' with the other sea ports and towns of that part,' and for one from Lyme.'** Each vessel was to be of 200 tons and 12 guns, and to be victualled and stored for three months. The government, anticipating that there would be no ship of sufficient size belonging to Weymouth, offered to send one from London for the corporation to hire, promised that the service should be con- fined to the Enghsh coast, and directed that the proportion of crew to tonnage was to be two men for every three tons. The Dorset justices, who made themselves the spokesmen of the general discontent, were sharply reprimanded by the Council, but the contingent was reduced to two ships. Originally the levies had been intended to meet at Portsmouth by 3 i July, 1626, but that had been found to be quite impracticable and the preparations lingered until the following year. In the meanwhile the ports bombarded the Council with protests. The Poole men asseverated their inability ; they said that they had lost (^^-.'^oo by the embargoes in France and Spain, and that the town had 400 widows and children to support. -^'^ Lyme pro- fessed itself too poor and also dwelt upon the embargoes, while the inhabitants of Weymouth declared themselves to be quite unable to meet the requirements of the Council."^ In April, 1627, the Weymouth corporation stated the town losses at jr2,6oo, besides the drain on their resources in the support of the wives and children of seamen taken by the Algerines ; they had seven ships embargoed at Rouen and five at Bordeaux.-''' No doubt those ports whose principal business relations were with France felt the effects of war acutely ; in September the mayor of Lyme wrote that there would be no trade again until there was peace with France, and that the customs receipts for the whole quarter were under ^120.'-*' Many of the Poole and Weymouth vessels embargoed abroad were probably Newfoundland ships bringing their catches straight from the Banks ; it was no wonder that these southern ports reeled under the effects of such losses and a direct and heavy taxation, to which they in particular were subjected, when the same circumstances that caused it rendered them especially unable to meet it. Matters did not improve for '*» S.P. Dom. Chas. I, ci, No. 15. "' Ibid, ccxiv, No. 49. "- Ibid, xxxi. No. 107 ; xxxii. No. 106. "" Ibid, cccxl, No. 39. '" H\st. MSS. Com. Rep. v, App. 581. "" Ibid. 584 ; S.P. Dom. Chas. I, xxx. No. 81. "^ S.P. Dom. Chas. I, 1, No. 57. One of the ships thus lost or detained was of 190 tons. -" Ibid. 1, No. 58 ; liii. No. 27 (i). =■" Ibid. Ixi, No. 7. "' Ibid. Ixxviii, No. 74. 214 MARITIME HISTORY them ; in 1628 the Poole townsmen returned their losses within four years as 20 ships of 1,465 tons, there being only 16, of 838 tons, left to work with.^^° A condition of war led to returns of ships and men being again required. That of 1629^°^ assigned 20 vessels to Poole, including 2 of 150 tons, with 82 shipmasters and men. At Lyme there were 18 ships, 2 being of 80 tons, and 1 1 1 men ; at Weymouth and Melcombe 26 ships, the largest being of 100 tons, and 301 men. The totals for the county were 68 ships, 135 masters and masters' mates, and 950 seamen and fishermen; of the smaller places there were 37 men living at Wareham, 36 at Swanage, 25 at Studland, 86 at Chideock, 35 at Charmouth, 49 at Bridport, 64 at Burton Bradstock, 64 at Abbotsbury, 35 at Wyke Regis, and 36 in the isle of Port- land. At Ower, which Edward I had intended to make a flourishing port,-" there were only two. So far as the ships are concerned the foregoing can only refer to those at home at the date of examination, when the largest must have been at sea, for another return of 1634"'' gives Dorset six of from 100 to 250 tons. Notwithstanding their war losses the ports had sufficient capital and enterprise to follow privateering speculation vigorously. Between 1625 and 1628 the Leopard, 240 tons, Abigail, 120 tons. Pilgrim, 200 tons, Elizabeth, 100 tons, Sarah Bonaventure, 100 tons, and Stephen, 100 tons, of Weymouth, the Garland, 160 tons, of Poole, and the Bonaventure, 100 tons, of Lyme, were among the large ships for which the owners obtained letters of marque.^" But not improbably some of these were hired and really belonged to other ports ; the Leopard, however, was a Weymouth owned ship. In the year ending with February, 1629, letters of marque were taken out for eleven Wey- mouth ships, three of Lyme, and one of Poole. ^" Here the largest Weymouth vessel was of 140 tons. Charles had issued ship-money writs in 1628, but, alarmed at the feeling aroused, he withdrew them at once. Forced at last to choose between facing a Parliament and raising money by this method the writs of 20 October, 1634, were sent out directed to Poole, Weymouth and Melcombe, Wareham, Lyme, and Bridport for a 400-ton ship armed, manned, stored, and victualled for twenty-six weeks' service. "^^ As the ships required were larger than those possessed by any port except London an equivalent in money might be paid to the Treasury, to be applied to the preparation of a king's ship, and the Dorset ports were therefore given the option of paying f^2,zo\. H.M.S. Adventure was allotted to Dorset, but it was found subsequently that a mistake had been made and the county rated too low in money.*" The second ship- money writ was of 4 August, 1635, ^""^ ^^^ general to the inland shires as well as to those of the coast ; Dorset was required to find a 500-ton ship or ^^5,000.-^' The first assessments were £bo on Poole, >C^°° o" Dorchester, i^-jo on Lyme, ^^30 on Bridport, ^20 on Wareham, and f^\o on Corfe, but these assessments were afterwards altered, f^\o being then placed on Wey- mouth."' In April, 1636, money was coming in freely, the county being ^'° S.P. Dom. Chas. I, ciii. No. 43. =^> Ibid, cxxxviii, No. 11. ''' Ante, p. 181. ""' S.P. Dom. Chas. I, cclxx, No. 64. Or perhaps the return ofpeace had encouraged ship-building on .1 comparatively large scale. ''■' Ibid. cxv. «* Ibid, cxxxvi. No. 79. '■' Ibid, cclxxvi. No. 64. '°' S.P. Dom. Chas. I, cclxxxiv. No. 15 ; cclxxxvi, No. 7. '^' Ibid, ccxcvi, No. 69. »^^ Ibid, cccii, No. 78 ; Harl. MSS. 6843, fol. 93. 215 A HISTORY OF DORSET only ^^99 1 in arrear,"" but in October there was a new ship-money writ, a new sheriff,^" and a different story. Freke may have been less persuasive than Trenchard or, more probably, the tide of resistance was rising ; at any rate he found much more trouble, and began by distraining on his son to set a good example. He reported that the poorer people paid their money ' like drops of blood,' for to do it some were compelled to sell their only cow and come on the parish. ^^^ In the latest assessments Weymouth and Melcombe were rated for £S^, Dorchester >C45, Lyme and Corfe ^^40 each, Poole £2/\., and Bridport ;C2o.-'* The difficultv of collection grew greater with every month ; in Septem- ber, 1637, the sheriff, Richard Rogers, distrained on Sir Walter Erie and others of the county gentry in order to frighten those lower in the social scale, but Dorset was still j^i,200 in arrear on the last writ."" The fourth writ was not issued until January, 1639, and then the assessments were much reduced, Weymouth and Melcombe being put down for ^(^15, Poole >r 12, Wareham jTio, Lyme £17, and Bridport £S.^^^ By this time it was too late for any modifications to soften the universal spirit of opposition ; the sheriff of 1640, William Churchill, wrote to the Council in April that he had distrained on Lady Ann Ashley, but that her servants had rescued the horses, and that when an attempt was again made in Dorchester to seize them the same result followed ; this, he thought, would be a bad example."' A month later he wrote that he was still levying under distress warrants but that there were no buyers for anything taken ; "'^ by August he reported that he had levied ;^200 at a cost of_^50 to himself, that the country people rescued by force the cattle seized, and that the constables were refusing to make returns or to assist the bailiffs. ^^^ Only half the assessments had been collected, and he sent up the names both of those who refused payment and of those who were active in the rescues. But now the Long Parliament was sitting and sheriffs were to count for little in the immediate future. Along the south coast the resistance to ship-money must have been intensified by the fact that while it was being paid, and while the pretentious lieets equipped with it were cruising uselessly, the Algerines and Saleemen were, as has been noticed, almost stopping Channel trade. Thus all the more considerable English ports, the worst sufferers from Charles's inefScient naval administration, stood by the Parliament even in Royalist counties. Poole and Lyme were ardently Parliamentarian, as were also Dorchester, Portland, and Wareham ; Weymouth and Melcombe were of a more divided allegiance, but with a majority adverse to the king. Early in the Civil War the county came under the control of the Royalists, only Poole and Lyme remaining throughout in the hands of Parliamentary garrisons. The siege of Lyme is famous in local and national annals. As in the case of Plymouth, the Parlia- ment was only able to keep its hold on the town in virtue of having the com- mand of the sea, a supreme advantage to which, in its momentous influence in bringing about the final issue of the Civil War, no historian has yet done full justice. The siege commenced on 20 April, 1644; on 27 April the Ad- '" S.P. Dom. Chas. I, cccxviii, No. 29. **' John Freke, vke Sir Thomas Trenchard. "" S.P. Dom. Chas. I, cccxxxiii, No. 4. '" Ibid, cccli, No. 81. '*' Ibid, ccclxvii, No. 2 ; ccclxx, No. 74. '" Ibid, cccci, No. 38. ''' Ibid, ccccli. No. 13. **' Ibid, cccclv. No. 7. '^ Ibid, cclxiii, No. 26. 216 MARITIME HISTORY miralty Committee of Parliament ordered their admiral, the earl of Warwick, to Lyme with his squadron, ' You well know what consequence the town is to shipping in the west. '^^' Supplies by sea began to come in by 26 April, which was ' a great encouragement ' ; and on 29 April and i i May reinforcements of seamen were put ashore. The admiral was off Lyme on 23 May, and found four vessels already in the anchorage from which powder and provisions had been landed. When Warwick arrived the garrison was in sore need, but corn and powder were sent ashore and the sailors of the squadron added fish and bread saved out of their rations, with shoes and clothes from their kits for the ragged and bare-footed men at the front."" The squadron took part in the operations by sending the ships' boats along the coast towards Bridport, landing in the enemy's rear and thus diverting his attention. "^^ In the town men and women — the latter filled the soldiers' bandoliers while they fought — • were equally undaunted ; but when Prince Maurice drew off on i 5 June it was because the fleet had enabled them to hold out for the coming of the army of relief under the earl of Essex. Nothing exciting happened at Poole. Parliamentary ships appeared there off and on, and an occasional Parliamentary privateer set sail from the harbour. In 1644 the House ordered four guns to be sent to the town and four to Brownsea."" Weymouth changed hands more than once, although Melcombe remained in the possession of the Parliament. But here again the retention of Melcombe and the recapture of Weymouth were largely due to aid brought by sea. When Warwick was there, in 1644, he dwelt on its importance, 'and the relation that its safety has to H.M. navy,' whereupon the Parliamentary committee authorized the governor to put in hand the defences recommended by the earl, and this probably accounts for the appear- ance of a fort at the Nothe, where hitherto only guns behind a breastwork had been in position ; "^ another, the New or Jetty Fort, ordered to be pulled down in 1663, may date from this period."* Several other forts were erected in the two towns during the war, but on the landward side. An order of 29 August, 1653,"^ ^'^^ ^^^ disarmament of Weymouth and Melcombe must have caused the abolition of these. The Council of State directed an engineer to go to Weymouth in 1649 '° build a 'citadel' there, but no record of his proceedings, if any followed, has come down to us."° Sandsfoot Castle, of little importance, mainly followed the fortunes of Weymouth, and Portland surrendered to the Parliament 6 April, 1646. When it yielded there were twenty-one guns in it and plenty of ammunition ; the terms of surrender were designed to ' save the face' of the garrison who were to march out with drums beating and colours flying but who possessed neither drums nor colours."'" Many of them enlisted with the besieging force. Under the Commonwealth one company of foot was divided between Portland and Sandsfoot as garrison. The first Dutch war of 1652-4 was very pleasing to the seamen, and at first volunteers flocked in to man the State's ships. But after the volunteers "*' S.P. Dom. Chas. I, di, 27 April, 1644. Warwick was also to have regard to the safety of Poole. "' Jn Exacl and True Relation in Relieving Lyme, 1644; A Letter from the Rt. Hon. Robert, Earl of Warwirk, . . . 1644. "' Hist. MSS. Com. Ref>. x, App. vi, 152. "' Commons' Journ 28 Sept. 1644. '"S.P. Dom. Chas. I, div, No. 58, July, 1644; Brief Relation of the Surprise of the Forts at ll'ey- mouth, . . . 1644. "• S.P. Dom. Chas. II, xc, No. 6. '" Ibid. Interreg. xxxix. "« Ibid, iii, 20 Oct. 1649. "''^ Add. MSS. 9299, fol. 220. 2 217 28 A HISTORY OF DORSET there was always a residuum who could only be reached by the press system, therefore in Mav, 1652, a circular letter to all the counties directed the im- pressment of all seamen between fifteen and fifty years of age. Armed mer- chantmen were still used with the fleets but such ships were now never under 200 tons ; it is doubtful whether there were any ot sufficient size in Dorset therefore the county took little part in the war beyond finding men. The officials of both Poole and Weymouth were ordered, however, in March, 1652, to report if there were any suitable vessels within their jurisdiction. Besides the fact that the number of seamen in England was insufficient to man the merchant navy as well as the much larger fighting fleets now com- missioned, the difficulty in obtaining men was intensified by the counter- attractions offered by privateers with their slacker discipline and greater chances of prize-money. In December, 1652, wages were raised in the State's ships, and other advantages promised. The men came in more willingly, but there was always a large deficiency. In the same month the mayor of Poole, having been ordered to press 66 men, wrote that he had been able to obtain only 30, and found ' much difficulty ' in the business."' This happened before the publication of the advance in wages, &c. ; a week later the mayor wrote that the notice had been received and proclaimed by beat of drum through the town with the result that men were going ' with more readiness.' "* The improvement was only temporary ; six months later the press-master for the county was directed not to take more than one or two men out of each fishing boat, a severe enough measure in its modified form."' The losses of Weymouth during the Civil War were estimated at j^20,ooo,*"' which must indicate injury to the Newfoundland trade, but in 1657 both Poole and Weymouth were busily at work again. ^'' In this year we find, for the first time, notices of the deterioration of Weymouth Harbour from shoaling, so that ships were obliged to unlade in the Roads for want of quays at the entrance.""' As there had been no marked increase during the seventeenth century in the size of ships trading to and from the third-rate and fourth-rate ports, this seems to point to some comparatively sudden im- pairment. Another hindrance to trade was the presence of the Ostend and Dunkirk privateers, to whom there are numerous references at this period, off the ports. ' Weymouth is infested with these rogues more than any other place,' wrote an official,^*' but that they should come there was at least evidence of its maritime trade. After the Dutch war sailors were wanted for service in the West Indies, an employment regarded with terror by them on account of the death-rate from disease. Although a much smaller number of men than in the Dutch war was required for the war with Spain it was relatively more difficult to obtain them. In 1656 the Navy Commissioners were in- formed that there were plenty of seamen in Lyme, Weymouth, and Poole, but that as soon as a man-of-war appeared at one port the men ran off inland and notice was sent to the other places.^'* Both in Dorset and in other counties the mayors and constables were believed to warn the men and assist them to disappear temporarily. Many of the officials were themselves shipowners, "' S.P. Dom. Interreg. xxvi, No. 55. *■' Ibid, xxii, 3 June, 1653. "' S.P. Dom. Interreg. cliv. No. 50. •" Ibid, cxxvi, No. 4.7. "' Ibid. XXX, No. 100. '" Ellis, Hist, of Weymouth, 22. "^ Ibid, clviii, No. 17. '*« Ibid, cxxxii, No. 67. 218 MARITIME HISTORY and it was contrary to their interests to have their towns cleared of men with a consequent rise of wages and difficulty in getting merchantmen to sea. During the Commonwealth, Weymouth developed a large trade in the manufacture of canvas for the Navy, mainly under the auspices of the Pley family. At the Restoration Portland was armed with i6 guns, but Sandsfoot is not included in the survey of i66i;^*^ the office of keeper of the castle was, however, granted in 1660.^*^ At Portland there was a garrison of 36 men, two matrosses (artillerymen) at Sandsfoot, and one master gunner was attached to Weymouth.^" Dorset was not within the area of actual operations during the second Dutch war but the ports suffered severely from the enemy's privateers. A levy of men in December, 1664, shows the county as then having 300 available, as compared with 700 in Devon, 300 in Hampshire, and 150 in Somerset."*'* These numbers probably indicate the relative ability of each county although no guide to the gross totals. Shipwrights, also, were impressed for the royal dockyards, the mayor of Lyme writing in January, 1666, that he had sent up all in the town except two ; others were obtained from Poole.^'" Early in 1666 Louis XIV joined the Dutch, and, as it was not known that he did not intend to give any real help to his ally, fears of raids or invasion were acute in the Dorset ports where their trade relations with France seem to have made them especially nervous. Portland and Sandsfoot Castles were of little use for protection ; in Decem- ber, 1664, the duke of Albemarle had proposed that Sandsfoot should be demolished, ■"" and, taught by experience, there was a general feeling locally that ships were a better safeguard than forts. In July, 1666, they were ' very apprehensive ' at Weymouth of a French landing ; a year later, after the events in the Thames and Medway, they had still more reason to fear what might happen. The people of Lyme were ' much startled ' when they heard of Ruiter's deeds in the Medway ; then he came down Channel with his fleet and the whole coast was alive with preparation. Additional guns were mounted at Lyme, and a night watch set, while militia were brought to Dorchester and Weymouth.^" In the latter town they thought, on 6 July, that the moment had come when a fleet was seen bearing into the Roads but it proved to be composed of English merchantmen. The moment did come on 7 August, when 50 sail were in sight, really Dutch, and then drums beat and men mustered in the town.-'- But peace had been proclaimed and Ruiter was sailing homewards, ignoring Weymouth. For nearly two centuries Bridport is not mentioned among the ports ; in 1670 the inhabitants had in view another attempt to make a harbour, and obtained a grant giving them powers to undertake the work.^"^ In 1673, however, nothing had been done,^'* and in fact nearly another century elapsed before there was shelter even for small coasters. Some improvements had been effected at Weymouth remedying the defects noticed in 1657, but in 1 67 1 a bad south-east gale breached the 'Grand Pier' and destroyed 300ft. of another one under the Nothe Hill, besides injuring the quays.""" The third ■" W. O. Ord. Stores, Ixxviii. ^*' Docquet Bk. Chas. II, Sept. 1 660. "' S.P. Dom Chas. II, xxxviii, 47. '«' Add. MSS. 9316, fol. 79. =»» S.P. Dom. Chas. II, cxliv, Nos. 28, 90. ™ Ibid, cvi. No. 76. ^" Ibid, ccx, No. 6. « Ibid, ccxii, No. 97. ™ Ibid, cclxxxiv, Aug. 1670. *" Blome, BritMiiw. '''^ S.P. Dom. Chas. II, cclxxxviii, No. 33. 219 A HISTORY OF DORSET Dutch war caused the usual drain of men to man the fleets, and the customary troubles from the spoil made by privateers, but no incident of any interest affecting Dorset occurred. The landing of the duke of Monmouth at Lyme in June, 1685, brought the county into prominence temporarily, but not in connexion with naval affairs, nor did the passage down Channel of William of Orange affect the coast. After Torrington's defeat off Beachy Head in 1690 there was certain expectation of invasion, and the county levies crowded to the ports, but Tourville stood westward to Torbay. His fleet was seen off Portland, much to the fear of Weymouth, and guns were mounted at Poole. Later in the war, in 1694, the Ordnance Office sent three guns to Lyme,"* but in 1690 it was remarked that the result of hos- tilities with France was to destroy the trade of Poole, Lyme, and Weymouth, which was chiefly with that country, and that the principal business remaining was smuggling.'" Two Poole seamen, Peter Jolliffe and Wm. Thompson, were awarded gold medals and chains in 1694 and 1695 for heroic conduct in action against French privateers. The war occasioned a great increase in the Navy, and, as a necessary con- sequence, more dockyards were required. Plymouth yard was founded in 1694, but the Admiralty desired another, which would undoubtedly have been established had the national finances permitted the expenditure. In 1698 several officials travelled round the south coast examining the harbours with a view to selecting one for the purpose, but their condemnation of Dorset was unhesitating."' At Poole they found a depth of 16 ft. on the bar at high water spring tides, and, saying that very few vessels ventured into the harbour unless forced there, added that ' it affords nothing in our opinion proper or improvable for the service of the Navy.' At Weymouth there was sometimes only 3 ft. of water on the bar, which ' to add no more precludes entirely.' There is a belief, unlikely to be well founded, that in the mediaeval period lights were shown from the chapels at St. Aldhelm's Head and St. Catherine, Abbotsbury. The seventeenth century saw the beginning of the modern lighthouse system, in which East Anglia led the way, probably by reason of the very large collier and other traffic coasting to and from London. As shipping trade increased and the profits from lights became greater, courtiers and others used what influence they possessed to obtain patents authorizing them to put up lighthouses and collect tolls. After the Restoration the competition for patents became very keen. The first appli- cant for Portland, in May, 1664, was Sir John Coryton, a large speculator in the business, who included it with six other stations he was anxious to light for his own and the public benefit."" His petition was referred to the Trinity House Corporation to report upon, and as they were jealous trade rivals their answer was adverse. Coryton depended upon the influence of the duke of York, who, he boasted, never denied him anything ; here he overrated his own or the duke's influence and no patent was granted. The matter was dropped for nearly half a century, and then Captain William Holman petitioned in 1700 for a licence. This, as usual, was submitted to the Trinity House, who reported that a lighthouse was needless and that if ^' H. O. Mil. Entry Bk. iii, 216. *" Treas. Papers, 14 April, 1690 (Rep. of Customs Com.). '■"' S'oane MSS. 3233. "*" Hist. MUS. Com. Rep. viii, App. i, 252. 220 MARITIME HISTORY it ever became necessary they would erect one.^"" Holman was a successful Weymouth privateersman, whose name often occurs in official papers of the period. The Weymouth Corporation took up the question — indeed, Holman was probably their mouthpiece all through — and eventually, in order to pre- vent the privilege falling into private hands, the Trinity House obtained a patent for themselves dated 26 May, 1716.^°' They built two lighthouses, an upper and lower, on the west side of Portland, and intended to lead between the Race and the Shambles ; these were sublet on a lease which expired in 1777.'°^ The lights were coal fires and, besides being feeble, were badly attended to ; in 1752 two Elder Brethren of the Trinity House happened to be passing Portland on a journey westward and noticed that the fires were not lit until two hours after sunset, that the lower light then glimmered faintly for an hour and ceased, and that the upper light burnt fitfully for a long time before it gave a steady brightness.'"^ When they commented on the matter they were told that often the lights did not show all night. In 1789 a new tower, built by William Johns of Weymouth, was erected further to the eastward for the lower light ; it was then lit with oil, the upper one having been altered for oil in 1788.'°* In 1822 these lights were producing a net revenue of some ;r2,300 a year.'"'" Both lighthouses have been abandoned recently in favour of a new one erected 130 yards from the eastern extremity of Portland Bill, standing 141 feet above high-water mark and fitted with all the latest improvements. This, which shows an upper and lower light in the one tower, was lit in January, 1906. A lightship was placed on the east end of the Shambles Shoal from I September, 1859. The other shore lights are Weymouth north pier, 1867, south stone pier, 1896 ; Anvil Point, 1881 ; Swanage pier, 1897 ; Bourne- mouth pier, 1880 ; Boscombe pier, 1894 ; Poole, North Haven Point, 1848, Sandbanks pier, 1898 ; and Lyme Regis, 1853. The first Portland breakwater light was shown in 1851, and afterwards from the fort at the end of the breakwater as then completed in 1876 ; the number and position of the lights have been continually changing recently as extensions have progressed. The earliest sea marks used in navigation were prominent objects, such as church towers and natural heights. Of the latter there is no lack along the Dorset coast, and their existence has obviated the necessity for artificial beacons of which there is only one, that put up by the Trinity House on Portland Bill. The date of this is 1844 ; it probably succeeded an older beacon but one of no great antiquity. Wyke Regis church, in conjunction with the north-east end of Portland, has long been a leading mark to clear the Shambles, and St. Aldhelm's and St. Catherine's chapels, especially the latter, were old sea marks. During the eighteenth century Great Britain, having won the command of home waters, was fighting for the mastery of the oceans therefore local maritime history ceased, for the most part, to have any intimate connexion with naval events. The chief anxiety on the coast now related not to the "'° Hardy, British Lighthouses, 104. '"' Pat. 2 Geo. I, pt. iv. '"' Pari. Papers, 1861, xxv, 420. '"' Hardy, British Lighthouses, 10;. '"' Pari Papers, 1861, xxv, 420 ; Kay Collection, B.M. Nos. 164, 165, 169. ""^ Pari. Papers, 1822, xxi, 497. 221 A HISTORY OF DORSET enemy's fleets but to his privateers ; against these local armaments still had their use. A survey of 1714-17 '*''* tells us that Portland Castle had saved many ships from being taken by them during the recent wars ; it had ten guns when surveyed but was in a dilapidated condition. There had been twenty guns at Sandsfoot in 1691, but in 1717 there were only three, of which one was old and rusty and two had been washed into the sea. In 1701 the Ordnance Office had seen no objection in allowing the corporation of Weymouth to pull down so much of the walls of the castle as might be sufficient to supply them with stones to repair their bridge, and the Treasury had sanctioned the proceeding.'"' This, therefore, marks the definite abandonment of Sandsfoot. On the Isle of Portland there were batteries at the Bill, at Blacknor Point on the west side, at the pier and at Rufus Castle on the east side, and at the village of Chesil, but the guns were all honeycombed and useless. At Weymouth there was a five-gun battery on the Nothe and two others below, one being at the jetty -'"^ and one between the Nothe and Sandsfoot. Here, also, the guns were in a condition which proves that there could have been little fear of attack during the preceding wars. At Melcombe there were four guns in the Blockhouse, eight in the Mountjoy battery, and two at the jetty. There were nine guns at Lyme, and from a notice of 1724 we learn that they were in two batteries or forts."" In 1708 Weymouth petitioned for assistance from the Customs for the repair of the bridge, quays, and piers, as the harbour was ' choked up with sand occasioned by the ruins of the said quays and bridge,' so that only the smallest vessels could enter instead of those of 200 or 300 tons as formerly."* It was no doubt in consequence of the deterioration of the harbour that the Newfoundland trade deserted Weymouth in favour of Poole during this century. From a statement of the grievances of the Poole men against the French we find that the town sent forty ships to Newfoundland in 1725.*" Defoe notices Poole in 1724 as 'the most considerable sea port in all this part of England . . particularly successful for many years past ' in the fishery."- The Poole trade grew steadily until between 1769 and 1774 there were from sixty-two to seventy-four ships a year, and between 1787 and 1792 from sixty-five to eighty-four."^ The highest number from Weymouth was eight ships in 1773, and Lyme seems to have given up the fishery. The American War of Independence inflicted great injury on Poole not only in the captures made on the Banks by privateers but also by the destruction of a trade with the colonies which had been increasing largely during the century. Some of the capital thus unemployed was transferred to the southern whale fishery to which Poole sent two ships in 178 i and four in 1783."* The importance of the Newfoundland fishery in breeding seamen is shown markedly in the assessments of men on the ports in 1795,"* where those places engaged in the traffic stand out in contrast to the others. The same influence had acted through three centuries, and had been of priceless value in filling the cadres of the Navy, but direct proofs such as that of 1795 are naturally infrequent. ^ King's MSS. 45. '"■ Trea. Papers, Ixxiv, 32. ** This is shoun in the Survey of 1698, ante, p. 220. '■"' Stukely, It'm. Curiosum, 152. "° Ttcas. Pti/xrs, cviii, 17. "' Ibid, cclv, 54. '" Tour Through Gt. Britnlti, i, Letter ii, 70. '" Pari. Papers, 1793, xlii, App. No. 6. '" Pari. Papers, 17S6, Ixxiv, 274. '" Post, p. 224. 222 MARITIME HISTORY The state of war which, with the exception of one interval of peace, existed between 1739 and 1763 led again to local fears of attack from privateers. Guns were supplied by the Ordnance Office on condition that the towns built batteries and provided ammunition ; ten were sent to Poole, seven to Studland Bay, seven to Swanage, and six to Lyme, where there were already five in position/^* Taylor's map of Dorset of 1765 "' shows batteries on Peverel and Handfast Points, at North and South Haven Points (each four guns), and at Poole Head. At Weymouth only the Dock Fort under the Nothe is shown ; neither Portland nor Sandsfoot is included in an official survey of 1766. There was not so much fear of invasion in Dorset as in some other counties during the Seven Years' War, but the vexations of war, especially impressment, bore heavily on both owners and men. In 1759, Captain Fortescue of H.M.S. Prince Edward was sued for taking so many men out of a Poole Newfoundland ship that she was lost ; '^'^^ he was cast in jri,ooo and costs, and no doubt got inscribed as well on the Admiralty Black Book for Boards of all political parties were equally desirous of preventing any case coming into court in which the question of legality of impressment might be raised. Notices of wrecking, which must always have been common on the Dorset coast, become more frequent in the era of journals and newspapers. In January, 1762, a French man-of-war, the Zenobie, was lost on the Chesil ; seventy-one of the crew saved themselves, but were robbed and stripped by the natives. The survivors were clothed and sent back to France by order of the king instead of being treated as prisoners of war. That the treatment these men received locally was no exceptional incident is proved by the fact that in 1754 the Rev. Thomas Francklyn of Fleet preached a sermon on the subject, occasioned by what he had seen, in which he said that he had repeatedly expostulated with his neighbours and 'tried to stir up principles of compassion as well as honesty in their hearts.'^'' He then dwelt on the Wreck Act of 26 George II, cap. 19, just passed, which made plundering, destroying, and wrecking generally, felony punishable with death. The worst instance, within historic knowledge, both of wreck and wrecking on the Dorset coast occurred in 1795. Rear-Admiral Christian with a squadron of men-of-war and upwards of 200 transports with 16,000 troops on board left St. Helens for the West Indies on 16 November ; on the 17th they were caught west of Portland in a terrible gale, and on the i8th six transports went to pieces on the Chesil beach where 234 dead bodies were immediately thrown up, a number increased to 1,600 by the 26th. The worst part of the story was the behaviour of the people ashore, mostly Portlanders, ' who are always praying for wrecks on their coast and whose whole attention was devoted to plunder ' instead of the rescue of the drowning. They were soon reinforced by ' a considerable mob from different parts solely intent on plunder,' until soldiers brought on the scene dispersed them with volleys of musketry. '''° On 6 February, 1805, the Abergavenny, an East Indiaman, struck on the Shambles ; she slipped off and the captain headed for Weymouth Roads where she sank in sight of the town, upwards of 300 of the passengers "' H.O. Ord. V, 29. '" King's Prints and M.ips (B.M.), 2 Tab. 12 (3). ^^^ Ann. Register. '^^ Ft3nck\yn, Serious Jr^viee anJ Fair If'arning . . . 1 752. "° Jnn. Register, 'Account of an Eyewitness' ; Smith (Charlotte), Narrative of the Loss, &c. Lend. 1796. 223 A HISTORY OF DORSET and crew being drowned. Operations with the diving bell to recover the specie she carried were continued off and on until i8 12, when the wreck, was partly blown up. A catalogue of wrecks is unnecessary, but the loss of a French ship off Weymouth in October, 1839, may be mentioned because John Mantle, a coastguardsman, saved the people by swimming off to her with a rope, for which he received the Royal Humane Society's Gold Medal and other rewards. There was, however, no improvement in the habits of the local population. In the previous year three vessels were lost on the Chesil in November ; the coastguard officers reported that the shore was ' completely lined with men, women, and children whose only object was plunder , . . the people from Portland, who completely covered the beach, committed the most bare-faced plunder.' One officer describes them to his superior as ' the lawless barn-door savages of the coast. '^-' As recently as 1872, when the Royal Adelaide broke up on the Chesil, scores of people were seen lying about the beach dead drunk as the barrels of spirits which formed part of her cargo came ashore. In September, 1859, the Great Eastern, while on her first trip, anchored in Portland Roads after an explosion on board; and in January, 1879, the Constitution, the American frigate which took four British men-of-war during the war of 18 12, was ashore in Swanage Bay but got off uninjured. During the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars there was no great apprehension in official circles of a descent on Dorset whatever fears may have been felt in the county. Such a descent could only have been in the nature of a diversion to assist a real attack on Portsmouth or Plymouth and was only possible in the absence of the fleets, a contingency which was not allowed to occur. In 1798 the Weymouth Corporation petitioned for a guardship to lie in Portland Roads but the Admiralty did not think it necessary to place one there. When the war commenced the supply of seamen was altogether insufficient to man the royal and merchant navies, although years of ever-widening commerce and of naval success had their effect, eventually, in attracting thousands of men to the sea. Therefore, besides the impress system, always working, and a suspension of certain sections of the Navigation Acts, Parliament sanctioned in 1795 and 1796 an experiment analogous to the ship-money project of Charles I by requiring the counties each to obtain a certain number of men, not necessarily all seamen, for the Navy, who were to be attracted by a bounty to be raised by an assessment charged in every parish like other local rates.'" In 1795 the county was called upon for 142, and in 1796 for 184 men, comparing with 393 and 509, respectively, for Devon and 236 and 306 for Hampshire. The ports, also, were required to procure sailors by the same means, an embargo being placed upon all British shipping until they were obtained ; Lyme was rated for 23, Weymouth for 139, and Poole for 279 men. Dartmouth and Poole, the two great Newfoundland ports, show the highest numbers on the south coast, and Poole ranks twelfth in a list of 104 towns. In 1798 men were needed more than ever, and the French government was known to be considering the possibility of raids, or a descent in force, in gunboats, fishing boats, barges, and the like. Therefore, to afford local '■' Pari. Papers, 1839, ^"''' ^'■/<"* o" t^" Constabulary Force, 1 19. '-' 35 Geo. Ill, cap. 5 ; 37 Geo. Ill, cap. 4. 224 MARITIME HISTORY security and to get the services or more men a new defensive body, the Sea Fencibles, was created by an Order in Council of 14 May, 1798, It was raised with the intention of meeting an invading flotilla with another of the same character, and for the purpose of manning the coast defences ; it was to be composed of boatmen and fishermen, as well as the semi-seafaring dwellers of the shore who were not liable to impressment. The men were to be volunteers, and the principal inducement offered was that, while enrolled, the sea-faring members were not subject to impressment ; they were under the command of naval officers and were paid one shilling a day while on service. In Dorset there was one complete district and parts of two others ; the first extended from Calshot, in Hampshire, to St. Aldhelm's Head, with one captain, four lieutenants, and 482 men; the second from St. Aldhelm's to Puncknowle, with seven officers and 284 men, and the third from Puncknowle to Teignmouth, with eight officers and 331 men.'*"* The Sea Fencibles were disbanded in 1802, but reconstituted in 1803 to satisfy popular feeling although no confidence was placed in them by experts. The outer ring of fleets, with a great volunteer army at home, were relied upon for security until Trafalgar extinguished any possibility of invasion. The establishment of signal stations round the coast was commenced after the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. Those at Ballard Hill, Round Down, St. Aldhelm's Head, Hamborough Hill, the Verne, Portland, Punc- knowle, and Whitelands date from 1794, and Golden Cap from 1796.*^* In 1803 a return was made to the mediaeval system of fire beacons which were prepared for use in suitable positions. ^^' In 1752 there were eight guns at Portland Castle ; *'" during the Great War the number was reduced to five, but there were two detached batteries erected mounting seven guns.'" At Swanage there was a powder magazine and a temporary three-gun battery dismantled at the peace. The Nothe Fort at Weymouth consisted of a central circular building of brick for two traversing guns, with platforms on either flank carrying two guns each ; '^* the artillery was removed in 1821 and the battery used as a coastguard station.'^' Bridport possessed two batteries, of two guns each, for which the emplacements had been built by the county. A magazine was constructed at Dorchester in 1809. It will be noticed'"" that a man-of-war sloop of 270 tons was built at Poole in 1746, the first war ship launched in the county for the Admiralty. Her builder was Mr. Tito Durell, but she had no successor, for reasons which can only be guessed at, for many years. An Act for the restoration of Bridport Harbour had passed in 1722, but no steps were taken under it until nearly the middle of the century. In 175 1 the new harbour was said to be large enough to contain 40 sail,''' and thenceforward shipping trade came to the town, and shipbuilding was commenced. The increase of the sloop class and the introduction of gunbrigs, at the close of the eighteenth century, brought government work to many small builders, and those of Bridport had a share of the contracts which included some large sloops. In 1804 Messrs. Bools and Good were the Bridport builders, and they constructed all ™ Pari. Papers, 1857-8, xxxix, 337. "* Acct. Gen. Misc. Var. no. ''' See W. Jennings, map of Dorset, 1803. "^ Add. MSS. 22875. "' W. O. Ord. Engineers, cxlvii. '-" Ibid. "' Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset (3rd ed), ii, 441. "" App. of Ships. "' Whatley, England's Gazetteer, Lond. 175 i. 2 225 29 A HISTORY OF DORSET the men-of-war which came from there from that year onwards. Other Dorset shipbuilders of the same date were Henry Chard at Lyme ; Thos. Burt, Sam. Esther, Ric. Penny, Cherret and Wills, and Medowes & Co., at Poole ; Thos. Ayles, at Portland ; Barnes & Co., at Swanage ; and Thos. Wallis, John deed, Simon Jenkens, and Thos. Brick, at Weymouth.^'' The number of the Poole builders, and the fact that they did not care to tender for Admiralty contracts, shows that the Newfoundland trade there, then reaching its zenith, gave plenty of employment, but probably much of the work overflowed to Weymouth. Messrs. Cherret and Wills seem to have been the biggest firm in the county. The establishment of a packet service in 1794 between Weymouth and the Channel Islands must also have brought employment to the Weymouth builders. At first the packets were hired vessels, three, of 50 tons each, being in the service in 1807,''' but, later, government ships were used. In 1837 the establishment was transferred to the Admiralty and steamers put on the station ; in 1845 there were four running but none of them had been built at Weymouth. The first Dorset lifeboat was stationed at Portland in 1825, followed by another at Studland in 1826 ; both were supplied and maintained by local subscriptions and there were no others for many years. Manby's rocket apparatus was placed at Portland and Bridport in 181 5. The principal naval event of the nineteenth century relating to Dorset IS the construction of Portland Breakwater. It has been noticed that it was intended as a reply to Cherbourg when that port was enlarged and fortified to an extent that suggested that the French government hoped to make it another Brest. But, while Portland has grown in strength and importance, the developments of modern warfare have reduced the value of Cherbourg to such a degree that many French officers now regard it as worse than worth- less— a trap, indefensible in itself, attracting an enemy to a weak part of the coast, and unable to protect the war ships sheltering within it. Certainly the Cotentin peninsula is very vulnerable to a power having the command of the sea, and it is significant that Cherbourg itself, although strongly fortified in the middle ages, was never able to resist English or French attack when held by either power during the Hundred Years' War. As late as 1758, although then recently fortified in the most scientific manner, it fell easily into the hands of Bligh and Howe. The Portland Breakwater had been proposed towards the end of the eighteenth century when there were sometimes from 100 to 150 merchantmen taking refuge in the Roads. The government of that day had no reason from a military point of view to undertake the work, therefore nothing was done until Cherbourg seemed to be growing into a great naval base. The construction was commenced in August, 1847, under the superintendence of Mr. J. M. Rendel and Mr. John Coode, the latter succeeding Rendel, and after two years of preliminary work the first stone was placed on 25 July, 1849. The estimated cost was to be ^^589, 000, but the plans were subsequently altered and down to 1875 upwards of ^^i, 000, 000 had been expended."^' As finished originally the Breakwater, containing nearly 5,750,000 tons of stone, consisted of inner and outer arms, with an opening between them, "' Pari. Papers, 1805, viii, 485. '^ Ibid. 1809, x, 388. '" Ibid. 1852-3, xcviii, 609 ; 1876, Ixv, 546 ; j^nn. Register, 1849. 226 Portland Harbour PLAN SHEWING New Breakwater. Scale ofYards. 1500 aooo Tos R 'H SHIP CHANN EL O^ SHIP CM^NNt'- MARITIME HISTORY protecting the Roads between east and south, the opinion of expert witnesses in 1 845 being that a war fleet could not lie there in all weathers without such shelter. The inner arm is 1,700 and the outer arm 6,400 ft. long, the opening between them being 400 ft. wide ; there are forts at the extremi- ties of both inner and outer arms. As well as these forts other defences were planned in i860 ; the Verne Citadel, high up on the northern bluff of Portland, in a position commanding a wide sweep of water towards the Dorset coast and out to sea, and a new Nothe Fort on modern lines, were added. Below the Verne, on the east side of the hill and some 200 ft. above the sea level, are the East Weir batteries ; the position of the Verne, the Nothe, and the Weir, gives them a plunging fire while necessitating a high angle fire from the enemy's battleships, thus placing the latter under the most unfavourable conditions possible. The inner Breakwater Fort is con- sidered a weak one, but that at the extremity of the outer arm is strong. From the Nothe at Weymouth to the extremity of the outer arm there were two miles of open water, and as the Breakwater approached completion the era of the torpedo began. As the torpedo and the torpedo boat improved in offensive capacity year by year the value of Portland, open to a more deadly form of attack than was possible in the old navy, decreased, but it was not until 1895 that additional works were commenced. The dangerous opening has been closed by the construction of two more breakwaters ; one, 1,550 yards long, from the mainland at Bincleaves, and another, 1,455 y^fds long, called the New Breakwater. Between the Bincleaves and the New Breakwater, and between the latter and the old outer breakwater, are two openings, each 700 ft. wide. An area, of which 1,500 acres have not less than thirty feet at low water, is now inclosed, forming, in the opinion of naval men, one of the finest artificial harbours in the world. In 1855 Poole Harbour, as a retired spot, was the scene of an experi- mental trial of a submarine boat intended for use against the boom at Cronstadt. The six men who went down in her were nearly drowned and the invention was not adopted by the Admiralty. APPENDIX List (Chronologically Arranged) of Men-of-War Built in Dorset with their Services to the Close of the Napoleonic War [Abbreviations used : — Ch. = Channel Station ; Med. = Mediterranean ; W.I. = West Indies ; N.S. = North Sea; N. A. = North America; C. and C. = Convoy and cruising duties; A.O. = Admiralty Order ; P.O. = Paid out of Commission ; R.S. = Receiving ship.] Names of captains or of officers subsequently distinguished are within brackets (c. = captain). It should be remembered that only the chief movements of vessels are given. A ship may have been for some years in the Mediterranean, but have returned for short periods for repairs ; such intervals are not noticed in the list of services, nor, if occupied in more than one employment in a year, is any other than the principal one usually named. Viper (sloop), 270 tons, 14 guns ; built at Poole 1746. Services : C. and C. 1746-8 (c. Robt. Roddam) ; in June, 1747, silenced and dismantled a battery and took or burnt 33 coasters at Cedeyra, near Cape Ortegal ; W.I. 1749-52 (c. Corn. Smelt) and P.O. Made fireship and name changed to Lightning by A.O. 22 July, 1755. N.A. 1757-8 (c. H. M. Goostrey) ; C. and C. 1759-61 (c. Jos. Norwood). Sold 1762. Attentive (gunbrig), 178 tons, 12 guns ; built at Bridport 1804. Services: W.I. 1805-10 (Lieuts. John Harris and Robt. Carr). Broken up 181 2. 227 A HISTORY OF DORSET Cheerly (gunbrig), 177 tons, 12 guns; built at Bridport 1804. Services: N.S. 1805 (Lieut. G. Huish) ; Ch. (Plymouth) 1 806-8 (Lieut. G. Fullerton) ; Brazil 1809-10 ; Ch. (Downs) 1811-12; Baltic 1813; N.S. 1814. Sold 1815. Fly (sloop), 286 tons, 16 guns ; built at Bridport 1805. Services ; Ch. i8o6(c. W. H. Dobbie) ; Cape 1807 (c. John Thompson) ; Ch. (Downs) 1808-9 5 ^* ^"'^ ^* 1810 (c M. H. Dixon) ; Baltic i8ii— 12 (c. Hen. Hyman). Wrecked 29 Feb. 181 2, on the Isle of Anholt. Indignant (gunbrig), 182 tons, 12 guns; built at Bridport 1805. Services: Ch. 1805-6 ; Baltic 1807. Downs, 1808-9. Broken up 1812. Intelligent (gunbrig), 179 tons, 12 guns; built at Bridport 1805. Services: Ch. 1805—6 (Lieut. Nich. Tucker); Baltic 1807; Ch. 1808-9; off Cherbourg 1810-14. Sold 1815. Inveterate (gunbrig), 182 tons, 12 guns; built at Bridport 1805. Services: Ch. 1806-7 (Lieuts. Horace Petley and Geo. Norton). Wrecked near St. Valery en Caux, 18 Feb. 1807. Carrier (cutter), 54 tons, 6 guns; built at Bridport 1805. Services: Ch. (Lieuts. L. R. Ramsey and Wm. Milne) took La Ragoten^ 8, on 20 Feb. 1807, and UActif, 2, on 14 Nov. Wrecked near Etaples, 5 Feb. 1809. Frolic (sloop), 384 tons, 18 guns; built at Bridport 1806. Services: W.l. 1808-13 (c. Thos. Whinyates). Taken 18 Oct. l8i2 by the American sloop fVasp (56 k. and w.). Re- captured the same day by the Poictiers, 74, which also took the Wasp. Broken up by A.O. 21 Oct. 1813. Laurel (6th rate), 520 tons, 22 guns; built at Bridport 1806. Services: C. and C. 1807 (c. J. C. Woolcombe) ; Cape of Good Hope 1808, taken 15 Sept. 1808 by La Cannoniere, 36, off Isle of France (28 k. and w.). Retaken 12 April 1810 by H.M.S. Unicorn, and renamed Laurestinus. Cape 1811 (c. the Hon. Wm. Gordon) ; Ch. 1812 ; N.A. 1813 (c. Thos. Graham. Wrecked near Halifax, 21 Aug. 1813. Philomel (sloop), 384 tons, 18 guns; built at Bridport 1806. Services: Med. 1807-14 (c. Geo. Crawley and Chas. Shaw). Sold 181 7. Egeria (sloop), 424 tons, 18 guns; built at Bridport 1807. Services: N.S. 1808-12 (c. Lewis Hole). Took Ncesois, 10, 21 Dec. 1808, and Aalhorg, 6, 2 March, 1809. R.S. Devon- port 1825-60 ; Police ship, Devonport, 1860-4. Minstrel (sloop), 423 tons, 18 guns; built at Bridport 1807. Services: Med. 1807-14 (c. John HoUinworth and Robt. Mitford). Took Ortenzia, 10, 16 July, 1808. Sold 1817. Curlew (sloop), 382 tons, 18 guns; built at Bridport 1811. Services: N.A. 1813-14 (c. Mich. Head). Sold in East Indies 1822. Saracen (sloop), 382 tons, 18 guns; built at Bridport 1812. Services: Ch. 1812 (c. K. L. A. Harper), took Le Courier, 14, on 23 Sept. 1812 ; Med. 1813-14, landing parties took the islands of Zupano and Mezzo (Adriatic) with their garrisons in June 1813. Sold 1819. Conflict (gunbrig), 180 tons, 12 guns; built at Bridport 1812. Services: Newfoundland (Lieut. H. L. Baker) 1813 ; C. and C. (A. M. Hawkins) 1814. R.S. Sierra Leone 1832-40. Sold 1841. Contest (gunbrig), 180 tons, 12 guns; built at Bridport 1812. Services: N.A. 1813— 14 (Lieut. Jas. Rattray), cutters of Contest and Alohawk cut out an American privateer 14 July, 1814. Wrecked near Halifax 14 April, 1828 ; all drowned. Snap (gunbrig), 180 tons, 12 guns; built at Lyme 1812. Services: C. and C. 1813-14 (Lieut. W. B. Dashwood), took Le Lion, 16, 6 Nov. 1813. Plumper (gunbrig), 180 tons, 12 guns; built at Bridport 1813. Swinger (gunbrig), 180 tons, 12 guns; built at Bridport 18 13. Services: C. and C. 1814 (Lieut. A. B. Branch). Fury (bombship), 325 tons, 8 guns; built at Bridport 1814. Services: Arctic Discovery 1821-3 (c. Sir W. E. Parry); second voyage 1824-5 C*^- H- ?• Hoppner). Wrecked in the Arctic, 1825. 228 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY DORSET is, and always has been, primarily an agricultural and pastoral county, although owing to its varied soil and to its coast line and harbours, its interests and economic features have been many. At two periods the life of its towns may almost be considered to have equalled in importance that of the country districts — namely, in the early days of their maritime importance, and later in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when they rose to be fashionable watering-places. But for the most part, both socially and from the point of view of its economic history, interest centres in the status and welfare of the people of its villages and country districts, and in the forces which regulated their lives. The county was from an early date one of large landowners and extensive private franchises. In the north-west the bishop of Salisbury held the three hundreds of Sherborne, Yetminster, and Beaminster in the thirteenth century ; in the north-east the earl of Gloucester was lord of the great hundred of Cranborne, while between the two Shaftesbury Abbey held the two hundreds of Sixpenny and Handley.^ The free manors of Fordington, Dewlish, Broadwinsor, and Chilcombe, and the liberties of Owermoigne Powerstock, and Sutton Poyntz were but a few of the franchises held by over- lords sufficiently powerful to refuse suit to the hundred courts.*" Several of the chief landowners of the county held by serjeanty, some of the services due being of an unusual kind. Thus John Godwyne held half a hide in Purse Caundle in the thirteenth century by the serjeanty of keeping such of the king's dogs as were injured while he was hunting in Blackmoor Forest, and a contribution of id. 2. year towards the closing of Gillingham Park,* while the house of Russel had to count out the king's chessmen in the royal chamber on Christmas Day, and to replace them in their bag at the end of the game.* The lord of Winfrith was bound to hold a basin of water for the king to wash his hands on his birthday and at Whitsuntide ; for this service he was entitled to the silver basins unless the earl of Oxford were present, in which circumstances the earl appropriated the basins and compensated de Newburgh by giving him his own robe.' The lord of Wimborne was usher of the king's household, the le Moines ' FeuJ. Aids, ii ; cf. Assize R. 204. ' Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), ii ; Feud. Aids, ii. ' Feud. Aids, ii, 5. * Abbrev. Rot. Orig. (Rec. Com.), ii, 29 ; Feud. Aids, ii, 6. ' Assize R. 201 ; cf. Red Bk. of Exch. (Roll, S.r.), 546 ; Feud Aids, ii, 9. 229 A HISTORY OF DORSET were keepers of the royal larder, William de Welles was the king's baker, and the Windsors of Broadwinsor were weighers of money in the Exchequer of Receipt at Windsor,* while Bryanston was held by the serjeanty of finding one man with a bow without a bowstring, and an arrow without feathers, for the king's army.' Below the ranks of the tenants in chief there seems to be no sufficient evidence upon which to base any calculation as to the relative strength of the free and villein classes. In 1244, indeed, it was said that all the tenants of Mayne Hospital were freemen,* but in most places the villeins would appear to have been in the majority in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Thus on the manor of Coombe Keynes there were no free tenants, while there were at least seven villeins and seven cottars, and probably others not mentioned in detail.' Again at Stottingway and Way Bayeux in 1288 there were only five free tenants as compared with thirteen customary tenants and three cottars, and at Ranston (in Iwerne Courtney) in 1274 there were five freemen and ten villeins,^" while at Steeple in 13 14 the customary tenants and cottars together numbered forty-four, only two freemen being mentioned." Later in the reign of Edward II there were at Hillfield four freemen and nineteen customary tenants of various ranks, and at Milton Abbas nineteen freemen and as many as 156 villeins and cottars." Apart, however, from the fact that this evidence has been collected at haphazard from different parts of the county its ultimate value is small ; for even were it possible to give an exhaustive list of the extents for every manor throughout the county, the fact that in many cases there is no mention of freemen ^' would still remain a stumbling block. It is, of course, quite possible that in these cases the whole of the manor was occupied by unfree tenants, the more so as had there been freemen it would have been natural to find at least some mention of their rents, but from the point of view of the lord of the manor the villein, with his customary works and his rightless con- dition, was so much more important and valuable a factor in the manorial economy that it would be dangerous to draw too rigid an inference from the omission. However this may be, it cannot be doubted that the villein population of the county was considerable, and a certain amount of information can be gathered as to its condition during the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. That the Dorset magnates occasionally availed themselves of their utmost rights with regard to their unfree tenants is clear. Nothing could be more illustrative of this fact than three records, unfortunately undated, in a Shaftesbury Abbey register, in which the abbess in full court quitclaims A.B. ' a nativitate cum omne sequela magistro C.D.'^* The form of these deeds of sale shows the mediaeval conception of villein status in its most crude form. Not only is the degrading term ' sequela ' applied to the man's children, but he himself seems to be barely credited with an individual ' Asiiz- R. 201, m. 2, 2 Cf. ibid. 1 1040 and Harl. MS. 61, fol. 44.3'. " Mins. Accts. (Duchy of Lane), 1 1040. " Ibid. (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 834, No. 31. " Harl. MS. 61, fol. 44a'., 46, 56. '° From one point of view Sunday would appear to have been regarded as a holiday in mediaeval Dorset, that is to say, it is evidently reckoned amongst the festivals, which together with Saturdays were not regarded as working days on those manors where the customary tenants were bound to work every day in the week from Midsummer Day or i August (as the case might be) until Michaelmas Day [e.g. Mins. Accts. (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 834, No. 31 ; and ibid. (Duchy of Lane), Nos. 1 1040, I 1045, I 1049]. Apparently, however, it was a popular day for the holding of markets and fairs (cf. Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iii, 233, 256; and Assize R. 201, m. 5 d. "' Ibid. 206, m. 6, 9 ; R. 212, m. 7, 13. "" Ibid. 206, m. 4. " Ibid. m. 3. " Ibid. 201, m. 3C5oo left to the sermon and seamen an unsuitable individual received a pension upon the strength of which he migrated to Cornwall, and part went in the satisfaction of a debt to one of the aldermen.'" In short, corporations were scarcely more scrupulous than individuals : if they were capable of showing such cruelty as they did towards pauper immigrants, it was only one step further to appro- priate private charitable bequests. Charity had been left for so many centuries in the hands of religious corporations that its necessity was little understood by political bodies, in whose eyes it was often an unwelcome innovation. A more popular method of dealing with distress in the seventeenth century was by attempting to regulate the price and supply of the corn, apprenticing of children and the settlement of vagrants. In the distress of the years 1630— i, justices of the peace throughout the country acting as Poor Law officers for their counties were under the strictest orders from the Privy Council to prevent all artificial enhancing of the price of grain, to see that the poor were supplied at as low a price as might be, and to suppress unnecessary ale-houses, to apprentice all poor children of a suitable age, and to deal stringently with vagrants and rogues. The system of apprenticing and the suppression of vagrancy and other disorders were probably beneficial, but the attempt to interfere with prices was of doubtful expediency. In Dorset, at any rate, there seems to have been no combination on the part of corn merchants to raise prices unduly.'™ The justices, indeed, considered that the interference of the state pressed over-hard upon the farmer ; they stated that when wheat was under 5J. the bushel and barley under ^s. bd. ' the husband- man cannot well maintain his tillage at the present prices of all other necessaries,' "" and this representation was probably correct, for from the neighbourhood of Bridport, in the same year, came the complaint that the cost of living was dearer ' almost by half than in former times, all foreign commodities, salt especially, being at such extraordinary prices,' while rents were high, and a considerable amount of barren land had been brought into cultivation at great cost by the use of marl and lime, ' which is gotten at excessive charge.'"'"' In the ordinary administration of their duties the Poor Law officers of the county could look to other sources of revenue beyond the money raised by the rates in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Of these, one of the most important must have been the forfeitures of dishonest tradesmen. Several cases recorded in the archives of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis illustrate this point. In 16 17 J. Benville of Buckland was convicted of having brought to market 8 lb. of butter of short weight, for which default he was condemned to forfeit the butter, which was given to the poor; a similar fate befell William Bythywood whom the constables found in possession of a leg and shoulder of a calf killed ' sethence the time of Lent.' '°' Fines for drunkenness were also applied to 'thuse of the poore ' at Melcombe,'"* and as this was a common "' Petty Bag: Proceedings of Commissioners for Charitable Uses, bdle. 48, No. i. *"■ Cal. S.P. Dom. 1631-3, pp. 183, 185, 186, 188. '"' Ibid. 185. In March, 1631, wheat was at 7/. or 7/. 6d. the bushel in the Dorchester division, but by the following November it had fallen to 5/., while barley was at 3/. and a further fall was expected (ibid. 1629-31, p. 547,and 1631-3, p. 185). '"' Cal. S.P. Dom. 1631-3, p. 186. "• H. J. Moule, Descriptive Catalogue of the Charters, etc. of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis, 56, 58. '" Ibid. 57. 251 A HISTORY OF DORSET offence and the fine of each case amounted to 5/., the total income from this source must have been considerable. An alternative punishment was to sit in the stocks, E. Bouzer in 1652 being allowed to choose whether he would 'pay 5J. or sitt vi houres by the heeles.' ^" A variety of other offences came before the local authorities at this period, such as ' abusing the watch,' ' suffering on the Sabbaoth day to drincke sundry persons,' making armed assaults upon the house of the mayor, ' making com- parisons with him . . . swering many fearful! oathes and using divers unfitt bragges,' disturbing the peace and setting the neighbours by the ears, allowing Frenchmen to drink at the time of evening prayer, and carrying on business without licence.'"' The punishments allotted were as various as the offences. The man who insulted the mayor had to come and make public submission on the following day, abusing the watch was punished in the stocks, the five women who had disturbed the king's peace were found guilty by a jury, and it was ordered by the court ' quod praedicte Temperantia, K., Gratia, Alicia et Thomasina laventur, Anglice ducked ' — the cucking-stool being also the punishment proposed for the wife of a certain ' poore impotent man ' who was in the habit of troubUng her neighbours."" Swearing was punishable with a fine, Nicholas Marriner having to pay 3/. 4^. for one oath in 1652.*"^ Witches also came within the cognizance of the local authority, a deposition being made in the borough court of Melcombe and Weymouth by Edith Bull in 1647, to the effect that she had heard Damaris Harvey say 'that A vice Miles is a witch,' and that Amy Gotten ' never prospered after shee was cursed by the said Avice Miles.'*"' A similar case of presentment for witchcraft occurred at Lyme at a somewhat earlier date."" Rogues and vagrants — a class whose existence always constituted one of the problems of English rural life "'^ — were liable under the Vagrants Act to be returned to their birth- place or last habitation. An entry in the Melcombe borough archives for 1 617 records that a vagrant person had been 'whipped and sent away by a passe,' but they were always liable to congregate at fairs and other popular gatherings, and appear to have caused considerable anxiety to the Dorset justices ; for in 163 i they paid 40J. to their marshal 'for the great pains and care ' he had given ' in the searching out and apprehending rogues and vagrants at fairs and other great places of meeting within this county.' "' This may have been the outcome of the stringent orders under which the justices were placed at this time to return reports to the Privy Council of their activity in dealing with vagabonds."^' But while the new Poor Law system was struggling somewhat in- effectually with the distress caused by the dissolution of the monasteries, inclosures of land, and low wages, the whole country was plunged into far greater misery by the civil wars of the seventeenth century. It would be mere speculation to say which of the towns fared worse ; probably the decision would rest between those which were occupied by both parties alternately and the staunch Royalist centres which offered a stout resist- ance. Weymouth illustrates the former, and Clarendon tells us that the pillage committed by the soldiers of Prince Maurice was so great that *» H. J. Mode, Deicriptive Catalogue, 81. "* Ibid. 57, 58, 63, 65, 77. «" Ibid. 73. ^ Ibid. 81. "' Ibid. 78. "» G. Roberts, ?,ocial His/, of the Southern Cos. 523. »" See above. "' Webb, Engl. Local Govt, i, 522-3. '" See above. 252 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY the earl of Carnarvon went to the king at Gloucester and laid down his commission.^'* To take an instance of a town which held out gallantly for the king, Corfe ; the destruction of property and individual ruination were terrible. Those tradesmen who favoured the Parliamentary cause were pillaged by the garrison. To illustrate this, the petition survives of a certain Henry Browne that satisfaction may be granted him out of the estate of Lady Bankes for the ^200 worth of goods which the garrison had taken from him, and for two houses which had been pulled down to furnish stones to discharge upon the besiegers.''" On the other hand those tradesmen who survived the extensive requirements of their own garrison, being Royalists, were ruined when the town fell into the hands of Parliament. Writing to Sir Ralph Bankes in 1660, Edward Harvey, a Corfe tradesman, adds — What Colonel Bingham had of yours I know not ; but lam sure that his soldiers had all my shop goods. I did write to Mr. Culliford whilst in London to advise me whether I should not have any satisfaction, and he advised me in the negative, that the Act would quit all men of all such actions.''^ This apparently was the case : the Act of Indemnity and Oblivion required that Mr. Harvey should forget his shop goods. Even Lyme, which held out successfully, expended jT 17,45 8 in keeping up the garrison. ^'^ Afterwards a sum of ^200 per annum was allotted them out of Lord Paulet's estate ; "' with the curious addition of 2,000 oaks from his woods to rebuild their houses,^'' a fact which explains the frequent and devastating fires of those times. Considering the total destruction of the shipping and the general blow to trade, such inadequate remuneration was scarcely calculated to restore Lyme to the rank of a prosperous town. At the same time individuals were most conscientiously considered, even if it amounted to nothing beyond theory. A merchant named Alford had expended jr4,200 on the garrison, either in money or provisions ; the ' Dorset Standing Com- mittee ' engaged the public faith of the kingdom to repay the sum, with 8 per cent, interest. ^^° In short one of the principal functions of this committee was to apportion sequestered estates among the towns which had been devastated in, and the individuals who had suffered for, the Parliamentary cause. A definite sum, generally one-fifth of the property, was settled upon the wife and children of the culprit, but in the case of great wealth a smaller proportion was held sufficient.'" The Puritan spirit in local government was by no means confined to the immediate years of the Puritan revolution, but at Melcombe there seems to have been an access of zeal to enforce industry and sobriety between the years 1642 and 1658. An ale-house licence issued in 1642 adds to the usual restrictions placed on licensed victuallers a clause forbidding the landlord to allow ' haunting of the Alehouse on the Sabath Dale or festivall dales,' and four years later all the late town officers were presented for neglect in making presentments and considering abuses. In i 647 it was asserted that Constable "* Clarendon, Hist, of the Rebellion, y\\, 192. "' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vi, App. 84. '" Bankes, Hist, of Corfe Castle, 249. "' Roberts, Hist, of Lyme Regis, 69. '" Ibid, but Rushworth, Collections (abridged ed.), v, 339, says j^ 1,000 per annum, which alters the question somewhat. '" Rushworth, Collections, v, 339. •" Mayo, Minutes of the Dorset Standing Com. 165. "' Ibid. 48. 253 A HISTORY OF DORSET Edwards was unable 'to go or stand' on the last fast day, and in 1658 Mary Wood was presented for ' living an idle course of life out of service, therefore it is ordered that she be sent to Bridewell if taken at home again ' ; and a similar order was issued with regard to Susan Welman's daughter, 'a masterless person.' '" Another outcome of the triumph of Puritanism was the growing tendency to interfere with the amusements of the people. Unlawful games had indeed been punishable as early as the fifteenth century,"' but the Puritan even attempted to put down strolling players. In Dorchester, a Parliamentarian stronghold, this attitude towards them lingered on after the Restoration. On 6 October, 1660, a certain William Darrant who came 'to this towne, to shew the dauncing of divers creatures on ropes, and dogs,' was refused although he brought a licence purporting to be from General Monck.'" Another applica- tion made in the following November to ' make shew of a puppet-shew called Patient Grizell, with music and six servants,' met with no better success, nor one of three months later to show ' Crispin and Crispianus.' In one instance a reason was alleged. Richard Pavey of London, of St. Giles in the fields, ' coming to shew a motion of the witches of the north,' was told ' that we have noe waste mony for such idle things.' '" But the early years of the eighteenth century seem to have witnessed a serious outbreak of disorder in Weymouth and Melcombe at least. In 1700 three constables of the borough found Captain Harding and Mr. Leslie, aldermen, 'gaming and wrangling' in the 'Bear' at 10 p.m., and in 1701 two individuals were presented because they ' drancke punch to a greate hight,' after which at 8 p.m. they went to ' Melcombe town-end and fought with swords.' John Palmer was presented for blasphemous swearing in 1701, and in 1703 he swore four oaths for which he 'sate in the stocks.'"' The repre- sentatives of the law seem, moreover, to have been powerless to enforce their authority at this time, for the gambling aldermen refused to leave the ' Bear ' at the constables' order, and when the watchman entered the ' Bay Tree ' to inquire into the cause of ' a great noise and swearing ' which issued from it, the landlady 'took him by the shoulders and turned him out.''" At this time, to judge from the Weymouth documents, Dorset towns were typical instances of that English provincial life immortalized by Miss Austen ; some of the extracts from the minute books of the corporation printed by Mr. Moule might well be episodes taken from the pages of Pride and Prejudice. My lady was ' carried ' to church by her servants, or driven about the town in her coach. The gentlemen resorted to the post-house to read the news. Letters were brought to the town by the ' diligence Privateer,' who apparently did not hesitate to open and read any that he thought might contain seditious matter ; the post-boy journeyed between Weymouth and Dorchester, but unfortunately he was a wayward youth, and when charged by the postmaster with irregularity in his work and not blowing his horn, he assaulted that official in his own house and challenged him to fight. 338 "' Moule, Dacrift'we Catalogue, 76, 78, 81. '" See a Ct. R. of Shaftesbury quoted in Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iii, 89, where presentments were made for dice-throwing and playing ad pilam manualem, in the reign of Henry VI. "* T. Hearn, Dorset, Co. Chron. See Roberts, Social Hist. 44. '" Ibid. »-' Moule, Descriptive Catalogue, 86. "' Ibid. »" Ibid. 86, 88-9. 254 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY But a great change was not far distant for two at least of the ancient Dorset boroughs. About the middle of the century sea-bathing became one of the popular amusements of the fashionable world, and many of the decayed south-coast ports sprang to life again as watering-places. In Sep- tember, 1748, R. Prowse and J. Bennet of Weymouth received twenty-one years' leases that they might erect ' two wooden bathing houses on the North side of the Harbour.' In 1783 the popularity of the town as a bathing resort had so far increased that a tax of 2j. td. a year was placed on every bathing machine. Six years later George III paid the first of a series of visits to Weymouth, where the duke of Gloucester already possessed a house, and in 1790 the duke of St. Albans was allowed to erect a seat on the esplanade opposite his house, and make steps on the sand there. This royal and aristocratic patronage led to rapid developments — new fire engines were bought in 1792, and in 1800 the contract for building the esplanade wall was signed. ^^' In the meantime Lyme Regis had received a similar im- petus to renewed life from the moment when Mr. Thomas Hollis bought the Three Cups inn and a whole row of houses in Bond Street. ^^'' His influence brought Lord Chatham as a visitor, and it soon became a favourite resort for visitors from Bath, amongst whom in 1804 was Jane Austen,''^ whose impressions of the town and its neighbourhood were recorded in Persuasion, wriittn between 181 1 and 1816. In August, 1833, the duchess of Kent and Princess Victoria were among the visitors. Here the Assembly Rooms were the great source of attraction. Many of the visitors had tea or coffee there every night at a charge of 6d., and twice a week they met for card-playing, while on Fridays dancing was indulged in.*'' In 1788 a certain William Morton Pitt attempted to bring Swanage into notice as a seaside resort,*^' but his efforts were not so successful as were those of the patrons of Lyme and Weymouth, and it is only of late years that it has really extended its accommodation to any great extent and become popular. But in spite of this periodical influx of fashionable society and the im- petus to trade and enterprise to which it gave rise, the county as a whole was slow to alter. In its local government it long preserved a degree of informality which must have made slackness on the part of the magistrates very easy. No chairman of Quarter Sessions seems to have been elected until 1773,'^* and though the judicial business of the court was conducted openly in ' County ' business, there was no publicity to check expenditure or secure the ratepayers against fraud.'" Nor do the justices appear to have been par- ticularly zealous in the performance of their duties. In 1752 the account of the Clerk of the Peace records the expenditure of considerable sums upon dispatching riding messengers through the county to try to persuade even two magistrates to hold a court of Quarter Sessions."' Primitive methods were adhered to until a comparatively late date. The old hundredjuries con- tinued to be summoned and to make presentments before the justices certainly as late as 1752,'" and the only way in which repairs of roads could be effected was by the presentment of the defaulting parish or parishes by a magistrate, "' Moule, Descriptive Catalogue, 125, 126, 127. "" Roberts, SoaW //»/. 551-2, and Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 68. "' Diet. Nat. Biog. "> G. Roberts, Social Hist. 553. "" Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, i, 657. "' Webb, Engl. Local Govt, i, 434, note 2. •" Ibid. 444 and 445, note z. "■ Ibid. 422-3, note. '" Ibid. 462, note 3. 255 A HISTORY OF DORSET who was thereupon empowered to see that the repairs were carried out. Upon one occasion in 1752 a single Dorset justice presented eight parishes on this account."* The early years of the nineteenth century, however, saw considerable alterations. In 1825 it was decided that Quarter Sessions should in future always be held at Dorchester, instead of being continually transferred from borough to borough,'^' and two years later the justices agreed to prepare and publish an annual account of their receipts and expenditure. Yet earlier, in 1809, a regular engineer of the county bridges was appointed at a salary of ;r5oo a year.^" In its agricultural methods also the county was slow to move. What is known as the agrarian revolution, in other words the adoption of the Norfolk four-course system, did not take place rapidly in Dorset. In 1793 Claridge lamented the backward state of the tillage compared with other branches of agriculture. This seems to have been due in a great measure to the immense importance attached to sheep-farming, which was advanced for that time, Dorset being rather a pioneer county in adopting improvements or even in experimentalizing in that one department of agriculture.'" Second only in importance to sheep-farming was the attention bestowed on cattle-grazing and dairying which was centred in the rich vale of Blackmoor in the north. Very subordinate to sheep-farming, cattle pasturage, and dairying was the tillage of the land. In Claridge's day, wheat, barley, and oats were cultivated in succession without the intervention of any green crop.'*' In addition to this crude rotation the ground suffered from insufficient plough- ing : it appeared to be the farmer's object ' to put the seed in with as few ploughings as possible,' ^*^ and those few so carelessly done that the ploughman often varied three or four yards from a straight line. The Norfolk plough, drawn by two horses, had by no means come into general use ; the old- fashioned plough drawn by four horses, and with two men to attend to them, being more usual.'** Comparatively little was done to improve the ground in the way of manure ; and although draining was most successfully practised with the water meadows, it was never applied to land under tillage.'*' A considerable amount of flax and hemp was grown in the neighbourhood of Bridport,'*' where in good seasons it formed a very lucrative crop. Claridge mentions that few parishes had recently been inclosed ; "^ but with the nineteenth century inclosures became more numerous, though until 1840 they were always inclosures of common land.'*' As the nineteenth century advanced, however, several improvements were introduced and became almost universal throughout the county ;'*^ it was about the middle of the century that most of the changes took place which brought Dorset to the epoch of its greatest agricultural prosperity — the adoption of artificial manures, the inclosure of what had hitherto been regarded as waste land, and the use of improved agricultural implements."" "* Webb, Eng/. Local Govt, i, 475. "' Ibid. 433, note 2. "" Ibid. 445, note 2, and 520, note 3. ■*' Stevenson, General Fietv of the jigric. of Dorset, 461. -" Claridge, General Fiew of the Agric. of Dorset, 16. '" Ibid. -" Ibid. 20. *" Ibid. 26, 34. "MbiJ. 26, 27. »'Tlid. 46. '*' Joum. of the Bath and West 0'' Engl. Agric. Assoc. (Ser. 2), 1 861, ix, 52. '" See article on ' Agriculture.' '*' Joum. of the Bath and West of Engl. Agric. Assoc. (Ser. 2), 1 861, viii, pt. i, Essay by Mr. Ruegg ; ix, 52. 256 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY But this prosperity was short-lived ; agricultural distress, though not so marked in Dorset as in other counties, yet made itself felt in several direc- tions. The year 1879 was a bad season for everything, and from that time may be dated the depression which has settled over modern agriculture, especially in the north and extreme west of the county. ^°^ Gradually, but surely, farming has become unprofitable : of course bad seasons accentuate agricultural depression, but it was inevitable with the immense fall in prices. From the last half of the nineteenth century, in other words since the establishment of free trade, the price of corn has fallen. Speaking of the agricultural depression Mr. Rew said in 1895 : — In addition to the fall in the prices of corn, there has been also a fall to some, though not to so great an, extent in the price of stock and a serious and permanent fall in the price of wool. As regards stock it must be remembered that it is always subject to fluctuation from year to year : still there is in later years a distinct fall in the level of prices. As regards wool, many farmers told me that they could not get more than tenpence a pound, whereas twenty years ago they could count upon is. 6d. the pound.*^" One witness pointed out that this makes a difference of from 3J. to 4J-. per head per annum on each sheep. He was told that cows let at from £2 to £2 l^ss than before,**^^ clearly showing that they were not so profitable as formerly. In West Dorset flax, which had been a considerable form of wealth, had become unprofitable, as it was worth ^5 the acre less than in 1884, doubtless owing to foreign competition.""* On the other hand the general fall in prices has brought some compensation, such as cheaper agricultural implements, artificial manures, and feeding stuffs, which must be remembered when considering the low price of the produce. The effects of this depression have been, as regards the landowner, a fall in rents,^" which on the whole has been greater in mid and east Dorset, that is on the poorer soils.^^* The average fall in rents on dairy farms has probably been from 10 per cent, to 20 per cent., though on the best dairy farms there may have been little or no reduction of rent ; whilst on mixed farms the fall has been from 20 per cent, to 30 per cent., and on thin poor soils as much as 40 per cent, or 50 per cent. As regards the farmers who rent the land, it is in most cases quite an unprofitable occupation, especially for the occupiers of poor farms where corn-growing is the main pursuit.^" The receipts from stock-farming and dairying are considerably higher than those from corn-growing ; and it is the fact that farmers do not rely on one or even on two branches of agriculture that has prevented the losses in Dorset being heavier than they have been in some counties. In Dorset farmers do not so much become bankrupt all at once, as lose gradually, a slow but sure process. ^^' Naturally there is a shrinkage of the already- existing farmers' capital, and bankers have become cautious about advancing money upon land. Under these circumstances it is not surprising that "' Par/. Accounts and Papers, i88z, xv, 25. *'' Ibid. 1895, xvii; 'Rep. on Agric. Depression,' 11, iz. '"' Ibid. '" Ibid. S :— Table Showing Decrease in Flax-growing Year Acres of flax grown Year Acres of flax grown 1889 232 1892 56 1890 195 1893 36 189I 109 '894 25 ^" Ibid. 12. "° Ibid. 14. "' Ibid. 16, '»' Ibid. 19. 2 257 33 A HISTORY OF DORSET larger farms are often vacated for smaller ones, or that tenants take to farming with insufficient capital. Also situation and convenience, with a view to more rapid profits, is the first consideration with tenants, so that farms in outlying districts are left vacant for those nearer the towns. Hence there have been considerable changes of tenancy, though not so many as in other counties, and, at any rate, land has not completely lost its market value."' The diminished value of land has naturally made the question of rates very prominent : the burden on land being now proportionately more heavy. In 1895 Mr. Wood Homer, the moving spirit of the ' County Ratepayers' Defence Association,' calculated that the burdens on land amounted to 10s. the acre.'^" There was much interesting discussion at the time, even such a far-fetched and doubtful remedy as bimetallism being considered. But while the landowner and farmer have suffered severely from the agri- cultural depression the condition of the labourer has been one of real, though at first scarcely perceptible, progress throughout the nineteenth century. As early as 1 8 I 2, what impressed Stevenson most was the rise in the standard of comfort of the agricultural labourer. This had been effected by the introduction of potatoes ; each labourer grew his own potatoes, and that enabled him to keep a pig, so that he had the important additions of potatoes, pork, and bacon to his former diet of bread and cheese and water. The potatoes were grown upon the farmer's fallows in the upland farms, a portion being allotted in proportion to the family ; but in the purely agricultural villages each labourer had his own potato ground, as regular an ' allowance ' as his cottage and garden.'" The average wage, it is true, was still 6s. a week,^'^ and labourers were allowed corn at a fixed low price, but this meant more than in Claridge's day, as prices were constantly advancing."' On the other hand cottages were of the poorest description, with mud walls composed of road scrapings,"* and as long as lifehold tenures were common there was not much chance of improvement. But towards the middle of the century several important changes affected the condition of the agricultural labourer. In 1834 the system of supplementing the wages of able-bodied labourers out of the rates was finally abolished. This system had commenced in Dorset about 1798 when wheat had risen to an immense price and wages had not risen in proportion."' Payment according to a scale was adopted and relief made to depend upon the price of the loaf and the number of the family. The scale varied in different districts : in Blandford relief was given where there was more than one child, in Dorchester and Shaftesbury it was only allowed in families of three, or more, children."' As the system of supplementing wages out of rates took root in Dorset there was a corre- sponding increase not only in poor-rate expenditure, but with the general demoralization an increase in pauperism and in crime. Thus, between '■' Par/. Accounts and Papers, 1882, xv, Mr. Little on Dorset, 27. '*' Ibid. 1895, xvii, 28. '" Stevenson, General Fieta of the -Agric. of Dorset, 454. '" Ibid. 453 ; ClariJge, 21. *'' Stevenson, 452-3. ^ Ibid. 85. "■' Pari. Accounts and Papers, 1834, xxviii, App. A (i), 1 3a. ''' Ibid. 1825, xix, 375. 258 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 1792 and 183 I, poor law expenditure had increased 214 per cent., expenses for prosecutions of crime 2,135 per cent., whilst the population had only increased 40 per cent.**" Of course the increase in crime might partially be attributed to the depreciation of property, the distressed state of agriculture, and the injudicious repeal of several penal statutes relating to beer-houses, but mainly it was contemporaneous with the adoption of the 'Speenhamland Act.' The increase in pauperism was remarkable : in one parish, for instance, where families above two children were supported, the number of paupers, which had been not more than sixty in 1 767, had increased to 320 in 1 824.^*^ Expenditure on able-bodied labourers soon far exceeded that on the aged and infirm poor. At Haselbury Bryan, one of the worst parishes, the monthly payment in 1822 when the system began was ^8 is. to the aged and £y 6s. Sd. to the labourers, but the next monthly payment to the able-bodied amounted to ^'13 lOJ. 7^.^°' Farmers in this village would not employ the best labour, but preferred the inferior hands at low wages, which were supplemented by the rates. It was, therefore, scarcely surprising that there were riots in Haselbury Bryan in 1830, though the chief result appears to have been an order given to the overseers to relieve ten more able-bodied families.*™ On the other hand. More Crichel escaped from the trammels of this system : none but old and infirm people were on the parish books."^ Many labourers possessed cottages and lived in comparative comfort, and all could find at least a livelihood by road work. In 1834 the parish was upheld as a proof of what good management could do, the climax of excellence being the fact of only one appeal to the magistrates in five years. In other districts, too, there was improvement before 1834. In Beaminster, where wages were higher than in any other part of Dorset,"** inquiries were made as to the character of the applicants for relief. This was also the case in Cranborne ; no allowance was made for children, and finally, after the death of the vicar, apparently an incubus on improvement, the scale system was abolished."^ But as long as the rate in aid of wages was allowed no improvement could be regarded as permanent ; the position of the agricultural labourer was practically that of a pauper. The year 1834 was marked by another event of which Dorset was the centre, but whose importance in the history of labour became rather national than local. This was the trial and transportation of six Dorset labourers in connexion with an oath administered to members of an agricultural union. Similar unions in Hampshire had succeeded in raising the rate of wages not only in that county, but also in the neighbouring districts. At Tolpuddle, in Dorset, an agreement was made between the farmers and the men that the wages should be those paid in other districts — namely, ioj. a week. Subse- quently, however, a reduction to ys. was effected by the employers, in consequence of which the men made inquiries about the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union, and formed a society of their own upon similar lines."* The farmers were alarmed, and in February, 1834, placards were issued threatening anyone who joined the union with seven years' transporta- '" Yeatman, Existing County Rate, 62. ™ Pari. Accounts and Papers, 1824, vi, 432. "^' Ibid. 443. "^ Ibid. 1834, xxviii, App. A. (i), p. 20,7. '" Ibid. z\a. '" Ibid. \\a and \za. '■' Ibid. 12a and \%a. "' Webb, Hist, of Trade Unionism, 128-30. 259 A HISTORY OF DORSET tion, and within three days James and George Lovelace and four others who had originated the movement were sent to gaol. Their trial began on 15 March, 1834, at the Spring Assizes. They were charged with violating the Act of 37 George III (cap. 123) against seditious meetings and the administration of unlawful oaths binding to secrecy. The judge in his charge dwelt at length on the enormity of trifling with oaths, and the cruelty of forcing men out of their scanty earnings to make such a large and ample contribution as would not be endured by any class of men to the constituted authorities of the country or the maintenance of the government itself, and declared that ' where men were included in societies of this kind the common-right obligation of every man of labouring as he pleased and for whom he pleased was taken away.'"^ At the trial the witnesses deposed to having been persuaded to join the society, at an entrance fee of is. and a contribution of id^. a week ; they gave a confused account of the mystery of initiation, during which they had been blindfolded, and had listened to a considerable amount of reading which they had not understood, and had finally taken an oath which they could not remember, on a book which 'looked like a Bible.' The rules of the society, which simply had for its object the maintenance of a fair rate of wages, and which strictly forbade all violence, and all political or religious discussion at its meetings, were read aloud. No charge of coercion or intimidation was brought against the leaders, but the jury found them guilty of administering and causing to be administered and aiding and assisting and being present and consenting to administer a certain unlawful oath and engagement purporting to bind the person taking the same not to inform or give evidence against any associate or other person charged with any unlawful combination and not to reveal or discover any such unlawful combination or any illegal act done or to be done and not to discover any illegal oath which might be taken.' -''^ ■&■■ They were accordingly sentenced to seven years' transportation, and on 2 1 March the Times wrote : — This sentence, as regards the poor ignorant deluded men who are the objects of it, seems to us too severe ; but it may be useful if it spreads alarm among those more acute and powerful disturbers of the town populations throughout England. The first part of this sentiment was evidently shared by many throughout the country, and representations from various quarters were made to the government of the day, while a leading article appeared in the Times for I April again urging mercy. Lord Melbourne received a deputation of trade unionists favourably on 29 March, promising that no further steps should be taken until the king's pleasure was known;"' but the agitation had no practical outcome, and on 1 5 April Lord Howick announced in the House of Commons that the ship bearing the convicts had sailed for Botany Bay."" The question now became a national issue ; a great demonstration and procession was arranged to assemble in Copenhagen Fields on Monday, 21 "' Times, l8 March, 1834. •'' Ibid. 20 March, 1834. *" Ibid. I April, 1834. '"* Webb, Hist, of Trade Umonim, 131. 260 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY April ; it was to march through London and to present a petition on behalf of the sufferers to the Home Secretary. It was the first such demonstration which had ever taken place in the metropolis."' The Times reflects the panic and indignation which was felt by the supporters of the government. The aim of the processionists, it proclaimed, could only be to intimidate — else why such vast numbers ? — consequently their action was little short of treason, and all self-respecting citizens were advised to be not so much as spectators of the demonstration. ' Home is the fitting post of every man whose active services are not called for by public duty.' '"'° The reception of their proposal in this spirit seems to have induced the trade unionists to entrust the actual presentation of the petition to a small delegation, but the Times considered that the march through London still savoured of coercion, and was convinced that the petition would ' at once be rejected as an attempt at doing violence to the crown.' ''^ This expectation was fully justified by the events ; in spite of the orderly conduct of the demonstrators — some 30,000 in number — and the respectful, though firm, wording of the petition. Lord Melbourne refused to receive any ' petition presented under such circumstances and in such a manner,' though if it should be ' presented on another day and in a becoming manner ' he would receive it and lay it before the king.^^^ In the meantime the question had been taken up in the House of Commons, numerous petitions were presented, and Joseph Hume charged the government with cowardice, and anxiety to ' get hold of such victims as they could catch.' ^''^ In spite of the agitation, however, the punishment was not remitted until 1836, and the prisoners did not finally return home until 1838. Their ultimate release was due to the indefatigable zeal of the London Dorchester Committee, a body of sixteen workmen, who with the help of Thomas Wakley, M.P. for Finsbury, after nearly five years' agitation induced the same government as had sanctioned the exile to pardon the men and bring them home free of expense. Subscriptions were raised to provide five out of the six with small farms in Essex, the sixth preferring to return to Dorset.'^* But although some thirty years later such a national disgrace as this would have been impossible, the general position of the Dorset labourer was still slow to improve. In 1861, indeed, Mr. Darby commented on the benefit to the labourer from the agricultural revolution which had just taken place. Money wages were zs. or 3J-. higher than they were twenty years before — that is, they varied from 8j. to lu.,^'^ so that with the additional earnings amounting at least theoretically to about 3J. bd. a week, ' the labourer did not receive worse treatment than in any of the southern or midland counties.' But, of course, his position depended on his employer: his cottage might be a hovel, his garden and potato ground of the poorest soil, his fuel the commonest gorse, his corn almost worthless. As long as there is payment in kind the labourer will be dependent on the generosity of the farmer who employs him. '" Webb, Hist, of Trade Unionism, 132. '^ Times, 19 April, 1834. '" Ibid. 21 April, 1834. '*' Ibid. 22 April, 1834. ^^ Ibid. 19 April and 29 April, 1834. '** Webb, Hist, of Trade Unionism, 133, note 2 ; p. 130 et seq. gives a full account of the case and its bearing on the general history of the unions. ^^ Journ. of Bath and West of Engl. Agric. Soc. (Ser. 2), ix, 64. 261 A HISTORY OF DORSET In 1868, when Dorset was at the height of agricultural prosperity, the condition of the labourer was by no means proportionately improved. Cot- tages, with some notable exceptions, were often a disgrace to their owners,'" especially in the villages of Bere Regis, Fordington, Winfrith, Cranborne, and Charminster. If there was a second bedroom at all it was rather a 'closet not closed ' off from the first, and in Charminster there was an average of seven persons to one house. ^" Mr. Stanhope also brought to light other evils, doubtless of long duration. The habit existed in Dorset of hiring whole families : not only was the labourer expected to work, but his wife, or at least the daughters, were drawn in to held work, and the boys were taken away too early from school, and then kept on after they were grown up for the same purpose.'** Thus female labour was encouraged and the education and future prospects of the men neglected. Though wages had been raised by the agricultural revolution they were only paid once a fortnight, or even once a month, and it was only the married men who received additional perquisites.^*' In some districts there was little or no market for labour. If the labourer was better off in the island of Purbeck, where the clay and stone quarries raised the general level of wages, in the Vale of Blackmoor, where the small farms were managed by the families themselves, additional labour was not wanted, unless it was of a very casual and unsatisfactory description. Where labour was hired it was at a low wage, and dairy farming gave little scope for piece-work, which might have raised the total earnings. '*''' After this gloomy view of the agricultural labourer, Mr. Little, who visited Dorset fourteen years afterwards, pronounced the position ' much improved.' ' On many estates labourers were well housed, much money having recently been expended on large properties in building improvements.' Wages, though they were still ' far below the standard of the south-eastern and northern counties,' in other words the mining and manufacturing districts, had ' in- creased ten per cent, to thirty per cent, during the last ten years.''" This was remarkable, as the agricultural depression was already felt ; and the fact still remains that the labourer has not suffered in the same way as the landowner and farmer have done. Of course the depression has meant a decreased demand for labour, as the farmer has had to economize. Land has again been inclosed for pastures, farms consolidated, and machinery more and more used in order to dispense with labour. But this decrease in demand has been counterbalanced by a decrease in the supply of labour, owing to the attractions of at least nominally higher wages in the towns, or in the mining districts."* Probably those men who desire it can find work as agricultural labourers, and, in spite of the depression and low prices, wages have not fallen. In 1893 Mr. Spencer calculated that the average earnings of a field labourer amounted •* The state of the cottages was so notoriously bad that public attention was attracted, and a meeting held at Blandford in 1 843 to consider the matter. The actual example was set by Mr. Sturt, who rebuilt a whole village on his model system. Two cottages, with three bedrooms in each, were placed side by side in the middle of an acre of land which they divided between them ; half an acre being usually accepted as the maximum amount of land that a labourer can cultivate without neglecting his employer's work. 'Journ. of the Bath and West of Engl. Agric. Soc. (Ser. 2, 1S60), viii, 221. '" Pari. Accounts and Papers, 1868-9, xiii, 80. Second report by Mr. Stanhope. '«« Ibid. 78. '^ Ibid. 79. "o Ibid. 77, 78. "' Ibid. 1882, XV, 28. Mr. Little on Dorset. "' Ibid. 1893, XXXV, 6, 7. 'The Condition of the Labourer in Dorset.' Mr. Aubrey Spencer. 262 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY to I4J-. bd. per week, and those of a carter or shepherd, who work longer hours, to 1 5J. bd. or 1 6^.^"^ Average earnings have more recently risen to i 5J. kd. and those of carters and stockmen proportionately."* Wages in the country, instead of following prices, have been upheld by the increased standard of comfort, and by competition with the towns owing to the modern fluidity of labour. Of course the Dorset agricultural labourer does not receive all his earnings in cash ; sometimes he only gets loj. in money, though the average is certainly i2j. a week."* Dorset is one of the counties where money wages are lowest, and ' allowances ' greatest, and of recent years piece-work has become very important on the large farms."" This system of ' allowances ' certainly is not economically sound, but it has always existed, and probably its evils are at a minimum in a county where the land is owned by large pro- prietors. It has always been the big landowners of Dorset who have set example in improved cottages, though the movement has never been general, and Mr. Spencer considered that there had been little improvement since the days of Mr. Stanhope."'' More recently the attention of sanitary authorities has been directed to the subject of over-crowding, bad drainage, and ' the smoke nuisance ' ; and any defects are freely commented upon."* Other improvements of a social nature have also raised the condition of the Dorset labourer. Drink-money is now generally given instead of the beer or cider itself,"' so that if the Dorset peasant ' is terribly addicted to beer ' '"'' he is at least not encouraged by his employer. Women, even twelve years ago, very seldom worked in the fields,'"^ because the earnings of the labourer no longer rendered it necessary ; now- adays it would be regarded as an anomaly. The hiring-fair tends to become a picturesque survival ; it is fast dying out '"' as the modern, more educated labourer can find work through advertisements, instead of being dependent on the chances of one day. But except in the northern and western parts of the county it has left its mark in yearly engagements, which may be more likely to lead to continuous service than in the days of annual hiring-fairs, when it became almost a custom for labourers to change their employers.'"' The advantage of good clubs, either local or branches of national ones, is becoming more and more recognized,'"* and membership is not so uncommon as it used to be ; but, unfortunately, it is still a point in which theory is in advance of practice. '" Pari. Accounts and Papers, 1893, xxxr, 14, 29. '" Ibid. 1905. 'Earnings of Agric. Labour.' Second report by Wilson Fox, 36. "^ Ibid. 27 (calculation for 1903). '"' Ibid. 4 and 29, 18 and 21. '" Ibid. 1893, XXXV, 30. "' Ibid. 31. "'Ibid. 13. """ Journ. of Bath and West of Engl. Agrlc. Soc. (Ser. 2), viii, 222. '"' Par/. Accounts and Papers, 1893, xxxv, 10. ""Ibid. 1905. ' Earnings of Agric. Labour,' 13. «" Ibid. 1893, xxxv, 8. *» Ibid. 18. 263 A HISTORY OF DORSET TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801 to 1901 Introductory Notes Area The county taken in this table is that existing subsequently to 7 & 8 Vict., chap. 61 (1844). By this Act detached parts of counties, which had already for parliamentary purposes been amalga- mated with the county by which they were surrounded or with which the detaciied part had the longest common boundary (2 & 3 Wm. IV, chap. 64 — 1832), were annexed to the same county for all purposes ; some exceptions were, however, permitted. By the same Act (7 & 8 Vict., chap. 61) the detached parts of counties, transferred to other counties, were also annexed to the hundred, ward, wapentake, &c. by which they were wholly or mostly surrounded, or to which they next adjoin, in the counties to which they were transferred. The hundreds, &c. in this table are also given as existing subsequently to this Act. As is well known, the famous statute of Queen Elizabeth for the relief of the poor took the then- existing ecclesiastical parish as the unit for Poor Law relief. This continued for some centuries with but few modifications ; notably by an Act passed in the thirteenth year of Charles II's reign which permitted townships and villages to maintain their own poor. This permission was necessary owing to the large size of some of the parishes, especially in the north of England. In 1 80 1 the parish for rating purposes (now known as the civil parish, i.e. 'an area for which a separate poor rate is or can be made, or for which a separate overseer is or can be appointed ') was in most cases co-extensive with the ecclesiastical parish of the same name ; but already there were numerous townships and villages rated separately for the relief of the poor, and also there were many places scattered up and down the country, known as extra-parochial places, which paid no rates at all. Further, many parishes had detached parts entirely surrounded by another parish or parishes. Parliament first turned its attention to extra-parochial places, and by an Act (20 Vict.^ chap. 19 — 1857) •'^ ^^* '^''^ down [a) that all extra-parochial places entered separately in the 185 1 census returns are to be deemed civil parishes, [b) that in any other place being, or being reputed to be, extra-parochial, overseers of the poor may be appointed, and (c) that where, how- ever, owners and occupiers of two-thirds in value of the land of any such place desire its annexation to an adjoining civil parish, it may be so added with the consent of the said parish. This Act was not found entirely to fulfil its object, so by a further Act (31 & 32 Vict., chap. 122 — 1868) it was enacted that every such place remaining on 25 December, 1868, should be added to the parish with which it had the longest common boundary. The next thing to be dealt with was the question of detached parts of civil parishes, which was done by the Divided Parishes Acts of 1876, 1879, and 1882. The last, which amended the one of 1876, provides that every detached part of an entirely extra-metropolitan parish which is entirely surrounded by another parish becomes transferred to this latter for civil purposes, or if the population exceeds 300 persons it may be made a separate parish. These Acts also gave power to add detached parts surrounded by more than one parish to one or more of the surrounding parishes, and also to amalgamate entire parishes with one or more parishes. Under the 1879 Act it was not necessary for the area dealt with to be entirely detached. These Acts also declared that every part added to a parish in another county becomes part of that county. Then came the Local Government Act, 1888, which permits the alteration of civil parish boun- daries and the amalgamation of civil parishes by Local Government Board orders. It also created the administrative counties. The Local Government Act of 1894 enacts that where a civil parish is partly in a rural district and partly in an urban district each part shall become a separate civil parish ; and also that where a civil parish is situated in more than one urban district each part shall become a separate civil parish, unless the county council otherwise direct. Meanwhile, the ecclesiastical parishes had been altered and new ones created under entirely different Acts, which cannot be entered into here, as the table treats of the ancient parishes in their civil aspect. Population The first census of England was taken in 1801, and was very little more than a counting of the population in each parish (or place), excluding all persons, such as soldiers, sailors, &c., wlio formed no part of its ordinary population. It was the de facto population (i.e. the population 264 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY actually resident at a particular time) and not the de jure (i.e. the population really belonging to any particular place at a particular time). This principle has been sustained throughout the censuses. The Army at home (including militia), the men of the Royal Navy ashore, and the registered seamen ashore were not included in the population of the places where they happened to be, at the time of the census, until 1 84 1. The men of the Royal Navy and other persons on board vessels (naval or mercantile) in home ports were first included in the population of those places in 1851. Others temporarily present, such as gipsies, persons in barges, &c. were included in 1 841 and perhaps earlier. General Up to and including 1831 the returns were mainly made by the overseers of the poor, and more than one day was allowed for the enumeration, but the 1 841-190 1 returns were made under the superintendence of the registration officers and the enumeration was to be completed in one day. The Householder's Schedule was first used in 1841. The exact dates of the censuses are as follows : — 10 March, 1801 30 May, 1831 8 April, i86i 6 April, 1891 27 May, 1811 7 June, 1841 3 April, 1871 I April, 1901 28 May, 1821 31 March, 1851 4 April, 1881 Notes Explanatory of the Table This table gives the population of the ancient county and arranges the parishes, &c. under the hundred or other sub-division to which they belong, but there is no doubt that the constitution of hundreds, &c. was in some cases doubtful. In the main the table follows the arrangement in the 1 84 1 census volume. The table gives the population and area of each parish, &c. as it existed in 1 801, as far as possible. The areas are those supplied by the Ordnance Survey Department, except in the case of those marked ' e,' which are only estimates. The area includes inland water (if any), but not tidal water or foreshore. t after the name of a civil parish indicates that the parish was afFected by the operation of the Divided Parishes Acts, but the Registrar-General failed to obtain particulars of every such change. The changes which escaped notification were, however, probably small in area and with little, if any, population. Considerable difficulty was experienced both in 1 891 and 1 90 1 in tracing the results of changes effected in civil parishes under the provisions of these Acts ; by the Registrar-General's courtesy, however, reference has been permitted to certain records of formerly detached parts of parishes, which has made it possible approximately to ascertain the population in I go I of parishes as constituted prior to such alterations, though the figures in many instances must be regarded as partly estimates. * after the name of a parish (or place) indicates that such parish (or place) contains a union workhouse which was in use in (or before) 1851 and was still in use in 1 90 1. % after the name of a parish (or place) indicates that the ecclesiastical parish of the same name at the 1 90 1 census is coextensive with such parish (or place). o in the table indicates that there is no population on the area in question. — in the table indicates that no population can be ascertained. The word 'chapelry ' seems often to have been used as an equivalent for 'township' in 1 841, which census volume has been adopted as the standard for names and descriptions of areas. The figures in italics in the table relate to the area and population of such sub-divisions of ancient parishes as chapelries, townships, and hamlets. 265 34 A HISTORY OF DORSET TABLE OF POPULATION 1801 — 1901 ADcieat or Geographical County ' Acre- age 632,270 1801 114.452 1811 1821 1831 1841 I 1851 124.718 144.494 159,385 175.274 184.380 1861 I 1871 1881 1891 1 1901 189,015 195.774 191,028 194,568 202.984 Parish Acre- age iSoi 1811 1821 1831 1841 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 Bland/ord, North Division'^ Anderson, or 597 97 68 78 54 43 59 62 80 64 66 57 Winterborne Anderson ' J Blandford St. 1,583* 292 326 358 363 407 367 409 447 364 359 331 Marytt Bloxworth t . . . 2,827 182 168 210 251 306 283 264 270 261 260 215 Bryanston f • • . 1,512- 99 98 79 »55 144 167 206 232 259 242 300 Dewlisht . . . 2,134 348 361 386 361 389 442 458 494 457 396 312 Durweston . . . 1,850 332 376 454 418 468 406 364 355 376 472 396 Fifehead Nevilleft 791* 72 74 95 lOI 83 95 87 89 120 102 III Hammoon | . . 693 59 58 71 54 57 73 74 89 76 83 69 Haselbury Bryan % 2,415 454 494 574 611 639 709 761 852 714 648 541 Langton Long 1,811 72 108 160 187 202 •83 ■74 208 278 242 295 Blandford % Pimpeme 1 1 • • 4,510* 316 325 426 489 545 517 495 420 399 39 J 375 Steepleton 773' 18 23 23 36 34 44 59 39 73 61 49 Iwerne t J Stourpaine % . . 2,375 380 412 499 594 637 621 658 584 563 490 493 Tarrant Hinton J . 2,321 192 217 278 241 278 319 258 281 237 213 1 85 Tarrant 1,962* ■65 186 220 277 334 321 309 330 272 260 212 Keynston t X Tarrant 1.659 67 63 88 72 123 123 107 105 86 61 80 Launceston Tarrant Rawston 697 32 57 58 48 64 66 53 56 48 49 44 Winterborne 1,406' 49 60 73 84 96 97 106 95 112 103 9' Clenston t J Winterborne 1,974 161 181 203 265 304 313 284 289 250 221 193 Houghton X Winterborne 1,340* 306 300 364 401 383 407 444 452 480 406 36s Stickland 1 1 Winterborne 477 — 32 43 41 48 37 39 33 40 28 23 Tomson ' J Winterborne 2,841* 430 378 493 513 541 595 554 488 422 422 357 Whitchurch f X Winterborne 848 233 244 245 233 222 224 199 197 145 173 122 Zelstone J Bland/ord, South Division''^ Aflfpuddle . . . 3,630 344 451 441 442 507 4S8 455 438 477 434 358 Arne 2,671 96 loS 134 171 168 138 139 123 121 123 183 1 Anciint County. — The County as defined by the Act, 7 & S Vict., cap. 61, which affected Dorset to the following extent: — (a) added to Dorset (i) Holwell Parish (Sturrainster Division) from Somerset, {2) part of Axminster Ancient Parish and the whole of Thorncombe Parish (Bridport Division), both from Devon, and (3) part ol Hampreston Ancient Parish (East Shaston Division), from Hampshire, and (b) transferred from Dorset to Devonshire Stociiland Ancient Parish. The area of the County is taken from the 1901 Census Volume, and does not include a part of Chardstock Parish, added to Devon under the provisions of the Divided Parishes Acts, though necessarily the population of this area is included. The population in 1821 is exclusive of 436 militia, who could not be assigned to their respective parishes. (Set also notes to Axminster, Hooke, Pulham, ToUard Royal, and Poole St. James ) '^ Consistmg of the Hundreds of Coombs Ditch, Pimperne, and Rushmore, and the Liberty of Dewlish. ' The population of Andcnon included that of Winterborne Tomson in 1801. *> Consisting of the Hundreds of Corfe Castle, Bere Regis, Hundredsbarrow, Hasilor, Rowbarrow, and Winfrith, and the Liberties of Bindon and Owermoigne. 266 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801—1901 {continued) Parish Acre- age 1 801 1811 1821 1831 1841 1851 1861 1871 1881 1 891 1901 Blandford, South Division (cent.) Bere Regis : — 9,198 1,153 I, '95 1,344 1,483 1,684 1,814 1,624 1,676 1,542 1,416 1,236 Bere Regis ' . . S,313 936 953 953 1,000 1,169 1,242 1,189 1,253 1,284 1,144 1,014 Milborne Stile- 885 217 242 264 313 290 320 288 310 258 272 222 ham Hamlet Shitterton — 127 170 225 252 147 113 — _ — Tything' Chaldon Herring J 3,095 226 247 240 270 285 328 341 332 334 301 271 Church Knowle % . 2,922 330 374 400 438 463 480 5]' 536 562 581 527 Coombe Keynes . 2,011 93 118 128 "3 135 154 163 '43 129 119 120 Corfe Castle . . 8,932 1,344 1,376 1,465 1,712 1,946 1,966 1,900 1,806 1,777 1,708 1,440 Holme, East % . . 1,070 30 39 42 55 59 61 50 66 89 90 75 Kimmendge X • • 995 "5 105 90 124 '54 178 185 '53 170 147 126 Langton 2,316 510 467 628 676 762 762 733 924 892 773 827 Matravers J Lulworth, East J . 2,304 364 383 353 345 392 450 453 385 364 358 294 Lul« orth. West f t 2,573" 3'2 354 365 360 407 401 446 518 339 415 358 Moreton | . . . 2,157 256 276 256 304 294 227 283 34' 309 356 356 Poxwell .... 834 I 66 67 73 99 i67 {27 69 82 78 86 82 82 Watercombe 435 20 37 59 54 63 32 Extra Par. Owermoigne 1 1 • 3,271* 215 225 377 379 416 400 420 396 356 332 298 Steeple .... 3,368 206 196 233 237 272 270 262 318 295 3'4 225 Stoke, East f X 3273* 318 403 5'9 56. 590 630 594 613 582 581 495 Studland .... 4.633 332 306 382 435 453 445 595 574 607 432 427 Swan age t • • • 3,097 1,382 1,483 1,607 1,734 1,990 2,139 2,004 2,151 2,357 2,674 3-455 Turners Puddle . 1,998 82 134 98 82 122 109 III 128 119 87 78 Tyneham . . . 2,981 187 200 240 247 250 276 272 269 275 260 238 Warmwell f • • ',531* 105 86 82 87 94 149 148 205 '73 178 '33 Winfrith New- burgh X Winterborne 5,015 569 602 764 891 963 1,101 1,020 980 959 869 820 2,559 335 377 464 564 567 584 589 508 520 500 390 Kingston Woodsford . . . 1,761 132 147 '59 182 158 183 '93 232 183 168 146 Wool X • ■ ■ ■ 2,587 383 481 453 467 505 545 590 602 509 521 497 Worth Matravers X 2,712 217 277 325 356 376 396 350 297 302 229 227 Bridport Division ^ Allington ft • • 594* 716 941 ','39 1,300 1,545 ',748 1,915 1,890 1,709 1,563 1.43 1 Askerswell ft- • I,i6i* 170 181 190 228 233 224 223 229 209 194 179 Axminster (part 441 — — — — 30 23 22 9 23 10 19 oi)'t Beaminster t • • 5,190 2,140 2,290 2,806 2,968 3,270 2,832 2,6r4 2,585 2,'30 1,915 1,702 Bettiscombe t X 667* 47 62 62 65 53 73 76 60 63 59 50 Bincombe . . . 982 129 139 178 177 170 231 194 '99 223 202 155 Bothenhampton t X 823- 334 344 385 424 533 548 546 572 536 493 424 Bradpole*f . . 1,007 575 789 926 1,018 1,357 ',391 1,449 1,549 1,567 1,641 1.723 Broadwinsor ' J 6,303 1,094 1,172 1,387 ',570 1,661 1,516 1,538 1,499 1,256 1,105 994 Burstock ' t . . . 931 172 164 203 261 307 234 220 201 190 139 134 Burton Bradstock'f 2,680' 654 677 854 1,068 1,201 1,181 1,010 1,036 946 901 715 Catherston 245 20 18 27 27 36 32 34 33 25 21 38 Leweston X Chardstock t • • 5, 800' 1,09s 1,151 1,256 1,357 1,405 1,387 1,461 ',507 1,328 1,126 1,048 Charniouth X • • 445 369 451 607 724 620 664 678 644 626 535 560 CheddingtonI . . 785 46 117 164 178 186 189 176 165 114 112 123 Chideockt . • . 1,978 578 623 715 838 826 884 794 748 674 633 551 Com pton Valence X 1,322 69 70 86 104 116 137 136 146 126 "5 no Corscombe t • • 5,003" 515 563 632 7'4 810 772 753 755 653 623 543 » The area and the population (1801, i8ii, and 1881-1901) of Shitttrton Tything is included with the main part of Btre Regis Parish. «» Consisting of the Hundreds of Beaminster Forura and Redhone, Eggerton, Godderthorne, and Whitchurch- Canonicorum, and the Liberties of Broadwinsor, Frampton, Lothers and Bothenhampton, and Powerstock. ■• Axminster. — The remainder is in Devon (Axminster Hundred), where the entire population is shown 1801-1831. The part in this county was added to it by the operation of the Act, 7 & 8 Vict. cap. 6i. s Broadwinsor and Burstock. — The increased population in 1841 was due to a fair being held at the time of the Census. « Burton Bradstock included the population of Sturthill Tything, 1801-1831, which, however, in 1841-1901, is rightly included with Shipton Gorge. The area is included with that of Shipton Gorge. 267 A HISTORY OF DORSET TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801— 1901 {continued) Parish Acre- age 1801 1811 1821 1831 1841 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 Bridport Divi- sion (cont.) Frampton t + • • 3.508' 295 331 418 376 391 392 435 474 421 391 378 Hooke'tt ■ ■ • 1,237' 184 206 234 269 268 261 247 202 154 179 '55 Loders 1 1 • • • 2,241" 654 715 857 812 952 986 1,053 1,115 952 880 741 Long Bredy . . . 2,153 241 247 291 333 340 375 250 260 227 215 192 Mapperton % . . 821 72 83 123 112 94 85 92 94 103 87 76 Marshwood \ . . 3,396- 449 538 532 536 554 520 473 423 335 330 271 Mosterton . . . 975 220 255 284 303 391 346 380 321 32' 263 207 Netherbury . . . 6,274 1,505 1,678 1,954 1,942 2,162 2,066 ',875 1,809 1,584 1,454 1,253 Perrott, South . . 1,488 251 284 317 381 387 374 363 335 303 250 242 PilsdonJ . . . 660 122 98 100 99 122 95 86 70 92 83 54 Poorton, North f X 664' 75 80 89 89 112 109 92 88 61 63 42 Powerstock t . • 4,078* 802 924 1,010 1,024 1,090 1,044 1,067 1,061 821 776 631 Shipton Gorge ^*t. 1,528' 217 244 311 316 406 408 413 381 312 306 237 Stanton St. Gabriel 1,070 100 123 112 lOI 106 90 75 88 71 48 57 Stoke Abbas, or 2,327 486 496 615 587 808 826 703 671 551 499 419 Stoke Abbott * + Symondsbury t % • 3.925* 791 860 1,076 1,147 1,316 1,395 ',352 1,328 1,221 1,183 950 Thomcombe f X • 4,896* 1,092 1,189 1,322 1.368 J, 425 i,3'7 1,277 1,198 ',095 93' 785 WalditchI . . . 295 134 126 141 164 191 176 175 182 192 '75 162 Wambrook J . . 1,867 138 174 201 217 223 245 286 291 263 231 201 Whitchurch 6,113* 932 1,065 1,317 1,399 1,581 '.532 ',533 1,365 ',053 1,020 868 Canonicorum t Winterborne Abbas 1,514 156 151 170 133 206 '95 20s 209 198 207 170 Winterbome Came 1,544 26 32 34 62 140 137 116 '34 144 130 103 (part of)' Wootton Fitz- 1,679* 355 328 446 455 432 361 307 252 224 162 '54 paine t X WraxaU .... 968 54 76 62 70 65 87 83 88 97 62 47 Cerne Sub- Division "* Alton Pancras X ■ 2,280 184 168 207 2ro 248 282 270 250 247 229 183 Buckland NewtonJ 6,250 652 695 843 786 914 990 972 1,138 855 873 755 Cattisiock ' t . . 3,073 349 350 382 427 549 594 510 588 53' 520 476 Cerne Abbas * X • 3.'49 847 795 1,060 1,209 1.342 ',343 1,185 1,164 925 834 643 Cerne, Nether X • 850 50 62 60 83 71 103 95 89 93 87 62 Cheselbourne t X • 2,580- 268 273 336 352 346 408 432 408 337 243 '94 Compton Abbas J . 857 5« 82 80 69 91 100 "7 98 66 5' 50 Godmanstone X 1,172 127 144 128 152 •53 '79 '75 177 165 159 97 Hawkchurch (part of) '" :— Wyldecourt — — 238 298 316 367 267 216 250 — — — Tything Hilton t . . . . 3,044 462 512 610 685 ?30 761 833 800 663 567 502 Ibberton .... 1,384 157 168 222 225 232 218 237 226 187 '37 '33 Mappowder X • ■ 1,901 229 198 247 308 275 290 238 243 226 '95 207 Melcombe HorseyJ 2,157 118 129 153 172 •73 191 208 190 183 182 '36 Milton Abbas f X ■ 2,420* 544 619 767 846 833 9'5 1,014 942 956 787 677 Minterne Magna"t 2,251* 321 367 311 331 354 396 380 352 322 339 306 Piddletrenthide t . 4,497 449 462 590 680 671 800 793 860 747 673 587 Pulham"! . . . 2,416 190 269 272 302 323 288 302 296 269 266 214 Stoke Wake X ■ . 1,087 85 112 '39 147 156 124 112 "4 107 96 77 Sydling St. Nicho- J35 ; 6,714* 556 593 690 767 822 799 803 803 692 696 527 Sydling St. 5,130 459 495 563 617 675 675 692 668 559 563 414 Nicholas J Hillfield Cha- 1,584' 97 98 127 150 147 124 111 135 133 133 113 pelryt ' Hooke. — The population given for 1801 is an estimate. '» See note 6, autt * Winletbornt Came Ancient Farish is situated in Bridport and Dorchester Divisions. The entire area and popula- tion, 1881-1901, are shown in Bridport Division. *» Consisting of Buckland Newton. Cerne Totcombe and Modbury, and Whiteway Hundreds and the Liberties of Alton-Pancras, Piddletrenthide, and Sydling St. Nicholas. ' Cattistocfi and promt St Quintin. — A number of labourers were present in 1851 engaged on railway construction. ^"Hawkchurch Ancient Parish is situated partly in Cerne Sub-Division and partly in Dorchester Division. The entire area and population 11801 and i88i-igoi) are shown in Dorchester Division 11 Minteint .Magna includes the area and the population (1861-1901) of Gore Wood, which became a Civil Parish under the Act, 20 V ict., cap 19. •^ Pulham. — The population given for 1801 is partly estimated. 268 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801— igoi [continued) Parish Acre- age 1 801 1811 1821 1831 1841 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 Cerne Sub- Division (cont.) Woolland t . . . 1,137 123 119 135 119 124 107 132 128 120 155 142 Wootton Glanvillet 1,705 275 287 309 331 342 328 300 314 237 238 175 Dorchester Division '" Abbotsburyt . . 4,872 788 812 907 874 1,005 1,077 1,089 1,065 979 903 707 Athelhampton, or 477 62 54 79 67 74 82 95 94 74 71 62 Admiston Bradford PeverellJ 2,254 216 225 277 330 355 395 361 405 330 368 290 Bredy, Little '^ . 1,613 134 126 165 196 226 "99 204 193 193 203 Broadway . . . 1,051 210 264 282 385 498 610 614 712 701 774 821 Broadmayne . . 997 215 254 277 362 490 486 506 477 511 479 390 Buckland Ripers X 1,255 57 67 60 115 118 III 113 135 154 143 144 Burleston . . . 366 51 55 63 67 65 71 45 46 55 78 75 Charminster " \ . 4,095' 416 446 556 596 827 905 1,020 1,540 1,516 1,446 1,679 Chelborough, East 967 73 80 96 83 96 100 93 106 113 76 69 Chelborough, West 587 45 44 56 62 58 64 73 72 62 .,57 62 Chickerell, WestJ 1,576 255 321 409 430 531 577 660 812 819 814 943 Chilcombe % . . 45« 23 21 22 35 53 29 24 24 40 24 30 Chilfrome X . . . 971 81 85 106 III 128 119 120 105 91 88 96 Evershotf . . . 1,409" 497 485 567 569 566 606 595 494 500 371 353 Fleet t . . . . 963 125 105 132 122 140 164 160 166 138 138 121 Fordington *t . . 2,749* 888 1,094 1,275 2,030 2,937 3,147 3,258 3,277 4,095 5,076 6,224 FromeSt.Quintin'" 1,032 132 125 120 143 140 184 129 170 188 133 146 Frome Vauchurchf 614" 81 67 105 135 180 171 171 180 121 142 IIS Hawkchurch (part oO"*" :— Phillyholme 4,088 679 533 558 570 453 506 490 416 590 571 463 Tything Hermitage t • • 751* 123 119 143 124 132 139 13' 128 113 115 100 Kingston Russell" 1,166 59 185 79 76 85 84 63 70 70 61 67 Knighton, West f 2,339* 180 229 229 308 268 270 268 264 312 326 331 Langton Herring J 974 156 153 152 205 260 246 241 232 255 207 ■55 Litton Cheney tt . 3,8 > 7* 347 365 424 420 463 507 501 562 458 463 381 Maiden Newton X 2,893 428 428 520 538 729 821 844 856 799 694 606 Melbury Sampford 1,041 82 52 78 53 43 55 60 65 70 108 85 Milborne 1,747 172 192 244 240 287 335 327 291 309 286 239 St. Andrew Osmington X • ■ 2,209 257' 237 3>8 421 467 485 448 449 380 292 334 Piddlehinton ft 2,264' 263 287 358 403 394 390 414 458 397 339 279 Piddletown ft • ■ 7,653* 909 870 961 1,223 1,168 1,297 1,241 1,249 1,175 1,077 961 Portisham J . . . 4,5" 490 595 600 663 746 767 704 744 705 634 582 Portland'' . . . 2,897 1,619 2,079 2,254 2,670 2,852 5, '95 8,468 9,907 10,061 9,443 15-199 Preston t . . . 2,625 385 447 508 ■555 672 711 723 747 689 678 664 Puncknowle X ■ ■ 1,974 267 288 300 424 425 467 502 475 473 427 335 Radipole'« . . . 1,333 151 173 226 382 487 609 691 1,154 1,322 1,782 2,496 Rampisham . . . 2,095 265 347 368 416 420 412 356 393 290 251 191 Stafford, West J . 1,015 144 149 184 184 212 229 220 230 199 206 212 Stinsfordt . . . 2,071 227 339 337 382 392 373 357 352 339 278 278 Stockwood . . . 698 56 39 33 33 28 43 60 54 70 49 30 Stratton . . . . 1,716 233 253 262 310 331 394 351 341 299 329 3" Swyre J . . . . 1,129 176 207 210 226 231 254 277 260 213 154 148 Tincleton . . . 900 122 125 142 171 187 176 154 •75 146 160 160 Toller Fratnimt:— 2,294 195 187 189 190 200 217 182 214 204 150 173 Toller Fratrum 506 46 45 37 56 67 54 45 58 54 30 47 Wynford Eagle 1,788 149 142 152 134 133 163 137 156 150 120 126 Chap. Toller Porcorumt . 3,173 340 384 499 540 543 527 500 486 446 417 337 " Consisting of Culliford Tree, George, Puddletown, ToUerford, and Uggscombe Hundreds, and the Liberties of Fordington, Isle of Portland, Piddlehinton, Sutton Foyntz, Wabyhouse, and Wyke Regis and Elwell. i' The population of Little Bredy included with that of Kingston hussell in 1811. n Charminster. — The increase in population in 1871 is attributed to the erection of a County Lunatic Asylum and a County School. "» See note 9, ante. '■"'See note 10, ante. '* Portland, Wyke Regis, and Weymouth. — The increases in population in 1901 are attributed mainly to the construc- tion of the breakwater and to other Government works in progress at the date of the Census. '5 Radipole. — The women and children in the barracks were not included in the population in 1821. 269 A HISTORY OF DORSET TABLE OF POPULATION, iSoi— 1901 {continued) Parish Acre- age 1801 1811 1821 1831 1841 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 Dorchester Division (cont.) Tolpuddle %■ • ■ 2,053 279 305 351 349 368 354 401 360 305 288 282 Upway X . . . . 'i792 363 398 485 618 619 637 646 694 729 752 812 Whitcombe X • • 745 47 51 54 64 52 61 71 5' 68 4^ 7" Winterborne Came (part of) "' :— Cripton Hamlet — 57 44 20 18 17 13 9 24 — — — Winterborne 490 29 30 88 46 48 52 52 7^ 73 51 65 Herringstone Winterborne 652 82 83 77 lOI 91 87 86 III 83 71 56 Monkton Winterborne 3,546 262 291 342 369 422 434 458 458 430 393 4'5 St. Martin X Winterborne 1,831 143 148 161 176 189 206 191 •83 148 140 120 Steepleton Wyke Regis ">'"'= 1,703 45« 570 914 1,197 1,911 1,898 2,025 2,365 2,748 4,182 7,444 S has ton. East Division "'* Aimer X • • ■ • 1,170 192 198 188 ■ 76 189 185 •55 136 •42 •33 130 Canford Magna : — 16,871* 1,894 1,963 2,696 3,100 3-957 4,065 4,877 6,041 9-3 • 5 •5,569 22.069 Canford Magnaf 8,053' 687 730 882 576 968 961 1,125 1,098 1,107 1,416 1,524 Kinson Chap.f 4,775' 497 517 619 775 846 918 1,201 1,924 3,745 7,278 9,836 Longfleet 1,265 504 485 810 840 1,281 1,287 1,417 1,701 2,207 2,750 4,159 Tything * Parkstone Chap. 2,838 206 231 385 609 862 899 1,134 1,318 2,256 4,125 6,550 Chalburytt . . 1,344' 134 125 135 157 152 166 194 225 211 164 •59 Charlton Marshall 2,300 239 280 304 324 395 463 553 582 652 569 510 Chettle t . . . . 1,126 no 130 132 129 I •»-> 149 • 77 165 130 121 119 Corfe Mullen tt . 3,086- 401 465 544 603 758 763 724 722 694 786 867 Cranborne t • • 13,730' 1,402 1,605 1,823 2,158 2,551 2,737 2,656 2,562 2,3 • 7 2,511 2,464 Crichel, Long . . 2,018 91 92 108 138 120 •44 •45 •3^ •63 •56 •25 Crichel, More t . 1,705' 268 238 267 304 3t6 374 342 334 367 382 334 Edmondsham ft . 1,671" 179 240 262 271 298 286 279 297 230 23 • 213 Gussage All Saints t J Gussage 2,907' 301 298 348 373 390 477 496 425 415 4«3 347 2,882' •95 216 246 233 280 302 3^i 299 259 298 216 St. Michael tt Hampreston ft 4,948' 683 776 892 883 1,193 1.387 i,34^ 1,355 •,393 1,625 ',540 Hamworthy J . . 1.077 330 288 313 308 35' 35' 393 474 668 673 1,084 Handleyt . . . 6,014 757 793 831 889 1,076 1,229 1,203 1,162 938 869 802 Hinton Martellft 1,534' 209 211 257 267 290 324 357 381 381 359 309 Hinton Parva, or 439' 33 25 25 36 47 55 54 83 93 70 64 Stanbridgeft Horton . . . . 2,761 308 326 420 421 448 440 431 454 463 397 33' Lytchett 3,329' 416 420 609 680 817 878 855 803 692 753 640 Matraversft Lytchett Minster J 3,325 493 499 544 505 858 878 802 812 848 929 863 Morden X ■ ■ • 7,5 '2 587 572 650 813 1,001 1,018 939 826 809 730 639 Parley, West t • • 3,407' 180 "75 204 235 254 286 268 317 336 329 409 Pentridge " . . . 2,053 239 246 272 241 244 256 295 260 234 196 160 Shapwickft • • 3,670' 408 395 409 462 437 444 446 409 432 402 340 Spettisbury . . . 2,250 336 477 546 667 654 660 688 673 530 562 457 Sturminster MarshaUtJ Tarrant Craw- 3,85'' 678 662 715 803 902 872 850 847 809 806 721 600' 76 66 76 78 67 77 67 67 61 48 52 ford ft Tarrant Monkton . 2,176 207 180 236 220 246 255 243 225 212 219 •57 Tarrant Rushton f 1,221* 180 158 206 226 184 196 •73 1 60 170 170 • 49 Wimborne Minster *t Wimborne 11,966' 3,039 3,158 3,563 4,009 4,326 4,759 4,807 5,019 5,390 6,127 6,174 St Giles tt 3-978' 350 386 384 384 475 495 436 471 453 405 425 Witchampton tt • 1,481* 374 377 442 478 461 504 58S 552 512 490 5.6 '•^ See note 8, an/f. '"'See note 15, an/<. '^' See note 20, /os/. "■i Consisting of the entire Hundreds of Badbury, Coftdean, Knowlton, Loosebarrow, Monkton up- Wimborne, and Wimborne St. Giles, and parts of the hundreds of Cranborne and Sixpenny-Handley. '? Ptntridge includes the area and population of East Woodyates, which became a Civil Parish under the Extra Parochial Places Acts. 270 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY TABLE OF POPULATION , 1801- — 1901 (continued) Parish Acre- age 1801 1811 1821 1831 1841 1851 1 861 1871 1881 1891 1901 Shaston, East Division (cont.) Woodlands . . 2,594 364 346 395 423 454 476 495 457 453 416 421 Woodyates, West 817 13 20 9 18 '4 13 20 38 33 49 54 Extra Par. Shaston, West Division "'* Ashmore J . . . 2,376 141 196 166 191 242 237 254 274 275 228 208 Belchalwell t • • 1,308' 134 174 192 205 225 222 158 173 169 161 93 Cann, or Shaston 987 203 267 36s 435 523 5'3 547 574 560 501 479 St. Rumbold X Compton Abbas t X 1,516' 371 345 368 401 439 465 456 481 402 299 245 Farnhamft. . . 402' 88 76 75 94 "7 128 121 105 101 108 72 Fontmell Magna t 2,853- 628 670 733 743 876 832 875 842 731 637 566 Gillingham : — 8,567- 2,510 2,740 3,059 3,330 3,661 3,775 3-957 4,037 4,131 4,079 4,096 Gillingham . . 7,139 1,873 1,992 2,246 2,520 2,760 2,806 3,036 3,177 3,293 3,303 3,3S0 Bourton 82&' 637 748 813 810 901 969 921 860 838 776 716 Chap.t: Iweme Minster J . 2,865 497 529 622 634 683 703 712 665 667 661 543 Melbury Abbas X ■ 2,374 302 324 345 354 390 444 412 361 328 288 233 Motcombe X ■ • ■ 5.063 917 999 1,184 1,405 ',538 i>535 1,433 1,453 1,411 1,309 1,273 Orchard, East t 860' 166 '44 193 201 '73 219 227 244 233 166 168 Orchard, West . . 669 120 131 173 183 '57 121 103 102 "3 115 87 Shillingstone, or 2,272 380 385 430 473 512 503 509 534 566 546 532 Shilling Okeford J Tarrant Gunville X 3,469 408 444 487 502 518 475 441 395 348 369 303 ToUard Royal (part of) '^— Tollard Farnham 897' 174 191 208 220 224 218 217 253 184 193 203 Tythingt TurnwoodjOr Turn- 1,560' 82 77 72 78 89 103 150 '5' "5 127 '47 worth ft Sherborne Division "• Batcombe . . . 1,120 155 121 177 178 '7' 227 184 177 '27 123 98 Beer Hackett J. . 918 87 76 78 no '03 107 96 9' 83 85 60 Bradford Abbas . 1,216 480 516 533 595 652 621 585 578 510 523 391 CastletonJ . . . 71 125 123 174 186 "3 157 59 69 81 5' 46 Caundle, 1,397' 282 294 312 376 36s 397 371 383 335 325 277 Bishop's t X Caundle Marsh \X 792* 46 58 62 70 77 7' 84 76 97 83 89 Clifton Maybank . 1,296 40 47 66 60 70 72 73 65 80 80 64 Compton, Nether . 918 371 395 458 415 456 454 376 401 387 323 263 Compton, Over 688 '35 '53 149 139 '5' 158 150 127 142 129 "5 Folket: . . . . 1,722' 182 195 269 281 3'8 330 332 3'5 268 327 294 Halstock X ■ ■ ■ 3,216 397 433 447 554 626 572 532 520 441 400 357 Haydonft . • • 632' 83 79 109 123 116 109 131 III lOI 80 89 Hoinestf . . . . 2,062* 160 127 162 '59 139 '63 147 '35 101 118 127 Leweston Extra . 314 7 } -{ 8 18 7 8 17 34 40 30 34 Par. Lillington X • ■ ■ 1,830 128 185 205 191 166 163 '87 140 167 130 Long Burton 1,041 216 287 327 361 386 389 336 372 379 330 283 Lydlinchtt. . . 2,446' 249 320 364 365 419 407 404 369 354 326 279 Melbury Bubb . . 1,243 107 123 129 121 126 157 136 141 147 120 86 Melbury Osmond " 1,222 335 285 3'9 380 404 364 329 385 389 338 249 Oborne X • • ■ • 607 132 "4 123 83 '3' 140 150 147 143 130 152 Purse Caundle J . 1,558 148 '32 142 180 183 177 .85 176 194 160 '45 Ryme Intrinsecatt 1 ,003' 123 '5' 159 171 193 216 217 240 203 163 159 Thornford X- ■ ■ 1,465 256 297 329 383 394 410 415 444 4'3 397 370 Up Cerne X ■ ■ ■ 1,123 68 74 84 88 107 94 75 109 76 84 65 Wootton, North X ■ 668 67 60 64 78 84 75 76 72 69 77 67 '7» Consisting of the Liberty of Gillingham and parts of the hundreds of Cranborne and Sixpenny- Handley. '8 Tollard Royal A ncimt Piirish.— The remainder is in Wilts (Chalk Hundred). The population of the part in Dorset is estimated for 1801. 18a Consisting of Sherborne and Yetminster Hundreds, and Halstock and Ryme Intrinseca Liberties. " Melbury Osmond. — The increase in population in 1871 is attributed to the withdrawal of a regulation made by the late landlord, prohibiting the farmers from employing labourers with large families. 271 A HISTORY OF DORSET TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801— 1901 (continued) Parish Acre- age 1801 1811 1821 1831 1841 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 Sherborne Division (cont.) Yetminster : — 4,321' 947 1,052 1,125 1,199 1,246 1,333 1,430 1,519 1,357 1,329 1,085 Yetminster t . • 1,460' 479 508 543 563 628 666 696 790 711 662 557 ChetnoleChap. t SIT 768 177 239 236 222 227 269 256 243 272 215 Leigh Chap, t: • 1,9S4' 300 367 343 400 396 440 465 473 403 395 313 Slurminster Division '" Buckhorn 1,705 307 297 327 403 460 484 509 559 5'7 491 441 Weston J; Child Okefordtt . 1,752* 498 620 694 612 648 773 783 878 846 820 716 Fifehead 973 240 269 296 241 229 218 200 206 144 130 121 Magdalen % Hanford Extra 601 II 9 13 10 19 5 6 17 56 43 56 Par. Hinton St Mary % 1,069 266 306 297 303 361 345 342 328 296 252 245 HolweUt . . . 2,423 293 344 342 405 397 462 495 512 417 377 388 Jwerne Courtney, 1,968 420 518 512 557 605 689 620 651 623 560 474 or Shroton J Kington Magna J . 1,990 413 464 486 539 616 652 552 516 465 427 399 Manston J . . . 1,373 109 no 140 149 127 134 152 168 1S7 '93 128 MamhuUt . . . 3,838 1, 07s 1,070 1,273 1,309 1,464 1,481 1,444 1,453 1,396 i,4'5 1,286 Margaret Marsh . 552 65 65 84 86 83 77 71 70 68 60 50 Okeford 2,633* 476 470 499 620 675 643 685 701 602 557 600 Fitzpaine ft Siltontt- ■ • • 1,257' 341 384 409 396 385 368 306 315 245 218 221 Stalbridge X- ■ ■ 5,882 1,245 1,331 1,571 1,773 1,882 1,901 1,929 2,096 1,816 1,705 1,504 Stock Gay land tt- 849* 71 52 63 66 60 63 50 66 61 56 60 Stourton Caundle J 2,004 277 304 325 349 394 450 395 409 374 295 234 Stour, East . . . 1,786 380 432 476 531 554 538 426 437 451 444 409 Stour Provost . . 2,815 604 662 800 870 892 869 889 837 726 700 569 Stour, West . . 1,040 132 172 205 219 237 221 215 197 165 158 132 Sturminster- New- 4,546 1,406 1,461 1,612 1,831 1,920 1,916 1,880 1,965 1,859 1,863 1,877 ton-Castle * X Sutton Waldron X 1,153 188 218 206 236 251 257 248 217 188 175 175 Todber .... 379 73 81 127 119 138 119 122 152 167 138 131 Blandford Town Blandford Forum *\X 862- 2,326 2,425 2,643 3,109 3,349 3,948 3,900 4,052 3,79' 4,014 3,850 Bridport Borough Bridportt ■ • • 98 3,117 3,567 3,742 4,242 4,787 4,653 4,645 4,643 3,936 3,768 3,053 Dorchester Borough All Saints X ■ ■ ■ 25 626 667 652 667 692 814 946 923 912 8'3 894 Holy Trinity t X ■ 1,369* 961 987 1,052 1,269 1,354 1,549 1,601 1,625 1,565 1,301 1,178 St. Peter .... 35 8.5 892 1,039 1,097 1,203 1,150 1,213 1,307 1,389 1,372 ',336 Lyme Regis Borough Lyme Regis % . . 1,237 1,451 1,925 2,269 2,621 2,756 2,852 2,537 2,603 2,290 2,365 2,09s Shaftesbury^ or S has ton, Borough Holy Trinity t . . 353* 923 1,011 1,115 1,184 J, '45 1,122 1,028 974 988 902 847 St. James X '■ — 1,798 614 595 724 763 924 919 931 1,060 1,001 950 873 St. James . . . — 340 354 436 536 590 487 589 5SS 543 535 47S Alcester Liberty — 274 241 288 227 334 432 342 472 458 415 395 St Peter t . . . 72' 896 1,029 1,064 1,114 I,IOI 1,032 1,001 1,020 895 806 810 19» Consisting of the Hundreds of Brownshall, Redlane, and Sturminster-Newton-Castle, and the Liberty of Stour Provost. 272 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801 — 1901 {continued) Parish Acre- age 1801 1811 i8zi 183: 184 1 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 Sherborne Town Sherborne * J . . 6,497 3,159 3,370 3,622 4,075 4,758 5,242 5,793 6,129 5,636 5,690 6,095 Wareham Borough Holy Trinity . . Lady St. Mary : — Within* . . . Without t . . St. Martin : — Within . . . Without t . . 2,614 823- &T 736' 4,053* 20' 4,033' 540 785 302 559 816 334 591 961 379 675 1,120 530 769 1,446 1,370 76 531 326 205 876 1,606 1,529 77 596 367 229 816 1,643 1,568 75 617 358 259 829 1,501 1,444 57 737 395 342 818 1,476 1,430 46 730 364 366 796 1,603 1,513 90 675 361 314 608 1,408 1,343 65 720 413 307 Weymouth and Melcombe Regis Borough Melcombe Regis . Weymouth Par. Chap.'*" 20* 103 77 2,350 1,267 2,985 1,747 4,252 2,370 5,126 2,529 5,039 2,669 5,273 2,957 6,498 3,5 '5 7,533 3,828 7,920 3,630 7,626 3,59' 7,473 4,497 Poole, County of a Town St. James =". . . 153 4,761 4,816 6,390 6,459 6,093 6,718 6,815 6,604 7,179 7,890 7,670 i'*" See note 15, ante. '" Weymouth Parochial Chapelry is part of Wyki Regis Ancient Parish (Dorchester Division). '^' Poole St ] amis. — The population is exclusive of (i) 1,119 males in 1831 employed in registered vessels at the quay, and (2) 129 males (n belonging to the port) in 1841 also on board vessels at the quay. General Note The following Municipal Boroughs and Urban Districts were co-extensive, at the Census of 1 90 1, with one or more places mentioned in the table : — Municipal Borough, or Urban District Lyme Regis M.B. Poole M.B Portland U.D. Place. Lyme Regis Parish (Lyme Regis Borough) Hamworthy Parish, Longfleet Tything and Parkstone Chapelry (all in East Shaston Division) and St. James Parish (County of the Town of Poole) Portland (Dorchester Division) 27.3 35 AGRICULTURE ^A GRICULTURE in Dorset passed through many vicissitudes during the nineteenth /^L century, and the lot of the agriculturist, bright as were its prospects in the earlier / ^ years, is now cast in very hard places. Indeed, so great has been the change that J ^ the farmer of 1800, were he alive now, would scarce recognize his county. The number of sheep kept has dwindled, the corn area has become less, dairying is more general, the area of permanent and rotation pastures has increased, and many small minor industries productive of great profit as they were, have completely died out. The period of depression which commenced in 1879 and culminated in 1895 and 1899 has left its mark on the county's chief industry, and it is not going too far to say that agriculture in Dorset is by no means in a prosperous state. Fortunately the ill effects which the period of depression has left behind it have had the contrary effect upon the farmer himself. Whereas at the beginning of the century the Dorset farmer was looked upon by his neighbours as a man slow to change his primitive and antiquated methods of cultivation, there is now no farmer in the land who is so keen to essay improvements or who follows the progress of science in relation to the pursuit of agriculture with greater interest. But the depression has had its ill effect in so far that it caused many farmers to sell their land in order to provide capital for the continuance of their industry ; and so Dorset, which at one time was pre-eminently the county of the yeoman, has seen this most useful class of men almost extin- guished within its borders. In his place has risen an excellent type of tenant farmer. The days of the ' three-bottle ' man are past ; the farmer of to-day is a keen, hard-working, practical man, who by dint of early rising and late retiring, and by constant supervision and close application to his work, manages to snatch a hard-earned livelihood from the land. Conservative he has always been, and this trait of character is exemplified in his attitude towards a new-comer in the county. A practical man is welcomed, but years must pass before he is admitted into the fold of the Dorset farmer. Decades pass before he becomes ' one of them ' ; he is regarded, thought of, spoken of as a ' foreigner.' This is not a charge of inhospitality, and the stranger who makes the acquaintance of the native farmer is pleasurably gratified by the hearty welcome he receives. The climate of Dorset is dry and salubrious rather than mild and bland, and the seasons, except in spots very sheltered or possessed of very warm soils, are less forward than those in parts of England not so far south. In the neighbourhood of the coast the rainfall is heavier in the winter than is needed, whilst conversely there is too little rain in the summer. As a necessary concomitant there is very little snow or frost during the winter months. Sea fogs, too, hang over the hills, with, it is suggested, prejudicial effects on the corn. Dorset, unlike many, perhaps the majority, of our English counties, shows no one soil so pre- dominant as to constitute a county characteristic. Towards the west on the lowlands it is mostly a deep rich loam ; on the more elevated land it is a sandy loam intermixed with silex. In the northern and western parts, the vale of Blackmoor, 19 miles long and 14 miles broad, contains on various substratal clay foundations, limestone, &c. some fine arable land as well as rich pasturage. Orchards here produce excellent cider. On the south, in the Isle of Portland and most parts of the Isle of Purbeck the soil is a stone brash. In the centre of the county the soil on the lowlands is a deep rich loam. The soil of the downs is generally a light calcareous earth covered by a remarkably fine turf It is difficult to apportion the areas covered by the different soils, but some good judges put the percentages at : — Deep rich loam ten per cent. ; a somewhat cold clay is credited with twenty per cent., and chalk with twenty-five per cent. ; sandy formations occupy about fifteen per cent, and almost uncultivable rock is reckoned at ten percent. This leaves twenty per cent, or one-fifth where the soils are very mixed even in a single parish or for that matter on a single farm. Serious geological disturbances and, geologically speaking, of no very remote date 275 A HISTORY OF DORSET appear to be indicated by the survey of the soils. Wood covers almost exactly five per cent, of the county area. Reckoning the area of the county at 632,272 acres we get the following table : — Acres Deep rich loam .......... 63,227 Cold clay .... Chalk Sandy formations Rock . Mixed soil 126,454. 158,068 94,842 63,227 126,454 Total . , . 632,272 It must be remembered that no exact figures are available, and the above are only estimates which, however, will be found approximately correct. Agricultural depression reacted on the landowners as well as upon the tenants. It is estimated that during the nineteenth century rents in Dorset declined in value by a half to a third and the fee-simple from forty to sixty per cent. In the light sand districts, where there are no special advantages by way of proximity to a town, it is found that even with careful management, after making necessary repairs to buildings and paying the land tax, there is practically nothing left as a net income for the owner, unless he has been fortunate enough to let his house and shooting at a good rental. In the best parts of the dairy districts the rents do not exceed 40J. per acre, and some land is let at I 55. per acre ; the arable districts are let at from 251. to as little as ioj. per acre, all these rentals being tithe free. We do not wish to burden the reader with figures, but the following comparisons show how the value of rents in Dorset has declined : — Acres Rent 1S74 1S94 800 ..... ;^666 (with tithes ^162) . ;^300 (lithe free) 186 2^20 2>'7 1,400 ;Ci.+°° £7°o These three instances will give a fair idea of the decline in rent values. Yet there are few farms in hand, and the demand for farms up to 80 acres is fairly brisk. For larger farms the demand decreases in proportion to the number of acres. In regard to leases, the majority of farmers showed themselves as reluctant at the end of the nineteenth century to take a long lease as they were at the beginning. In 1 800 leases were rarely granted for a longer period than twenty-one years, and even then contained a proviso to the effect that the tenant could yield up possession at four, five, or seven years if he so wished. Yearly tenancy is now the rule rather than the exception, though where a good tenant desires a lease he rarely has any trouble in getting it. There are few restrictions now included in the leases, though it is a commentary on the methods of cropping pursued by the Dorset farmer at the beginning of the nineteenth century when we find in the leases granted at that time restrictions as to sowing two corn crops together and the cultivation of flax and hemp. Also, it was stipulated that if two corn crops were sown together they should not be both of the same kind, and some grass was to be sown with the last crop. The practice as to entry upon the land has not varied much. The incoming tenant enters upon the land at Michaelmas and takes the hay crop, though the late occupier took the after-shear. Formerly an obligation was upon the occupier to sow grass seeds among crops, but this is now generally done by the incoming tenant. This practice was dropped, as it was found that the out- going tenant sometimes sowed infertile seeds, or baked the seeds before sowing. Repairs are mostly done by the owners. The size of the holdings has increased. Since 1873, the first year for which accurate returns are available, the average size of the holdings has increased from 86 acres to 95 acres in 1906. Dorset is amongst the first counties in showing a large number of holdings of 1,000 acres and over. There are several farms in the county, held by father and sons and farmed as one holding, of over 2,000 acres, and one even reaches the huge size of 6,000 acres. Farms of 1,000 acres are quite common. As showing the decline in the number of acres farmed by landowners and yeoman farmers it may be mentioned that in 1871 an estimate gave 200,000 acres as farmed by their proprietors, whilst in 1906 the total was only 43,296 acres. In 1873 the Returns gave the acreage of inclosed land at 466,120 acres; in 1906 the figures stood at 476,140, showing that the inclosure of land was still on the increase. The increase in the size of the holdings is to be accounted for, too, by the fact that the number of men cultivating land has decreased. In 1873 the number of farmers making returns was 5,420 ; in 1906 the number stood at 5,012. 276 AGRICULTURE We are indebted to Mr. R. H. Rew of the Board of Agriculture, whose name will be familiar to Dorset men, for the following interesting Return, which gives proportion per i,ooo acres of land in the county, and the use to which it is put. The figures are for the year 1906 : — Acres Arable 271 Grass ........... 497 Woods ........... 62 Hills and Heaths 45 875 All other uses .......... 125 1,000 Agricultural statistics in Great Britain do not go back very many years, but the revolutionary period in our agriculture lies within the dates for which we have fairly precise returns, so that the first three-quarters of the nineteenth century may be briefly dealt with in Dorset as elsewhere. From 1 80 1 to 181 5 was a war period, with a feverish effort to cultivate as much land as possible for wheat, barley, oats, and pulse. With three per cent, consols down to sixty, it was not a time for government expenditure on statistics, agricultural or otherwise, and we shall never know exactly what areas were cultivated. All published estimates must be decreed void by reason of uncertainty. Owing to the war with France and the consequent self-dependence of the country, good and bad harvests exerted an extraordinary effect. Thus in February 1801 at Dorchester 200J. per quarter was paid for wheat ; but in October 701. was accepted. In 1809 we get a curious sidelight on the want of technical instruction. Dorset labourers were paid 9/. a week only, but girls could get 30J. a week, if clever, at plaiting straw. On 20 April of this year three days' incessant rain began in Dorset, and caused the worst floods since 1773. The winter was wonderfully cold and the autumn-sown wheat was often killed, though a Dorset farmer notes in 1810 that the wheat berry of what ripened was remarkably fine. But the general result was so bad that it was estimated the crop would not exceed 10 bushels an acre. In 1 8 1 5 began the great struggle for Free Trade. The Conservative government then in office passed a law prohibiting wheat imports when the price was under 80J. a quarter. As the then average was 65J. jd. per quarter the import trade was practically killed. The issue, as we all know, was determined in 1846. Thirty years' struggle had embittered feeling to the verge of civil war, and the victorious party showed no more moderation on their side than their opponents had done. It was 'all or nothing' with the combatants ; yet, though the strife ended in 1846, it was not until 1879 that British cereal agriculture really felt the full effect of the change. As late as 1877, or thirty-one years after the Free Trade Act, the average price of wheat was 565. ()d. a quarter, or 2s. id. higher than in 1846, the actual year of the statute. Thus it comes about that the full figures for Dorset which we have for 1873 ^""^j although only thirty-three years old, of all the service that we want, for they relate to a time when foreign competition had made no inroad worth mentioning on the county agriculture. It will be well, therefore, to take the separate branches of agriculture in their respective divisions and place figures and comments together. The cultivation of corn crops of all kinds has steadily declined, with the exception of the quantity of oats and rye sown. Oats show the greatest percentage of increase, though that for rye is but slightly smaller. In 1873 the percentage of corn crops to all crops was 24-8. In 1906 it was 16-07 ^■'^h a total of 76,551 acres under grain. With the exception of the year 1894, which shows an increase over the preceding year of 3,500 acres, the Returns show a steadily diminishing quantity of about, in the earlier years, 3,000 acres per year, and latterly of about 1,000 acres. Bad seasons, low prices, and the laying down of land to pasture have all been responsible for this decrease, and it is questionable, when one comes to examine Dorset agriculture from the point of view of the Dorset farmer, whether he is not proceeding on the right lines. So far as feeding stufisare concerned he can buy all the food he requires as cheaply as he can produce it. Indeed, there are farmers in Dorset who say that had they not to keep tiieir land in cultivation it would pay them better not to grow corn crops at all. Of the corn crops the principal, of course, is wheat, though it does not cover so large an acreage as some others. In 1873 wheat was grown on 46,740 acres. Even at that time wheat was unremunerative, and the total area was steadily diminishing. In 1875 the area was 44,384 and in 1876 41,329 acres, a decline of 3,000 acres. From 1876 to 1879 the decline, however, was only about 1,500 acres, but the latter superlatively bad year had its reflex in the Returns of 1 880, which give the total area of wheat as only 35,909 acres, a difference of 4,000 acres. Then the decline steadily continued year by year until 1899, when wheat rose to a total of 277 A HISTORY OF DORSET 25,060 acres, only to drop the next year, however, to 21,817 acres. In 1906 the figures stood at 20,254 acres, and there is very little hope that it will ever rise much above that figure. As prices are at present, a farmer, at all events in Dorset, cannot cultivate wheat to compete with the imported article, and he can buy cheaper from the ship at Poole or Bristol than he can grow. I Like wheat, the barley area has steadily diminished. Bad seasons have had their effect, and Dorset farmers find it difficult to produce barley which can successfully compete with that produced by other counties and other countries. That mainstay of the barley-growing farmer — the brewer — is finding that he can use substitutes for barley which are cheaper, and where he finds he must have barley he prefers foreign barley which is thinner skinned, of a clearer colour, and more even quality. Tlie Burton brewer, it is said, is becoming fonder of Dorset barley, but his recognition of it is very slow, and one or two bad seasons have made him very shy of the Dorset crop. Still, were brewers to encourage growers to produce good barley, there is not much doubt that the acreage under barley in Dorset at the present time would very materially increase. In 1873 barley was cultivated on 38,269 acres. Two years later the area had increased to 41,329 acres, whilst in 1879 it had risen to 42,104 acres. Again that disastrous year shows its effect in a reduction of over 1,500 acres. In 1885, in spite of the repeal of the malt tax, the acreage had decreased to 34,982 acres, but in the following year, owing no doubt to crop rotation, it had risen to 35,097 acres. From 1890 down to the present time, with the exception of 1894, which shows an increase over the previous year, the area under barley has shown 'a steady fall, until in 1906 the low figure of 21,995 acres was reached. From the point of view of the tillage of the land the Returns of the acreage under oats afford us the most gratification. This, during the period from 1873 to 1906, shows over fifty per cent, increase, due to the more extended use of oats as feeding stuff and to the enhanced value of oat straw, which has come to be recognized as equal to wheat straw. In dealing with comparison of prices between the two crops it must be remembered that oats give about 33 J per cent, higher return per acre than does wheat, and this usually more than compensates for the difference in price per quarter. Slight fluctuations there have been in the number of acres under oats, but generally speaking the Returns show a steadily increasing number of acres that are being cultivated under oats. In 1873 the number of acres sown was 20,992; in 1906 31,311. With the exception of 1879, which shows a total of 20,036, the figures of the succeeding years have not been below those of 1873. The rye area has been almost a negligible quantity, at least so far as a corn crop is concerned. The cultivation of rye 'went out' to a great extent between 1793 and 181 5, and has never since really come back into favour in Dorset. The use of other than wheat bread became, with a shilling loaf, the recognized sign of poverty, and as such was thrown off with the first return of good times. The areas given below, however, of course only refer to rye allowed to ripen into a corn crop. Rye cut green appears under a pastoral heading. On the figures it would appear that rye as a corn crop is slowly regaining popularity, but with the increased tendency in Dorset to lay more land down to grass it is doubtful whether it will ever rise to any prominence. In 1873 but 643 acres were cultivated for rye ; in 1906 882 acres were sown. But during this period the areas fluctuated somewhat largely. In 1883 653 acres were down to rye ; in 1885 only 575, whereas in the following year the total was 773 acres. Again in 1893 a total of 1,457 ^^^i"" ^^^ sown with rye, whilst in the following year the acreage rose to 2,996. In 1903 the number of acres was 1,022, and in the following year 1,049 acres. When we come to consider the cultivation of green crops the decline in the acreage cultivated is as noticeable as it is in the cultivation of grain crops. The full total of acres under green crops in 1873 was 60,871. From that figure down to the 45,957 acres cultivated in 1906 is a bigdrop^ which is particularly noticeable, of course, in the principal crop of swedes and turnips. Mangolds, however, show an increase, as will be seen from tlie figures. Potatoes have declined, as has the cultivation of the minor green crops. The diminution in the number of sheep has no doubt exercised some influence on the reduction in the acreage of roots, whilst the bad season of 1886, when the ravages of fly spoilt the crop, and the bad season of 1899, "^^7 ^^""'^ had something to do with the reduction in the area. The total for all green crops in 1873 included minor acreages not under the three chief crops. Among these minor acreages the most important were tares, lucerne, and rye cut green. These came to 8,794 acres altogether, but were not divided. The Returns of 1906 are better divided. Major Craigie's figures being as follows: Cabbage 491, kohl rabi no, rape 1,606, tares 4,649, and lucerne 323 acres, giving a total acreage to the minor crops of 7,179, as against the 8,794 acres in 1873. Land cultivated for potatoes has decreased in acreage in common with swedes and turnips. It is difficult to give a hard and fast reason for this reduction ; their value as cattle feed is a negligible quantity, but with the increase in the number of pigs kept in the county it would seem likely to be profitable to continue to grow potatoes to the same extent as formerly. In 1873 the total number 278 AGRICULTURE of acres was 2,812, but in 1906 this area had diminished to 1,594, the lowest figure since the Returns were initiated. The year 1885 showed a temporary rise to 2,453 ^^res, but in the following year the total went down to 2,226, and since then has steadily descended to its present level. Swedes and turnips, surely one of the most profitable crops for a sheep-rearing county such as Dorset is, show a decline of in round figures 10,000 acres since 1873. At no time do the Returns show any check to the steady diminution in the area. Bad seasons have not been responsible for the decline in the number of acres ; the rate of decrease has been steady and permanent. Dorset, as a county, was rather slow to take up the cultivation of turnips, but with the general practice prevalent in the county of feeding sheep off the land, it is difficult to see what sufficient reason there is for the diminished area. Of course the smaller number of sheep kept and the larger number of cattle is responsible primarily, but even this would hardly be the explanation of the full reduction. Labour difficulties have also played their part, and the consequence is that a crop which is essential to a sheep-breeding county is slowly declining. The acreage shown in the Returns for 1873 was 42,750 ; in 1879 40,680, and about that figure in 1880. The year iSgo showed a reduction to 36,919 acres, but in 1894 the area had risen to 37,150 acres. In 1900 the area was 32,371, whilst in 1906 the figures had reached their present level of 30,709 acres. Whilst one notes with regret the decline in the acreage of swedes and turnips, the increase which has taken place in the cultivation of the mangold is a satisfactory feature. It may be that its increased popularity is due to the greater results it gives to heavy manuring and the fact that it is a hardier crop. In any case the extended area under cultivation for mangolds compensates in some degree for the decreased area of swedes and turnips in so far as sheep feed is concerned. The year 1873 gives the total acreage as 5,183, and with the exception of the years preceding and immedi- ately following 1880, when the acreage went down to 4,826, that figure has remained the lowest total. The biggest jump occurs in the year 1900, when the total was 6,167 ^cres as against 5,769 in 1899. It may be taken that the increase is of a permanent nature, for the 1906 figures give 6,475 acres. In regard to the minor crops no comparisons of any value can be given, but it is worth while recording that of the minor green crops only one, to wit tares, has received any great degree of attention from the Dorset agriculturist. Cabbage, which included thousand-headed kale, &c., is grown very little, and kohl rabi hardly at all. The latter does not find much favour amongst flock- masters, as the trouble necessary to prepare it for feeding is not recompensed by the value of the food. Lucerne is practically only grown as a stand-by, though its cultivation can be traced back to the beginning of the nineteenth century, for Arthur Young in his Six Weeks' Journey through the South of England speaks of a fine field of lucerne near Wareham. Dorset in 1873 devoted 712 acres to flax, 9 acres to hops, and left 7,652 acres of arable land uncropped. In the earlier part of the nineteenth century one or two years' fallow was looked upon as being necessary to the well-being of land, but the agricultural scientists who have been teaching that bare fallow is unprofitable and bad farming may claim, in this agricultural county at all events, to have done good service, for in 1906 there were but 3,310 acres uncropped. In regard to hops, that culture has died out, foreign competition being too strong. The cultivation of flax, too, has been relegated to the past, foreign competition being one cause, and scarcity of labour, combined with the expensiveness of production, being another. As late as 1893 we get 36 acres of flax in the Returns, but for the past twenty years the cultivation of flax in Dorset may be said to have been discontinued. In 1838 there were eighteen flax mills in Dorset, employing 656 hands. Eighty tons of flax were used weekly in a circuit of 20 miles round Bridport, one-tenth of which was grown in the neighbourhood. Dorset, as a county, has not followed the culture of fruit to any great extent. The total of orchards in 1873 was 3,446 acres, and in 1906 4,492. Apples are grown, chiefly for cider, and the orchards are mostly situated in the west of the county. Nursery and market gardens, too, are but a minor consideration, the distance from any of the great centres of population being too great to allow of a lucrative return. The total does not much exceed 500 acres. It is in considering the figures in regard to the acreage under grass that the great change which has overtaken the pursuit of agriculture in Dorset is most apparent. The scarcity and high cost of labour, the great increase in dairy-farming, and the unremunerative prices of corn crops have all aided in inducing the farmer to let his land go out of cultivation of grain and root crops. It might be imagined that some part of the increase is due to the greater recognition of the value of grass and clover as a rotation crop, but when figures are examined it will be found that less land has been broken up for clover and grasses and that the total acreage of permanent pasture has consider- ably increased. Rotation grasses have decreased in area by about one-sixth, whereas meadow and permanent grass lands have increased by nearly one-half. Out of, roughly, 480,000 acres cultivated in Dorset, pastures are responsible for 352,877 acres, leaving but some 130,000 acres for cultivation 279 A HISTORY OF DORSET of other crops. In 1873 ^^^ *°*^' of grass-land was 282,515 acres, and with the exception of the )ear 1880, which showed a decrease of about 1,000 acres from the 1879 figures, the total number of acres under grass has steadily increased until it reached its present high figure. In 1906 some 122,429 acres, or nearly one-third of the total, were reserved for hay. Rotation grasses and clovers form part of every field-course followed in Dorset. Some- times it may be a quarter or an eighth, but there is little doubt that the introduction of one and two years' ley has to some extent saved the rotation grass area from diminishing in even greater ratio than it has done. The decrease in the acreage of bare fallow is to some extent due to the farmer recognizing that more benefit is done to the land by sowing a grass crop than by allowing it to lie uncultivated. Yet there are many instances of farmers sowing grass for one or two years' ley with the intention of forming it into arable land later on and being forced to let the land lie in grass and become permanent pasture on account of the scarcity of labour. In all these reduc- tions, too, the lack of capital is distinctly traceable, the cost of implements, seeds, and manures often being beyond the farmer's means. In 1873 the total number of acres sown with rotation grasses and clovers was 50,401. The bad season of 1897 showed an increase to 52,239 acres, but the following year the acreage went down to 51,656. The year 1885 shows a jump to 52,157, whilst 1886 shows a further increase to 53,285 acres. There the increase ends and the decrease begins. In 1890 only 51,556 acres were sown, whilst in the following year the total was but 50,304 acres. The number of acres remained about the same until 1894, and the total of that year shows a decrease of over 4,000 acres on the preceding year's figures. That total remained about the same until 1900, when it was just under 47,000 acres, but the decline in the acreage of rotation grass is steadily continuing, for the 1906 figures give the total as but 42,528 acres. A consideration of the total number of acres of permanent pasture in the county of Dorset would infallibly lead one to the conclusion that it was essentially a county in which the breeding and fattening of stock was carried on to a greater extent than any other branch of agriculture. Yet the breeding and fattening of cattle has not been responsible entirely for the increase. When we consider that since the first reliable figures were available over 20,000 acres have gone into permanent pasture every ten years, we can only conclude that there must be a multiplicity of reasons which have been responsible for the change. From 232,114 acres in 1873 to 310,349 acres in 1906 is a big jump, and that it is no ephemeral condition is indicated by the steady rate of increase. The figures for 1875 showed the total at 262,427, but the year following saw a reduction to 254,146. However, this was but a temporary drop, and in 1885 we find the total acreage up to 277,503 and the following year up to 280,215 acres. Here, in five years, we have an increase of 23,000 acres. From that year the rate of increase has shown an addition averaging over 1,000 acres a year. The total for 1906 is the highest figure as yet reached in the proportion of permanent pasture to other land in the county. In considering the number of horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs in the county during the nineteenth century we have to record an increase in the number of each class with the exception of sheep, and it is sad to notice that Dorset, pre-eminently a sheep county and one which gives its name to two distinct breeds of sheep, is gradually losing place in the first rank of sheep counties. Cattle, on the other hand, have increased by nearly one-third, dairy-farming being chiefly responsible. The number of horses, too, shows an increase of about one-seventh, and the number of pigs has increased by about one-fifth. With the large number of acres of pasture Dorset could carry more stock per acre than it does at present. The diminution in the number of acres of roots cultivated may be to some extent connected with this decline in the number of sheep, but it is certain that the smaller number of stock carried per acre now is not productive of so much good to the land as the larger number carried in years gone by. The reduction in the quantity of manure must be a serious matter, and the use of artificials cannot compensate for the loss of what is the most valuable of all manures. In all the percentages used in the following remarks it must be remembered that ' per acre ' as used in the Board of Agriculture Returns means per 100 acres. Dorset as a county has not gone in to a great degree for the breeding of shire horses. As early as 1800 the county surveyor for Dorset of that time referred to the class of horse used as being too light, and said that the breed might be considerably improved. The breed has been considerably improved, but Dorset is not a county in which the breeding of horses is likely to attain to the highest standard. The Compton Stud has done much in the improvement of the horses of the county, and the Blandford Farmers' Club has also assisted in this work by keeping an entire horse for the use of its members at a reduced fee. In 1873 the Returns showed Dorset as possessing 14,604 horses, whilst in 1906 the number had risen to 16,650. This gives a percentage in 1873 °f 3'' ^° ^^e acre and in 1906 of 3-5 to the acre. The percentages are calculated in proportion to the acreage under crops, bare fallow, and grass. The rate of increase in face of these percentages has not been so great in proportion to the number of acres as in proportion to the total number of horses kept. Numerical progress has been steady, with no great fluctuation. In 1875 the total was 15,356 j 280 AGRICULTURE in 1880, 16,192 ; whilst in 1885 it had fallen to 15,794. The year 1890 saw the total up to 15,970 and 1900 up to 15,558. It was after the disastrous year 1879 that farmers in Dorset commenced to pay greater atten- tion to dairy supplies. That year reduced farmers' capital to such a degree that many of them found it imperative to turn their attention to a branch of agriculture which would yield them an immediate return for their outlay. In addition the growth of the large towns and seaside resorts was instrumental in increasing the production of milk by reason of the growing demand which the workers in the towns created. It must not be supposed that the increase in the number of cattle has been entirely with a view to milk-production, but this object has no doubt been the most important factor in bringing about the present situation. It is impossible to give figures for early years showing the growth of the milk supply from Dorset, which goes to London, Bournemouth, Weymouth, and other seaside places within or near the county, but some idea may be gathered from the fact that during 1906 there were dispatched by the London and South Western Railway to London and elsewhere nearly 5,000,000 gallons of milk. As this would not represent the whole output of dairy produce, butter and cheese having to be considered, the value of dairy-farming to the county is at once apparent. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the practice of the farmer keeping dairy cows was to rent them to a dairyman, who was in effect a small holder. This practice still continues in places, but as it was almost exclusively a product of large holdings the gradual levelling down of the farms has done away with the necessity for the dairyman, and the farmer now generally deals with the produce of his cows himself. Dorset butter is, of course, famous, though this branch has suffered, as in other counties, from foreign competition. Cheese, too, has somewhat declined, but high prices are gradually making the farmer turn his attention more to this product. Attention might well be drawn here to the famous ' blue vinny ' cheese of Dorset. It is extremely popular in the county, but it is very difficult to obtain outside the county area. In appearance it is similar to Stilton, but has a more delicate flavour and in the opinion of the Dorset man is infinitely superior. The fattening of cattle for stores, too, has made great strides, especially in the vicinity of the two great markets of Dorchester and Wimborne. Sales are held at Dorchester every Saturday and at Wimborne every Tuesday. In 1873 the number of cattle totalled 75,232 with a percentage of i6*i to the acre (every 100 acres). In 1906 the total was 94,405, while the percentage had risen to nearly 20 per acre. Up to 1880 the figures varied but little, but in the five years ending 1885 there was an increase of 15,000. The dry season of 1893 shows its effect in the figures for 1894 which go down to 79,955. By the year 1899 the numbers had risen to 89,128, but another bad season sent the figures down to 87,904 in 1900. However, by 1906 the number of cattle kept had jumped to its present high figure of 90,405. The old breed of long-horned cattle, which at one time was almost the only breed in the county, is practically extinct, only one herd being known to exist now. Shorthorns were introduced in 1870, and this breed is now the most common. There are several fine herds of Shorthorns to be seen within the county and one or two pedigree herds. Devon cattle are mostly to be seen in the west, but Shorthorns practically monopolize the rest of the county. Herefords are not popular, but at one time the popular dairy cow was a cross between a Devon and a Hereford, the latter for size and the former for constitution. The general all-round utility of the Shorthorn, both as a dairy cow and for fattening, has gradually made it more popular than the crossbreds, and it may be said that the majority of the cattle in the county are Shorthorns. Sheep in Dorset enjoy the advantage of roaming over the chalky downs which suit the famous Southdown breed so well, and the manner in which they thrive in the county is evidence that Dorset is peculiarly adapted for sheep-breeding. It is all the more to be regretted therefore that the number of sheep within the county has shown such a great decrease. Much of this is to be attributed to the bad seasons which force farmers to sell regardless of price in order to find capital to continue cultivation of the land. In taking to sheep-breeding a farmer has to consider that he sees no return for his capital for twelve months. Possibly he may get a larger return in the end, but as has often happened in the past a farmer has had to take to some other branch such as milk production from which he gets an immediate return. Another factor has been the cutting up of large farms into smaller holdings and thus destroying what is essential to successful sheep-breeding — a good run. The first reason, however, apart from the effect of bad weather on the sheep, is the more true to fact, as witness the drop from 427,831 sheep in 1873 and 498,Oioin 1879 to 463,864 in 1880, a decline of nearly 35,000 in one year. Farmers in Dorset do not desire a repetition of 1879. Its influence is written largely in other branches besides sheep. Till 1885 the numbers remained much about the same, being in that year 460,371, but in the following year 1886, due to the failure of the turnip and swede crop and a late winter, the numbers dropped to 448,635. In 1890 the figures had 2 281 36 A HISTORY OF DORSET fallen to 418,945, but the next year saw a rise to 438,567. In 1893 occurred the drought which was, however, not responsible for the figures of that year being down to 410,134, but in 1894 we get its full effect, there being nearly 30,000 sheep less, the figures standing at 383,693. In 1899 there was a failure in the turnip crop and a cold and backward spring which inflicted great hardship on the sheep. Its ill effects are particularly shown in 1 900 when the figures were 360,491, and it is an important fact to notice, especially when remembering the fecundity of Dorset sheep, that in the Returns for 1900 there were only 135,580 lambs as against 174,732 ewes. Compare this with the figures for 1906, viz. 334,605, out of which 177,576 were under one year old, and it needs little deduction to see in what sore straits the sheep were in 1900. Of the breeds in Dorset, for the purpose of this article only two, those directly connected with the county, need be considered. These are the Dorset Horn and the Dorset Down sheep. There are numerous flocks of Hampshire Downs in the county, as also one or two flocks of Southdowns. Of the two breeds that of the Dorset Horn is numerically stronger within the county. The Dorset Horn Sheep Breeders' Association was established in 1891, and this society has affiliated to it the American Dorset Horn Sheep Breeders' Association and the Continental Dorset Club, both with head quarters in America. The favour in which this breed is held extends not only to the adjoining counties of Somerset and Devon but also as far afield as New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the United States. The history of the Dorset Horn sheep goes back to the earliest records. In the Observations of Husbandry, published in 1757, Edward Lisle remarked on the fecundity of the Dorset Horn sheep. William Ellis in his Shepherd's Guide, published in 1749, speaks of the Dorset variety as ' being especially more careful of their young than any other.' In Professor D.ivid Lowe's work on The Domestic Animals of the British Islands, coloured illustrations of Dorset Horn sheep were first >♦ „ Suppers . • • 9 6 5 „ Thursday „ Dinners . :}- 9 3 »j » „ Suppers . „ Friday „ Dinners . „ Suppers . ■ II 10 6 „ Saturday „ Dinners . • • 4 I 8 82 16 3 Received for the play, six nights £\l js. There is also a long list of noblemen and gentry who attended the races in their coaches and six, among whom are mentioned Lord Milton of Milton Abbey, Lord Shaftesbury of St. Giles, Lord Arundel of VVardour Castle, Mr. Sturt of Crichel, Mr. Willett of Merley House, Mr. Portman of Bryanston, Mr. Weld of Lul- worth Castle. Other early Dorset patrons of the turf were Humphrey Sturt, esq., Henry William Berkeley Portman, esq., Francis Seymour, esq., ' Hutchins, Hist, ef Dorset. and Thomas Erie-Drax, esq., as appears by the list of subscribers in 1757 to an old book on racing by Reginald Heber, entitled The His- torical List of Horse Matches run and of Plates and Prizes run for in Great Britain and Ireland. It is interesting to note that owing to the length of the races, the weight carried, and the several heats run by the same horse in a day, the racing of those days was a very diflPerent matter from that of our times. 1777- Blandford, Dorsetshire. On Tuesday, 22nd of July, ^50 for 4 yr. olds, colts 8 St. 7 lb., fillies 8 st. 4 lb., winner of one plate this year to carry 3 lb., of more 5 lb. extra. 2 mile heats. Mr. Tombs' ch. f. Cornish Lady by Prophet, I plate i — i Mr. Parke's b.c. Brlskin .... 2 — 2 At starting 2 to i on Briskin. On Wednesday the 23rd, £(,0 given by the Memben for the County for 5 yr. olds 8 st. 7 lb., for 6 yr. olds 9 st., and aged 9 st. 7 lb. Winners of £10 plates this year to carry 4 lb. extra, of King's Plates since the 5 th of April, 10 lb. extra. 4 mile heats. Mr. Hibberd's b.h. Omnium, 5 yr. old 2 — I — I Mr. Bowles' b.h. Codrus, 6 yr. old, 2 plates i — 2 — 2 These horses must have run 12 miles in heats. In 1816, on Tuesday, 29 July, we have the record of a Maiden Plate of ^^50 run off in four mile heats. Mr. Tate's ch. h. Lismahago by Acacia, 9 st. 10 lb. ... 2 — i — i Mr. Wilson's b.c. Wooton, 4 yrs. 8 St. 2 lb I — 2 — 2 In August 18 1 2, a race was run at Sherborne, with the following result : — /50 for all ages. Heats thrice round. Mr. Farquharson's Wood Daemon by Lop, aged, 9 st 1 — i Mr. Williami' ch. g. Picaroon, aged, 8 St. 1 1 lb 3 — 2 Mr. Radclyffe's Small Hopes, 6 yrs., 9 St. 4 lb 2 — 3 One of the most interesting points of the old Blandford racecourse is Telegraph Hill, where used to stand the Semaphore, with which mes- sages could be sent to London almost as quickly as an electric message gets there now. It was one of a series of semaphore signal stations on the high hills between Blandford and London, each taking up the message and passing it on. Both Blandford and Weymouth held races for king's and queen's cups. 16 SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN RACING CELEBRITIES The foremost place among racing celebrities of the county belongs to the first Lord Alington, who from his earliest years took the greatest interest in the turf. The late Sir Francis Doyle, who was a distant cousin of the Sturts, used to relate that Gerard Sturt, when an Eton boy in 1839-40, backed Lord George Bentinck's famous filly, Crucifix, for all her races as a two and three-year-old, and wound up by landing a treble event bet when, in 1840, she won the TwoThousand Guineas, One Thousand Guineas, and Oaks.^ In 1849 colours were first registered for Mr. Gerard Sturt, as he was then — light blue jacket and white cap ; and the first of his many trainers was John Day of Danebury. His first successes worthy of record were gained when he and his staunch confederate, Sir Frederic Johnstone, transferred their horses to William Day's care at Woodyates, which that good trainer and fine judge of racing had leased from the earl of Shaftesbury. Perhaps the most remarkable of the lot was Brigantine, which William Day bought for Sir Frederic Johnstone as a yearling for 150 guineas. This mare, trained at Woodyates, won for Sir Frederic the Oaks and the Ascot Gold Cup in 1869. She subsequently remained in Lord Alington's stud at the White Farm at Crichel until 1882. The real interest attaching to Lord Alington's racing life, so far as it affects the majority of modern racegoers, commences with the period when, about the year 1882, he became for the first time a patron of John Porter's famous training establishment at Kingsclere in Hamp- ihire, of which his partner. Sir Frederic John- stone, was already a supporter. There is no occasion to recapitulate in detail the names and performances of the numerous thoroughbreds in training which belonged jointly or severally to Lord Alington and Sir Frederic Johnstone be- tween 1 88 1 and 1903. Are not their names, ages, pedigrees, and performances, as well as the jockeys who rode them, exhaustively recited by John Porter in his entertaining work Kingsclere, published in 1896? Before he joined the Kingsclere stable Lord Alington's triumphs had been principally confined to handicaps, selling stakes, and two-year-old races. With each and all of his many previous trainers, William Day alone excepted, he had been singularly unsuc- cessful. At Danebury, at Littleton, at Findon, at Newmarket, where for fifty years he had horses under the charge of several trainers, some of whom, by his orders, kept his con- nexion with their stables a profound secret, he was seldom cheered by victory. All, how- ' The editor of the Sportsman has most kindly sup- plied a great deal of information concerning Lord Alington's racing life. ever, was changed when the partners threw in their lot with William Day at Woodyates. The long list of prizes won by Lord Alington (then Mr. Gerard Sturt) and Sir Frederic John- stone is given by William Day in his Racehorse in Training (p. 99), from which we quote the following passage : — That some estimate may be formed of the merits of the animals my horses met, I v/\\\ summarize a few of the races they won. Handicaps : — Chester Cup, Cambridgeshire, Royal Hunt Cup, and Somersetshire Stakes, three times each ; the Metropolitan, Goodwood Stewards' Cup, Great Eastern Handicap, Goodwood Stakes, and Northamptonshire Stakes, twice each ; the Portland Plate, Cesarewitch, Chesterfield Cup, Stewards' Cup at Chester, the Doncaster and Lincoln- shire Handicaps ; the Newmarket, Lincoln, Goodwood, Doncaster, and Stockbrldge Nurseries, the Shrewsbury and other small handicaps. Among two-year-old vic- tories I may include the New, Molecombe, and Lavant Stakes, the Ham and Findon Stakes, the Criterion, and the following weight-for-age races ; The Oaks, Goodwood, Derby (twice). Queen's Vase at Ascot (twice), the Ascot and Goodwood Cups, the Two Thousand Guineas (twice). Royal Stakes, and, finally, the Yearling Stakes at Shrewsbury, not to mention others. In 1883 St. Blaise running in the name of Sir F. Johnstone won the Derby. In 1 891 Common won the Triple Crown. In 1894 Throstle won the St. Leger. In 1 891 Lord Alington sold Common to Sir J. Blundell Maple for one of the largest sums ever paid in the United Kingdom for a racehorse, and in 1894 he sold Matchbox, which ran second in the Derby to Lord Rosebery's Ladas, to Baron de Hirsch for ;^i 5,000. Towards the end of his life Lord Alington generally had a few horses in training with Walters at Pimperne, and many of them were successful. He died in 1904 and was succeeded by his son the Hon. Humphrey Napier Sturt, who still keeps some good horses in training with the same trainer. The late Lord Wolverton had a few good horses in his time, the most famous of his breed- ing was The Bard. The late Mr. Ralph Bankes of Kingston Lacy also did a little racing, and he won quite a good number of the smaller events between the years 1881 and 1902. Amongst his best horses were Camiola which in 1894 won five races at Hurst Park and Kempton Park, and Perseverance, the winner between 1899 and 1 90 1 of seven races at Ayr, Birmingham, Kemp- ton Park, and Newmarket. TRAINING ESTABLISHMENTS AND STUD FARMS Now that Mr. Gilpin has left Langton and gone to train at Newmarket the only trainer left in the county is Mr. Alfred Walters at Pimperne. The father of the present trainer of this stable was Mr. W. Walters, who himself was the son 317 A HISTORY OF DORSET of John Walters, one of three brothers, all trainers, well known about 1840. He began riding in pony and galloway races when ten or eleven years ofage. Afterthat he rode under Rules of Racing and later on was a well-known steeplechase rider under National Hunt Rules. In 1863 he com- menced as private trainer to Sir C. Rushout, near Moreton in the Marsh, moving afterwards to Earls Croome, thence to Wroughton, and finally coming to Pimperne in 1885. Among the best horses trained at Pimperne were Goldseeker and Tyrant, which between 1886 and 1890 won between them the following races : — The Don- caster Welter Plate, the Cleveland Handicap, and the Portland Plate at Doncaster ; the Septem- ber Handicap at Manchester; the City and Subur- ban ; the Welter Handicap at Newmarket ; the Chester Cup and the Great Cheshire Handicap ; the Great Northern Handicap at York ; and the DoncasterSpring Handicap. Amongother winners trained by Mr. Walters the best have been Clarion, Monsieur, Goodlake, Hibernian, Bonny Kate, Mountain Knight, Bobbie Burns, and Satyrica. It would be impossible to find a healthier spot for horses, or a more perfect training ground, than this on the old Blandford racecourse, with distances to suit preparation for all races. Beau- tiful firm and springy turf on a good subsoil covers the whole ; and nicely undulating downs abound. Above all its recommendation is its isolation, for here are no crowds, no jostling, no touts to worry the trainer in his trials, the horses run no risks, and have every opportunity for good work without hindrance. A notable stud farm is situated at The Knoll, Corfe Mullen, where with excellent paddocks and every modern convenience Captain H. Y. Mills (late 6th Inniskilling Dragoons) takes in about thirty-seven mares for breeding purposes. A- mongst these mares is Concussion, dam of Ham- merkop, Sirenia, and Water Chute. Hammerkop won the Cesarewitch in 1905, and the Alex- andra Cup at Ascot in 1905 and 1906. Sirenia won the Duke of York Stakes, the Kempton Jubilee in 1900, and in Ireland was unbeaten as a two-year-old. Another mare in the paddocks is Clarehaven, winner of the Cesarewitch in 1900, and here may be seen many other winning mares. Eager by Enthusiast — Greeba stands at The Knoll, one of the most popular horses that ever ran, and the champion sprinter of his time. Although no classic race fell to his lot, he won no less than ^Ti 5,000 in stakes and won a good race every time he appeared at Ascot. Mr. William Martin of Moor Court has also bred a few useful thoroughbreds at his farm near Bailey Gate, but they have always been sold before entering upon their racing career. POLO Polo, as a county game in Dorset, dates from the year 1900, when the Blackmore Vale Polo Club was formed, and this club now is admitted by all to be the leading country club of the day. The president is Major Earl Cairns, the hon. secretary and treasurer H. E. Lambe, esq., Stalbridge, and the assistant hon. secretary the Hon. L. Lambert, Milborne Port. In 1907 there were thirty playing and seventy- five non-playing members ; of the former the best known are perhaps Captain Phipps Hornby (late of the Rifle Brigade), Colonel Duth (late of the 8th Hussar Team), Captain A. Courage (of the great 15th Hussar Team), Mr. J. Har- greaves (of the Freebooters Team), and the Hon. H. Grosvenor (late of the 14th Hussars). This is the only county club which can boast four grounds — three boarded and one un- boarded — all situated some three miles from Sherborne. Polo commences on i March, and ends on 31 August. About seventy days' polo are played on the grounds each season, with two annual tournaments. In 1904 the club won the 'County Cup' after having been runners up for the two preced- ing years. In 1905 and 1 906 the team were runners up at Ranelagh for the County Clubs Junior Championship, which was instituted by the Blackmore Vale Polo Club and was afterwards taken over by the County Polo Association. SHOOTING We have encountered many difficulties in compiling the following short account of shooting in Dorset. Of late years nearly all the shootings have been let to newcomers, and now very few landlords keep them in their own hands. From these latter only statistics have been obtained ; it has been found impossible to get returns from the present shooting tenants. In old days there certainly was not anything like the amount of what may be termed artificial game — that is to say, home-reared pheasants, partridges, and wild duck ; but the shooting was of a more sporting character when the old- fashioned country squire enjoyed moderate days with his neighbours who supported and partici- pated in other sports as well. Dorset is a county eminently suitable by nature for almost every variety of bird and animal, and in every part of it a varied bag may be had. There are good coverts of all sizes for 318 SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN pheasants, fir plantations famous for woodcock, bog, river, and harbour ^ for wildfowl, upland and arable for partridges and hares, whilst the heath swarms with rabbits. Grouse have been imported, but with no success ; and a few years ago there was a very fair sprinkling of blackgame, but these have steadily decreased of late years. The most famous perhaps of all the big shoot- ing manors is Crichel, the home of Lord Aling- ton, where His Majesty the King has shot on more than one occasion. The shooting has steadily improved for many years and some memorable bags ^ have been made. As many as 260 hares have been killed in the turnips in one ■day by three guns, and 1,540 in the season. Hungarian partridges reared on the estate have wonderfully improved the stock, and there are now great quantities of birds. Lord Wimborne's Canford estate is also a famous shoot, notable as being one of the first places in the county where partridges were reared, as far back as 1886, for driving purposes, 150 brace being killed in a day. Milton Abbey has always been an estate notable both for pheasants and partridges, the latter having immensely increased of late years. It is almost unique for high pheasants, the coverts all being hanging woods on the side of the hill. The Lulworth estate contains the best hare and partridge land in the county, and some re- markable bags have been made there year after year. Rushmore, Melbury, and Colonel Brymer's coverts at Ilsington, are all good shoots, while Charborough^ is remarkable for being the first place in the county where pheasants were exten- sively reared. On Brownsea Island situated in Poole Harbour Mr. Van Raalte rears a large quantity of game, and round its shores there is exceedingly good wildfowl shooting. Encombe, the property of Lord Eldon, is a good shooting manor, but more preserving was done in the past than is now the case. Grange Woods used to be celebrated for wood- cock, as many as forty being sometimes flushed in a day, when they had just come in. Woodcock and snipe are not nearly so plenti- ful in Dorset as in former days. The writer has seen records of as many as thirty woodcock killed in one day, and it was no uncommon thing for two guns to kill between forty and fifty snipe in a day, whereas now half a dozen woodcock or four couple of snipe would be considered good. Taken all round the shooting in Dorset is of a very fair description, and of a really sporting order with regard to wildfowl. FALCONRY There are few places in England where the general characteristics of the country are so suited to the sport of falconry as those which are found in the county of Dorset. For here we find large tracts of open moorland, big fields, with here and there broad stretches of open down-land, all of which are essential to the successful pursuit of hawking. Not only is the Dorset falconer favoured with excellent grounds over which to carry on this fascinating sport, but he is also fortunate in living in a county which is still one of the greatest strongholds of our most noble British falcons, the peregrine [Falco peregrinus). Between St. Alban's Head and Bridport there are ' Those who have turned over the pages of Hawker on Shooting will remember the wonderful bags of duck, teal, and widgeon that Poole Harbour has afforded, a happy hunting ground in days of yore both to the punt gunner and shoreman. * The best three days consecutively were in 1900 : — Pheasants Hares Rab- bits Wood- cock Vari- ous Total Jan. 23 . 1. 551 123 189 I 9 1,873 „ 2+ • 1,018 65 81 4 4 1,172 „ 25 • ■ 1,517 68 385 4 4 1,978 Total . . 4,086 256 655 9 17 5,023 In one rise on 1 1 Dec. 1 896, 708 pheasants were killed at one stand, the rise lasting three-quarters of -an hour. Still several eyries or these falcons, where annually, in spite of wanton destruction by guns and traps and the depredations of egg hunters, a fair num- ber of young peregrines are bred each year. From time to time the lover of bird life may recognize the graceful flight of these splendid falcons, as they sail high over the Dorset moors or open downs. For many years the writer used to employ men to watch and guard most eyries of peregrines along the Dorset cliffs. On occasions certain of the young birds, commonly called eyesses, would be taken from the nests for the purpose of training them, others being left and allowed to fly away. The local cliff climbers were paid a good price for all birds whether taken or not, in order to outbid the professional egg hunters who were always willing to pay a certain price for the eggs. It was early in 1887 that the writer first commenced his attempts at falconry. Acting under the advice of an old friend, the late Major C. H. Fisher of Stroud in Gloucestershire, the greatest falconer of his day, he began by training two eyess peregrines taken from a nest near Lulworth Cove. Although he has owned innumerable falcons and hawks and flown them in many lands since those days, his earliest ' At one time guinea-fowl and wild turkeys were placed in the Charborough coverts for shooting. 319 A HISTORY OF DORSET vicissitudes, pleasures and disappointments, pertain- ing to the first few seasons of a career as a falconer, will ever linger in his memory. He has in recent years trained and flown in Dorset peregrine falcons, Barbary falcons, merlins, goshawks, sparrowhawks, and even sakers and larmers im- ported from Asia, and with them he has taken such quarry as herons, blackgame, pheasants, partridges, wild duck, snipe, pigeons, rooks, crows and seagulls with the falcons, larks with merlins, and hares and rabbits with the goshawks. The best places for flying hawks in Dorset are the open moorlands around Wareham, Wool, and Bere Regis, the downs near Blandford and the surrounding country', and such places as Fording- ton Fields near Dorchester. Two other sports- men have kept and trained hawks in Dorset during recent years. Colonel Thompson of the 7th Dragoon Guards, when acting as adjutant of the Dorset yeomanry some years ago, kept and trained hawks at Charminster, and Mr. G. Blaine, who was for a few seasons the tenant of the Bere Regis manor, kept a fine establishment of trained hawks at that place. Time, space, and the nature of this article do not admit of any detailed account of the actual method by which hawks are trained and flown. Nothing but a fine day spent with a falconer and his hawks in such places as a grouse moor in August, or on the downs in spring when riding hard after good rook hawks, will give the reader an idea of the immense time and patience which are required ere a falconer can render tractable and subser\'ient to hiswill one of nature's wildest creatures. Then for the nonce he may imagine himself once more back in the olden days, when falconry was the sport of kings, and hawking parties issued forth from every stately hall or castle in Merrie England. ANGLING The fishing in Dorset is extremely good in some parts ; salmon, trout, and all descriptions of coarse fish may be taken, and some very good sea line fishing is to be found on the coast. The principal fishing rivers are the Frome which, rising near Rampisham, flows into Poole Harbour ; the Piddle which rises above Piddletrenthide and empties itself into Poole Harbour ; and the Stour, with its tributaries, which rises in the north-east corner of the county, and flows into the sea at Christchurch. Dorset salmon fishing, although not nowadays first class as regards the number of fish taken, is first class for the size of the fish. Trout fishing is really first class, for there are few places in the United Kingdom with better natural trout streams, and where the water is carefully pre- served the skilled angler may make phenomenal bags. Many a big catch has been made with the wet fly ; but of the best fish the greatest number, whether in the Frome, the Tarrant, or the Piddle, have certainly fallen to the lot of the dry fly fisherman. Coarse fishing in many of the rivers is really good, and excellent sport may be enjoyed by the skilled bottom fisher- man. The Frome The history of salmon fishing on this river is of great antiquity and importance, but it is as an industry rather than as a sport that we find early mention of it in the accounts of the honour of Gloucester. In 1544 Henry VIII made a grant of the manor and borough of Wareham to Catherine of Aragon, including all sporting and fishing rights. In 1 56 1 the Frome salmon fishery was leased to a certain Francis Browne and Anne his wife, at 69J. ^d. with a fine of j^20. In 1582 it appears to have been granted to Edmund Frost and John Walker. In the same year it came into the possession of Sir Christopher Hatton and after that went to Sir John Bankes. From him it passed to the Calcraft family, who have held it ever since ; the present owner being Captain Marsden, R.N., nephew of the late William Calcraft of Remp- stone. Hutchins in his History of Dorset relates that an old fisherman of ninetj'-three had told him of a catch of forty-seven salmon weighing sixty score, which, being unsaleable at Ware- ham, were carried on to Bindon Fair and sold at 2d. a lb. The best netting was below Ware- ham Bridge, and in one year 150 salmon were taken — all big fish. It was not until quite modern times that rod fishing for salmon was introduced on the Frome, but after several successful years of the nets, when Messrs. Panton & Son had the netting rights of the Calcraft estate, it was attempted. The first to try the rod was the late General Hankey, who was stationed at Dorchester about 1868, and though permission was granted when he asked leave of Mr. Bond of Creech Grange, the idea of catching a fish was laughed at. Begin- ning at Holme Bridge, he fished steadily down to a pool about 400 yards below the present Swanage Railway Bridge. Here he hooked a fish which from its play he imagined to be a pike, and after about a minute it broke away without showing itself. Having fished the river down, he returned to the same pool and in it rose, hooked, played and landed a salmon of 28 lb., a clean fresh run fish. On examination he found the tongue split and bleeding, which proved it to have been the fish he had hooked 320 SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN already. The pool is still called Hankey's Pool, and many fish have been caught there since. Soon after this Mr. Montague Guest, Mr. C. Hambro, Mr. Sidney Osborne, and Mr. Fred Fane took the best of the fishable water, from Stoke Mill to Wareham. In their best season, in spite of the nets below, forty-seven clean fish were taken on the rod, besides a large number of kelts returned to the river. Of late years the number of salmon coming up in the spring and summer months has for some quite unaccountable causes greatly decreased, and if a dozen fish are caught in a season, it is considered a good year, and that with no nets on the water at all. It is true that in the old days more trouble was taken, a water bailiff was kept on, the farmers cut the weeds once and often twice in a season, pike were netted in the lower reaches constantly, and steam tugs coming from Poole to Wareham kept an open passage free from weeds and mud, which is not now the case. And yet quite as many fish are seen in the winter months, November, December, and January, making their way to the spawning beds even as far up the river as Highford Common. One most remarkable feature of this river is the fact that grilse or parr have never been seen in it, and only fish of very large size are taken. So large are they that it is the opinion of many who have fished the water that, had a record been kept, the average would have been between 27 and 30 lb. As proof of that, a year or two ago Captain Radclyffe fishing in the early part of the season, took seven fish on the fly averaging 29^ lb. The record fish taken on the rod are one of 46 lb. caught by Mr. Osborne, using a prawn, and one of 41 lb. caught by Captain Radclyffe, using a fly. The Frome as a coarse fishing river would take a very prominent position, were it not for its more important salmon fishing. There are pike, roach and dace in quantities and of good size between Wareham and Moreton ; above that they give way to trout preservation. At Holme Bridge between Wareham and East Stoke we have seen enormous catches of roach and dace, some running up to i^ lb. and over. The pike fishing is extremely good, fish running up to about 20 lbs. Mr. R. Butler took one of 21 lb. quite recently in the Hethfelton Water, which is strictly preserved by Captain J. W. T. Fyler. There is good trout fishing at Moreton, where Mr. Frampton by careful and systematic netting has destroyed most of the pike and has stocked the river with good sized trout, which are doing well. Going on through West Staf- ford the river improves more and more towards Dorchester. The best water is that belonging to the Dorchester Club, which has a world-wide reputation, and the stretch belonging to Mr. Sheridan of Frampton Court. The Dorchester Fishing Club, which has done a great deal for the preservation of trout, is limited to twenty- four members. The extent of fishable water belonging to the club is about six miles, which was reclaimed from the hands of netting poachers through the energy of the late Captain Mansel, who for many years was hon. secretary of the club. Among its most renowned members have been Mr. Selwyn Marryatt, Mr. W. H. Pope, and Major Cumberland. Of the first-named it has been said that he could place his rod between his arms behind his back and in that way cast a fly as deftly as most ordinary fishermen. At one time there were some immense fish below the town, and Major Cumberland caught several of them up to 7^ lb. in weight on the artificial fly. Since, however, the new drainage system has been finished in Dorchester, these big fish have disappeared. Mr. Sheridan's water is extremely good and most carefully preserved ; the water is well stocked and full of large fish, which rise well to the dry fly. The Piddle The Piddle, which runs parallel with the Frome, has also a reputation for salmon, but as the only good part is tidal, little has been done by rod — the biggest fish recorded was taken in 1898 in the nets and weighed 42 lb. As in the case of the Frome, many fish are seen in the winter months on the spawning beds. This river is undoubtedly, without exaggeration, one of the most prolific of trout-yielding streams in the south of England. The best part of it lies between Brian's-Puddle and Binnegar, the very pick of it between Chamberlayne's and Hyde. There is more than one record of a good rod taking forty brace in the Hyde water, and on one occasion Captain Radclyffe, to prove its capacity, caught 58^ brace in one day, of course returning most to the water. They run a fair size, and on most of the fishings there is a I lb. limit. On the lower reaches there are some very large fish, and the writer has twice killed, on the May Fly, fish of nearly 5 lb. and many of 3^ lb. A few years ago this portion was seriously depleted of fish, but by judicious management the water is now well stocked with large fish. Mr. Lindler, the pre- sent tenant, has established a fish hatchery at Bere Regis, the only one in the district, which is doing remarkably well. Going further up there is very fine fishing through Affpuddle, and right up to Puddletown, all the water being in the hands of private owners who preserve it most carefully, more particularly the water at Southover, and Tolpuddle which belongs to Mr. Crane. Mr. Homer's water at Burleston deserves notice, large-size trout being caught here, the record fish in 1906 being 3 lb., while the average for all years is 45 lb. 321 41 A HISTORY OF DORSET The Stour The Stour is almost entirely a coarse fishing river, although at the mouth salmon ^ come up. The pike fishing in many parts of the river is excel- lent, and all through from VVimborne to Blandford they are caught in considerable numbers and of a fair size. Chub, perch, dace, and roach are also to be found in plenty in most of the reaches. In the tributaries of the Stour there is good brown trout fishing, and Sir Richard Glynn has estab- lished a fish hatchery near Fontmell Magna, where he has gone in extensively for rainbow trout. Captain RadclyfFe says : — The small strwrn here is particularly adapted for these fish, whose peculiarity is that they will make off down stream for the sea, but as there are a number of small mills, with the assistance of iron gratings, the downward march ot these fish is retarded. B/ constant restocking of the highest mill dam pools a really good supply of fish is kept up, and the}' grow- very quickly and take the fly well. In the Tarrant, another tributary, there is good brown trout fishing and the fish thrive well and rise well. Unfortunately at intervals this river runs quite dry, and constant restocking is necessary to keep up a supply. SEA FISHING Angling for salt water fish on the coast of Dorset has been for many years on the increase. Poole Harbour is by no means a bad spot, but for the most part all fishing there, both with net and line, is carried on by professional fisher- men. The Swanage coast, VVarbarrow Bay, Arish Mell, and Lulworth Cove all offer oppor- tunities to the sportsman, but by far the ' Five or six yean ago a gentleman fishing near the bridge at Blandford with a spinning bait for pike took a salmon of 12 lb. This is one of the few recorded instances of the capture of a salmon on a rod in this river. As in the Frome, salmon come up in the winter to spawn. best fishing is to be obtained at Weymouth. There is an excellent anglers' club here, which under the title of the Weymouth and Dorset Sea Angling Society is federated with the National Council of Sea Anglers. The presi- dent of the society is Mr. S. H. Wallis, a very practical angler, winner against 184 com- petitors of the Corporation Cup and Gold Medal at the Folkestone Festival in 1906, when he beat the whole record of the south coast, his biggest fish being two congers respectively 30 lb. and 22 lb. and a pollock whiting of 13 lb. The honorary secretary is Mr. J. Rogers, and there are about 300 members. The, fishing grounds extend over more than ten miles of good rocky bottom, and there is excellent conger, bass, whiting, pollock, and mackerel fishing. The largest conger caught on line weighed 421b., and bass have been caught up to 13 or 141b. This is the only place in England where bass fishing can be followed all the year round, and as many as 1 00 in a day have been taken by one rod. In the Fleet waters they take the fly well, and on one occasion two rods took over ten dozen good fish there. The mackerel afford excellent sport, and the record for them was 1 00 dozen taken on the line by Mr. A. Brown sailing single handed, his fore sheet hauled to windward. Unfortunately the fishing is being considerably hurt by netting in the backwater, which is one of the finest breeding grounds imaginable. This netting is carried on to an enormous extent with no close season, and bushels of the brown shrimp have been taken out, so that this epicurean morsel for choice fish is nearly exterminated. Now and again a shark visits the water, and on one occasion a large one was hooked on a trot and towed the angler out to sea at a great rate, having to be cut loose for fear of a capsize. The fishing at Weymouth is carried on both from the quay sides on shore and also from boats ; the local fishermen are good guides. GOLF It can hardly be claimed for Dorset that the county is a golfer's paradise. There is but little golf in the county, and none of it is of the true seaside quality, although the Dorset Club makes a gallant effort to provide real golf for its numerous supporters on its famous course at Broadstone. Within the county there are no more than seven recognized golf clubs, and it argues a lack of enterprise and enthusiasm for the game in Dorset folk that so much of the magnificent turf of its downs and so vast an area of its characteristic sandy heath is unutilized for the royal and ancient game. Dorset is, however, a sparsely-inhabited county, and it is possible that the courses it has are sufficient for the needs of its players. It was not until the beginning of the last decade of the nineteenth century that the wave of enthusiasm for golf, which was sweeping like a torrent over England, reached our county ; and to Bridport belongs the honour of having instituted the first golf club within its borders. In February 1 891, the West Dorset Club opened a nine-hole course with a circuit of about one and a half miles on some sixty acres of fine down turf on the slopes of the west cliff at West Bay. The hazards here are gorse, dis- 322 SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN used quarries, roads, and stone walls ; and the best time for play is in the spring and autumn months. In 1892 was founded the Isle of Purbeck Golf Club, whose links are two miles from Swanage on the north side of the road to Stud- land. This very hilly nine-hole course has a length of about a mile and a half; the hazards are hedges, gorse, ponds, with some artificial bunkers. The Lyme Regis Golf Club was initiated in 1893. Its nine-hole course is 500 ft. above the sea on the cliffs between Lyme and Charmouth. Golf had already been played for some time on Lenthay Common, near Sherborne, when in 1894 the course of the Blackmore Vale Club was opened a mile and a half to the north of the town. It was laid out on undulating ground on either side of a road which with its high hedges formed a hazard at more than one of the nine holes. The club has recently gone back to links on Lenthay Common. The Ashley Wood Club has a down course of nine holes two miles from Blandford. It was opened in 1896. The turf is good, and gorse is the principal hazard. The old Dor- chester Club, founded in the same year, has now amalgamated with the Weymouth Club under the name of the Weymouth, Dorchester, and County Club. The course of eighteen holes is on Came Down two miles from the county town. The hazards are furze, chalk-pits, tumuli, a pond, and some ditches. The great course of the Dorset Club, opened in 1898, is the outcome of a prodigious expendi- ture of money, labour, and ingenuity. It lies about midway between Wimborne and Poole at Broadstone, partly on the eastern edge of the great heath that, under different names, extends from Corfe Mullen to Moreton, and partly in the park of Merley Hall. On the wild and hilly heath portion Tom Dunn, who designed the course at the direction of Lord Wimborne, laid out the first six and the last four holes. The thick growth of ling, gorse, and fern which, rising shoulder high, covered the sandy hill-sides, was cut away, bogs were drained, and turf was laid, tees were levelled, vast putting greens were made and bunkers built, and after years of work ten magnificent holes, of which it is not easy to find the equal on any inland course, appeared. It has been said by a judicious critic of Broadstone that if the vast ditch and rampart hazards were replaced by artfully arranged pot bunkers this could be made one of the finest courses in Europe, and many may be found to agree with this dictum so far as it applies to the holes at the beginning and end of the round. But the long seventh and the five holes in the park are less enjoyable. The course is 3^ miles round, and the long carries required from the tees form what is perhaps the most marked characteristic of this ex- cellent course, where the tees are like putting greens and the greens themselves of lavish dimensions. Meetings are held in the spring and autumn. In compiling this bketch of Sport in Dorset the writer has endeavoured to obtain an accurate ac- count of each description of sport both of the past and present and each detail has been verified. His best thanks are due to masters of hounds, who have most courteously given end- less information, and each kennel has been visited by the writer. With regard to shooting some difficulties have arisen, and very few shoot- ing men in the county have supplied either information generally or statistics in particular. For the history of racing, the stud farms and training establishments have been visited, and at these the utmost assistance has been given. The writer wishes to express his gratitude more especially to Captain Eustace Radclyffe, who has not only supplied a great deal of general infor- mation, but has himself written an article on falconry for this work ; to the Lady Theodora Guest for the loan of many interesting documents bearing on hunting ; and to the Editor of the Sportsman for racing particulars. 323 INDUSTRIES INTRODUCTION INDUSTRIAL Dorset, at first sight seems a contradiction, the county being pre- eminently agricultural. The real value of the composite wage of its labourers has formed the subject of economic dis- cussion again and again. The curious method by which cows are let out to the dairy-farmers has received as much commendation as it has provoked criticism ; few persons, however, could tell what industries flourished between Poole and Lyme Regis ; and if the famous quarries of Purbeck and Portland were left out of account, most would probably assert that the chief trade of Dorset was in butter and cheese. Yet political economists point out that had not the burgesses of Bridport insisted on maintaining their monopoly for rope-making in the reign of Henry VIII, their town might have become a great manufacturing centre.^ If this had come to pass, the advantages offered by the coal-bearing north would probably have been outweighed by the facts that for long years Dorset produced the finest hemp in the English market, and that this manufacture is dependent to a great extent on skilled labour, an aptitude for which is transmitted from parent to child. But the burgesses ' stabbed themselves with their own dagger,' " and instead of a mighty city with suburbs stretching out to include Burton and Beaminster, Powerstock and Toller Porcorum, there remains one of the most pic- turesque parts of this beautiful county, ' which has often been styled the garden of England.'' However, although the hemp industry was un- doubtedly injured at the time by the short- sighted policy of the burgesses of Bridport, it was by no means destroyed ; and after passing through various vicissitudes it is still the pride and mainstay of Bridport. As regards manufactured goods, the county is to a great extent in the first stage of industrial development. It has scarcely been affected by the industrial revolution which has been so admirably described by Mr. Arnold Toynbee.'' ' Gibbins, Industrial Hist. Engl, i o i . ' Bohn, Coll. of Proverbs, 202. ' England Displayed (1769), 64. * Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, 5. There are factories and mills, but a great many of the workers work in their own homes ; the most important operations, both in the hemp and gloving industry, are performed by hand ; a con- siderable proportion of the work is done by women, while the children often take their turn as soon as school hours are over. Dorset was well equipped to take its stand as an industrial county in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. But its equipment is now old-fashioned, and much of it obsolete. In all the descriptions of Dorset, and of these there are many, great stress is laid on the excellence and abundance of raw material : of wool, of hemp, of stone, and of clay. Leland, Camden, Cosmo III, duke of Tuscany, and a host of others join in dwelling on the quantity and quality of the sheep reared on the ' beautiful pastures' of the downs.' Time has made no impression on the truth of Camden's description of Dorset, 'garnished with many a green hill whereon feed flocks of sheep in great number with pleasant pastures likewise and fruitful valleys.' ^ Defoe was told ' that there were six hundred thousand sheep fed on the downs within six miles of the town ' of Dorchester. He writes, ' I do not affirm this to be true, but when I view the country round I confess I could not but incline to believe it.' ' Gilpin quotes and objects to a poetical description of the Dorseti.in Downs In boundless prospect spread, here shagged wilh woods, There rich with harvest, and there white with flocks.' He holds that even poetical licence is not warrant enough to call red sheep white. His observation held good until late in the nineteenth century, for the * r\iddle-man ' went his rounds year by year and dipped the sheep in red ochre. Great quantities of sheep are still raised in ' Cosmo III, Travels in Engl. (Magalotti, 1668), 46, 47. ' Camden, Britannia (ed. Holland, 1610), i, 51. ' Defoe, Tour Through Gt. Brit. (1724), i, 64. ' Gilpin, Observations on the Western Parts of Engl. 292. 325 A HISTORY OF DORSET Dorset for the sake of their wool as well as for their meat, but the cloth industry which at one time depended on the local wool has lett the county. Fields of hemp do not lend themselves so readily as flocks of sheep to picturesque descrip- tions, and even flax is only beautiful when its dazzling blue flower is in bloom ; but the fact that the rich damp soil round Bridport produced the best hemp in England is continually men- tioned. Hemp is no longer grown in the neigh- bourhood, though the common nettle belonging to the same botanical family springs up with un- paralleled vigour and luxuriance. The home- grown flax can no longer compete with that of Ireland or Belgium, but it is used locally mixed with hemp or cotton. In the Middle Ages the marble of Corfe won wide recognition, and Dorset sculptors not only wrought at home, but were summoned to a distance by king and prelate as the ablest of their time. Portland stone was exported at least as early as the reign of Edward I, and the stone of the quarries of southern Dorset is still the county's one pre-eminent gift. The clay found round Poole and Corfe Castle was not so widely known as the stone of Purbeck and Portland, but constant allusions are made by topographers of the last three centuries to its intrinsic qualities as a good clay for tobacco pipes, and to its value as an export to London. Besides raw material, Dorset possessed and still possesses all the power required by eighteenth- century machinery. It is covered with a net- work of little streams, which rush out of the sides of the chalk downs. These make up in speed what they lack in volume ; some are strong enough to drive water-wheels within a quarter of a mile of their source. Numerous mills are mentioned in Domesday Book, but very few of them still work. Almost all the corn is ground by steam mills, and many of the water- mills are in ruins ; others have totally dis- appeared. Besides industries which were promoted by the enterprise of individuals and the fallacies of public bodies, there were those based on a false estimate of mineral riches. Pottery and quarry- ing do not fall under this definition, but most of the attempts to work the other minerals found between Poole and Weymouth have had little last- ing success. The least important of these minerals is gypsum, which occurs in the lower Purbeck strata of Durlaston Bay, and was once worked to a limited extent.* There are more references to the alum industry, which was set up more than once in Dorset, but never took root per- manently in the county.'" Thus all the advan- tages which Dorset possessed have decreased in value ; the streams are left to irrigate the water- Green, Kimmeridge Shale, its Origin, 2. " See in/ra. meadows ; the cloth industry, now requiring machinery, steam power, and coal, has migrated to Yorkshire ; and better hemp can be imported from Russia. The disadvantages to industry from which Dorset has suffered have varied from time to time. At present the most powerful drawback to commercial enterprise is the lack of coal ; but this deficiency had no practical effect until the introduction of machinery at the end of the eighteenth century. Another handicap is the distance from London, and this was intensified, until railways were built, by the inadequate means of communication. Even now it is still a factor to be considered in any industrial prob- lem, and at any time up to the nineteenth century it would be hard to overestimate its influence. The older roads seem to have been far from satisfactory. The county is famed for its downs ; and the roads in use in Dorset were to a large extent ancient ways along them, while even the new lines of route made by the Romans in their very directness occasionally admitted very steep gradients. Modern road-builders have found it impossible to avoid steep hills, but their roads tend to follow the valleys rather than the ridges or slopes of the downs. The Roman roads were wonderfully made ; but if the presentments of the eighteenth century are any criteria, the surface and upkeep of roads and bridges must have been in a deplorable con- dition. Year by year the roads are presented as out of repair,'^ and sometimes as under water, and the bridges as in a broken-down state. '^ The expense of carriage by road is continually referred to in the county records. The cost of transport- ing soldiers, vagabonds, paupers, and convicts, as well as that of sending luggage and messengers, was always heavy ; a good example is the cost of conveying a lunatic to Bedlam in 1794, which amounted to^^ii lis. bd}^ At the beginning of the last century ** the turnpike roads, and even the by-roads when on dry soil, appear to have been on the whole in a satisfactory condition, and a surveyor of experience observed that they possessed sufficient convexity to cast off the water after sharp showers, which drained away and was soon absorbed in the chalky substratum. In the chalk districts flints were then used for the repair of the turnpike roads, but elsewhere lime- stone broken with hammers. In the west of the county, however, and in some parts of the vale of Blackmoor, the by-roads were even then miry and scarcely passable in winter, while in summer the large, rough stones with which they abounded rendered them far from pleasant, whether for horses or wheeled vehicles. In " Sess. R. 1709, 1720, 1752, &c., &c. ; Courtly Rec. Ouartcr Sess. 1712, 1763, 1764, &€. " fbid. " Ibid. " Stevenson, op. cit. 439. 326 INDUSTRIES southern Dorset at the present time Forest marble and the refuse of Purbeck and Portland stone are often used locally, but the main roads are mended with stone brought from a distance. Before the advent of railways heavy mer- chandise was, if possible, sent by sea, exported from Poole, Weymouth, Bridport, and Lyme. There was often no other alternative. Though Dorset was well watered, a writer in 1769 says : there is not in the whole county, one river rendered navig.ible by art ; nor indeed any stream that vifould be of sufficient advantage to the county, to induce per- sons to undertake it, except the Frome, which might easily be rendered navigable from Wareham to Dor- chester ; and could not fail of paying the necessary expenses at the same time it would prove of the greatest advantage to the county by reviving the manufactures which formerly flourished there.'* However, the Frome was never canalized, and at present the only canal in the county is one in the north, in the upper course of the Stour.'^ It is called the Dorset and Somerset canal, but it was never completed, and is not used. Con- sequently, until railways were built, all goods had to be sent by road or by sea, and the baneful influence of the cost of carriage is clearly seen in the history of the hemp industry. Coaches from London supplied the news of the world and the correct time to a number of small villages along their route, which were cut off from such luxuries when the coach service ceased in 1830,^' as the supplanting railway followed a different line, and does not yet touch all the villages through which the coaches passed. The introduction of the motor car has, however, recently brought some of these villages into more frequent contact with the great world outside. From these general observations on the indus- tries of Dorset we must now proceed to notice very briefly a number of crafts which we are unable to deal with in any detail. Some of them, as for instance glove-making, still occupy an important place in the county, others are either practically extinct at the present day or of comparatively slight economic importance. Salt-making, one of the most necessary indus- tries of mediaeval England, was actively carried on in 1086 at several places on the Dorset coast. Two entries " occur relating to salters {saUnar'tt) at Lyme. At Charmouth ^^ sixteen salters are mentioned, while at Ower,^" which belonged to the Benedictine house of Milton, thirteen salters rendered 20s. At Studland ^' again no less than thirty-two sa/inae are recorded. Beside these, as we learn from a much later rental ^^ of the " Eng/. Displayed (1769), 64. " Faunthorpe, Geography of Dorset, 1 1 . " Quarter Sess. Rec. " Dom. Bk. fol. 77^, 85. " Ibid. 80. '» Ibid. 78. " Ibid. 80. ''' Harl. MS. 61. It contains entries of as late a date as the first decade of the fifteenth century, but may be in substance much earlier. abbey of St. Edward at Shaftesbury, Arne [Hern) in Purbeck was devoted entirely to the manu- facture of salt, and over twenty tenants held one or more salt-pans each. Benegarus, one of the most substantial of these, held a sixteenth part of the hide which formed the manor of Arne at a rent of 30^?., and also three salt-pans, for which he paid 8;. yearly, and in addition was bound to render three week-works of salt as well as one week-work from his land. Some tenants, however, as Sampson, who held three salt-pans for 9^. and two week-works, do not seem to have had any share in the arable land. Numbers of the tenants on other manors of the St. Edward's Abbey were bound to carry a certain amount of salt from Arne when required. For instance, ' all the men of Fontmell ought to carry away 20 seams of herrings {allecium) from Wareham, and 20 seams of salt from Hern.' ^' So also Oswy, a virgater of Iwerne, had to carry salt and herrings ; other tenants were subject to a similar liability. In the fifteenth century there existed a con- siderable export trade in salt with France. On 25 June, 6 Edward IV, a pinnace,"'' Le Typhan of Cherbourg, Pierre Blanc master, carried out of Poole not only broadcloth, but forty quarters of salt worth ^^4 45., on which a foreign mer- chant paid IS. o\d. in customs duty and 4^. 2\d. as his share of the subsidy. So also a ' creyer,' the Mary of Poole, on 30 September,^* 7 Edward IV, included amongst her cargo, pro- bably consigned either to the Channel Islands or the French coast, twenty-one quarters of salt at 2J. the quarter, on which the English owners only paid the subsidy at the rate of is. in the ^i. Salt was, however, even at this time also imported into Dorset from abroad, and gradually the local manufacture dwindled and disappeared before the competition of the salters of Worces- tershire and Cheshire. At one time there were ship-yards in every one of the Dorset ports. But Lloyd's latest Yacht Register only mentions one firm at Wey- mouth and three at Poole. A brief account of the industry at Poole dur- ing the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is given in Hutchins* History of Dorset. We have no ancient accounts of the number of shipping in this port. In 1 649, 8 ships went hence to Newfoundland and two to Barbadoes : but after the Restoration this trade increased and flourished. In 1736, one hundred and forty four sail belonged to this town. In 1 74 1, forty nine ships of this place had been taken since the commencement of the war with Spain. In 1 743 thirty-one ships were taken since the beginning of the war with France, on a general computation worth, one with another, j^3 7,200 . . . four ships exclusive of the thirty one "^ Harl. MS. 61, fol. 65J. "■ K.R. Cust. Accts. 6 Edw. IV, bdle. 1 19, No. 8. » Ibid. 7 Edw. IV, bdle. 119, No. 9. 327 A HISTORY OF DORSET were retaken. In 1750 one hundred and twenty six ships belonged to this port including brigs, snows, bilanders, sloops, whereof there were in the harbour 58, on the stocks 8, Abroad 60. In 1770, two hun- dred and fifty ships belonged to the town."* About 1 790 there belonged to this port two hun- dred and thirty sail of shipping, with burden 21,301 tons, and employing about 1,500 men ; about one hundred and forty ships were employed in the foreign trade, and the remainder in coasting and fishing : besides the number of men actually employed in navigating ships, there were annually a very consider- able number of men employed in the fishery on the coast of Newfoundland."'' Later the building of Leith smacks and revenue cutters gave employment for many hands."*^ Be- fore 1 86 1 the building of yachts proper was begun, and in 1903 one ship-yard had a patent slip capable of hauling up vessels of 200 tons, and another added in 1892 capable of hauling up vessels of over 400 tons.*" When Lloyd's last Yacht Register was drawn up there were thirty-five yachts afloat which had been built at Poole, varying in burden from 3 to lOi tons ; but the largest, the Sperenza, has been broken up this summer.^*' Although the yachts built are few in number, some of them are very fast,^" but of course they do not in any way compete in popular estimation with the world- femous yachts built at Glasgow and Newcastle. It is said that 4,000 women and children were employed at Shaftesbury in 1793 in making all kinds of shirt buttons,^' the rate of payment being 5c/. per gross of twelve dozen, the worker finding her own thread.-' Mr. Atchinson was the chief employer of labour. In 1812 he had 1,200 women and children in his employ, for the latter of whom he established schools in different parts of the county. While learning their craft, which usually occupied from three to four weeks, the children received no pay, as they 'spoilt much thread.'"' At the expiration of that time they were paid id. a day for two months, then u. a week for two months more, with an increase for a year, the best hands earning from \os. to i2j. a week.^° The farmers, we are told, objected to this in- dustry, as it drew the women from the fields, "* Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset (1774', i, 10. ""Ibid. (1874), i, 44, 45. "■= Pigot, Z)/>. (1823), 261. "■i Kelly, Dir. 1 903. '^ The Tacht'tng Monthly, June, 1907. "'Kelly, Dir. 1903. " Claridge, Agric. of Dorset, 39. This industry was ' taken to ' by Shaftesbury, according to a modern writer, ' in despair,' and, according to the same authority, the town 'fared somewhat indifferently' at the new departure. Treves, Highways and Byu.\.ys in Dorset, 7. " Stevenson, Agric. of Dorset, 449. "Ibid. "Ibid. 453. where they could only earn <^d. a day, to the button factories.'" The price of mould buttons, when finished, was from %d. to 31. per dozen, wire work being ix. bd. to 4^. a gross. Girls have been known to make twelve dozen a day, though the average was from six to seven dozen. The first operation, that of casting, or covering the wire, was performed by children of six or eight, the filling being done by more expert hands. The manufacture of fine wires for the button trade was largely carried on in the town in 1830." At Blandford in 1797 the women and children were chiefly employed in making thread and wire buttons for shirts, a few being similarly employed at Durweston.'^ The manufacture of stockings has been largely carried on at different places in the county. At Wimborne in 1793, 1,000 women and children were engaged in knitting worsted stockings, the worsted costing from id. to 'Z\d. per oz., the finished stocking selling at from 3^. itd. to \s. per pair.'' Stalbridge stockings, ' the finest, best, and highest prized in England,' were in high repute in Defoe's time,'* the industry continuing to flourish until the introduction of machinery dealt the inevitable blow at this as well as at other home industries. Poole was making silk stockings in 1756.'* A few women were knit- ting stockings at Corfe in 1802.'^ The industry seems to have been underpaid, and the districts where it was carried on are generally noted as being very poor. It was con- nected with Wimborne from very early days, and it would be interesting to discover if the doles left by pious benefactors were in any way responsible for the small remuneration gained for the knitting of stockings by those whom the hope of these doles had attracted to the shadow of the Minster. Cotton yarn was largely spun at Abbotsbury in 1750 for the manufacture of stockings." Dorset glovers seem to have escaped the notice of historians, although members of the craft must have been fairly numerous in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, there being frequent references in the Bridport Documents to glovers who were fined for overcharging.'* No trace is forthcoming, however, of the existence of any gild or organization corresponding to those of Perth and Worcester. Glovers, nevertheless, are mentioned in Law Court Reports, and in lists of inhabitants of the towns, although no topo- grapher includes gloving among the local indus- ^° Ibid. 449. " Pigot, Dir. 1830, p. 291. '■ Eden, $tate of the Poor, ii, 146, 150. ^ Claridge, Agric. of Dorset, 40. " Defoe, Tour through Gt. Brit, i, 333. '' Dodsley, Descrip. of Roads, 2 1 . '' Brayley, Benuties of E"gl. and Wales, iv, 388. '" Cooke, Topog. Dorset, 62. •*' Wainwright, Bridport Doc. K. 31, 35, 62. ?28 INDUSTRIES tries of the county. Some clue to the apparent oversight may be gathered from the fact that the more important glove-making centre of Yeovil was within easy reach, and it is probable that, even at a very early date, the Dorset glovers were chiefly employes of those of Somerset, rather than manufacturers on their own account. According to the evidence of Mr. Willmott, silk manufacturer, before a Select Committee on the Silk Trade in 1 83 1, there was no gloving carried on at Sherborne at that date except in the form of a home industry, the gloves being sent over from Yeovil and Milborne Port, and sewn by the Sherborne women in their cottages. '' Gloving was formerly carried on at Beaminster,^" at Cerne Abbas," and Bere Regis.*^ At the present time the trade centres in Sher- borne and includes Gillingham and Sturminster Newton, though in earlier days glovers were found all over the county. There are 45 men and 631 women who work at this trade, and of these the majority are home workers.*^ The industry is carried on by Dorset firms, who manufacture gloves from start to finish in the county, and by London and Worcester firms who have established glove- sewing branches in Dorset. There are three factories in Sherborne in which the process of glove-making is carried through all its stages ; the skins are prepared and dressed, then the gloves are cut out, sewn, stitched, buttoned, and finished. But glove- sewing is practically a home industry, very little of this being done in the factories. The kinds of gloves made are ' Lamb, Kid and Goat.' As a rule the workers congregate in North Dorset, but occasionally in other parts women are found making the heavy shapeless thumbed gloves with which hedgers protect their hands while working. The industry is especially im- portant as a home industry in contradistinction to the silk weaving, which is carried on in the mills. On account of its smallness, and of the clearness of the issue, Sherborne should yield a distinct answer if an investigation were under- taken as to the relative advantages of home and factory work for women. Glove-sewing ranks next to the hemp industry in providing work for Dorset women, but it is not nearly so wide- spread, nor so independent, as it would not be hard at any moment for the manufacturers to have their gloves sewn elsewhere. The fame of Dorset pillow-lace has been some- what eclipsed by that of Devon ; the industry was, however, profitably carried on in three towns at least in the county during the eighteenth century. Blandford in Defoe's day was ' chiefly " Pari. Rep. on Silk Trade, 1831, p. 284. *" Green, Rural Indus, of Engl. 72. " Pigot, Dir. 1830, p. 280. ** Green, Rural Indus, of Engl. 74. " Population Returns, 56. famous for making the finest bone-lace" in England. They showed me,' he adds, ' some so exquisitely fine as I think I never saw better in Flanders, France, or Italy, and which they said they rated at above ^^30 sterling a yard.' *^ In 1594 bone lace could be bought at is. ^d. per yard ; in 1685, largely owing to the increased fashionable demand, the price ranged from 2s. \d. to 30J." In 1750 Broad Street, Lyme Regis, was ' chiefly inhabited by lace-makers, who worked at their doors in the summer.'*' In 1752 prizes were awarded by the Anti-Gallican Society to Lyme lace, the specimens submitted being ' ruflles of needle point and bone lace.' ■** A narrow cap piece was valued at four guineas, five guineas a yard being considered a not exorbitant price. A lace dress for Queen Charlotte was made at Lyme, the lace-makers also taking in work from Honiton and Colyton.*' The last of the lace- makers was Catherine Power, who excelled in the production of designs of interlaced initials and other ornaments.*" Up to 1780 much blonde lace, both white and black, was made at Sherborne. '^ In 1875 a few makers were at work at Char- mouth.'^ Hat-making had a brief existence as a Dorset industry in 1791, when it was introduced as an employment for the prisoners in the new gaol at Dorchester, which was run, so the county boasted, on humanitarian and economic lines. Materials and instruments were procured, and a hatter im- ported to teach his art ; but the latter speedily decamped, and the justices of the peace, coming to the conclusion that prison labour was not profitable, directed the clerk to make inquiries about treadmills.*' The manufacture of bandstrings, which went out of fashion about 1720, was largely carried on prior to that date at Blandford.** Bandstrings were laces or ribbons used for securing the bands worn around the neck, and which sometimes appeared like a hanging bow in front, or like a stout silk cord with pendent tassels.** The commercial activities of Sherborne were transferred, as its cloth trade gradually passed away, to the production of haberdashery wares, with which the town supplied the west of England markets.*'^ " Defoe, Tour, i, 330-I. *" So called from the use of bone pins prior to the adoption of those of metal. " Rogers, Agric. and Prices in Engl, v, 55S. " Roberts, Hist. Lyme Regis, 118. " Palliser, Hist, of Lace, 354. " Roberts, Hist. Lyme Regis, 380. ^" Ibid. " Palliser, Hist, of Lace, 354. *^ Palliser, op. cit. " Dorset Accounts (1791), iii, 75. " Cox, Magna Britannia, i, 560. " Dillon (Fairholt), Costume in Engl ii, 28. ^^ Rural Elegance Displayed (1768), 268. 29 42 A HISTORY OF DORSET Cranborne had a short-lived ribbon-weaving industry in the eighteenth century,*' whilst Brid- port, in addition to its specialities of ropes and sail- cloth, also made, and still makes, linen thread/* Melbury Osmond was noted in the early part of the last century for the manufacture of staymalcers' tape, known as ' Melbury iron tape,' ^' besides its * extensive trade in horn buttons and plated buckles.' ^ SnufF was being manufactured at North Chardstock in 1812.^' Straw-plaiting was introduced into Swanage early in the nine- teenth century.'^ ' Dorchester Cakes ' were a delicacy which has not escaped the notice of various travellers. Stained glass was at one time made in Dorset. Before the Reform.ition [s.iys Aubrey] I believe there was no county or gre.it town in England but had glasse painters. Old — Harding of Blandford in Dorsetshire, where I went to schoole, was the only country glasse painter that ever I knew. Upon play dales I was wont to visit his shop and furnaces. He dyed about 1643, aged about 83 or more.''^ A thriving trade was carried on at an early date in Lyme Regis by letting the right to cut and harvest the oare growing on the rock-ledges, 500 acres being left dry at low water. In the reign of Edward VI Roger Garland, mayor, ' re- ceived of the man that burns the oare, that was due unto the town, 2js.'^ In 1569 an 'arrear- age ' of oare, 205., appears in the town accounts. The right of gathering was let in 1589 for three years at 40;. a year, the renters being protected by law. A fine of 40/. was inflicted in one case in 1569.^* In 1580 an order was made by the Court of Hustings that none were to burn the oare within the parish and liberty without licence from Mr. Mayor. ^^ Thomas Wood, who was fined 2j., seems to have been the first offender against this decree.*' Mr. John Roze ' for charges of the oare ashes ' received £1 I2S. 8d. at this date. In Elizabeth's reign near Canford on the Dor- set coast, 'James, Lord Mountjoy, studious in mineral matters, began to make calcantum, or vitriol (we call it copperas), and to boil alum.' *' Early in the eighteenth century this latter was manufactured at Kimmeridge by Sir William Clavell of Smedmore,*' but the works, after the owner had expended ^^4,000 upon their con- " Hutchins, Hist. Dorset, ii, 137. »«Ibid. i, 233. '' Stevenson, ^gric. of Dorset, 450. ™ Hutchins, Hist. Dorset, iv, 439. *' Stevenson, Agric. of Dorset, 450. " Ibid. '^ Hutchins, op. cit. (1874), i, 216. ^ Roberts, Hist. Southern Counties, 388. « Ibid. '* Court of Hustings Book of Lyme. " Roberts, Hist. Southern Counties, 389. ** Hutchins, Hist. Dorset, ii, no. «* Ibid, i, 172. struction, besides building a pier 100 ft. long, 60 ft. broad, and 50 ft. high, for the export of the alum,'" were 'seized to the king's use,'"' all the alum houses and mines in Dorset having been granted to Paul Pindar for twelve years.'^ After his disastrous 'setting up ' of the forfeited alum industry, Sir William attempted to establish salt works and a glasshouse. The glasshouse at Kim- meridge had 'come to perfection' in 1732, when it seemed ' likely to redound to a good benefit ' ; " but sixteen years later ruined buildings and heaps of ashes were all that remained of the works.'* ' Bluish stones,' yielding ' such an offensive savour and extraordinary blackness that the people labouring about those fires were more like furies than men,' '* were used as fuel in the glasshouse. This was of course the Kimmeridge coal, 'a highly bituminous layer of shaly stone about 2 ft. 10 in. thick with its partings, and of a dark brown colour,' whence its local name of blackstone. It breaks with a conchoidal fracture and readily ignites.''' This shale has been in use from time immemorial, ornaments and vessels made from it figuring amongst Roman remains at Weymouth and at Silchester ; whilst it was ex- tensively used as fuel in the neighbourhood of Kimmeridge, ' for which purpose however its abominable odour renders it unsuitable.' When the price of coals was high the shale was worked at bs. a ton." It is still occasionally employed. The whole of the mineral property at Kim- meridge is now leased to the Kimmeridge Oil and Carbon Company, who carry on the manu- facture of paraffin. The Blackstone seam yields 120 gallons to the ton, or 66 gallons when largely distilled, the common shale only yielding 33 gallons.'* The company use the coal for fuel, and for improving the illuminating power of coal-dust, as well as for the extraction of the oil. The residual coke and carbon which are left after the distillation of the oil can be used as a deodorizer, a disinfectant, &c., and as a manure ; whilst an insecticide has also been made from the oil." A ' Bituminous Manure Company ' was es- tablished at Wareham in 1848 for the produc- tion of manures, jet varnish, paints, mineral spirits, naphtha, machine oil, and asphalt. Twenty thousand shares were issued at ;^5 each.*" To the lively Diary of Celia Fiennes in the reign of William and Mary we are indebted for ''" Coker, Surv. of Dorset, 47. " Ibid. " Hutchins, Hist. Dorset, i, 172. " Coker, Surv. of Dorset, 47. Hutchins, Hist. Dorset, i, 172. Coker, Surv. of Dorset, 47. Mem. Geol. Surv. 1906, p. 14. Warne, Ancient Dors. 2 78. " Mem. Geol. Surv. 1898, p. 54. "' Ibid. "" Warne, Ancient Dorset, 278. 330 INDUSTRIES an eye-witness's account of the making of cop- peras at that date on Brownsea Island — The stones being found about the isle in the shore in great quantities. There is only one house [she writes] which is the Governor's, besides little fisher- men's houses ; they being all taken up about the copperas works ; they gather the stones and place them on ground raised like the beds in gardens, rows one above the other and are all shelving, so that the rain dissolves the stones, and it drains down into trenches and pipes made to receive and convey it to the house which is fitted with pans four square and of a pretty depth at least 1 2 yards over. They place iron spikes in the pans full of branches, and so as the liquor boils to a candy it hangs on these branches, I saw some taken up. It looked like a vast branch of grapes. The colour of the copperas not being much differing it looks clear like sugar candy, so when the water is boiled to a candy, they take it out, and re- plenish the pans with more liquor. I do not remem- ber they added anything to it, only the stones of copperas dissolved by rain into liquor as I mentioned at first. There are great furnaces under it keeping all the pans boiling. It was a large room or building with several of these large pans. They do add old iron and nails to the copperas stones.*' Sir R. Clayton had copperas works at Stud- land, which were, however, in ruins in 1700. The stones in this case were brought from the Isle of Wight.82 Hutchins records an attempt made in 1 571 by Sir Thomas Smith to transmute iron into copper on land which he leased from Lady Mountjoy near Poole at a rental of ^^300 per annum, hoping to find the means of making vitriol there ; but the attempt, we are told, came to nothina;.^' The iron foundry which existed at Bridport in 1 812 was not supplied with native ore, though a vein of ironstone is found near Abbotsbury. QUARRYING The best and most widely used stone quarried in Dorset has been obtained from the Purbeck and Portland formations.'^ Purbeck marble earliest won an extended repute ; at the present day the Isle of Portland furnishes the largest quantities of excellent building stone. In barrows of a very ancient date slabs of the local limestone were used for lining or covering the sepulchral chamber, while the excavations at Silchester^ and Verulamium ' have shown that marble from the Upper Purbeck strata'^ wasduring the period of Roman occupation employed for decorative work. The Saxons had little need for opening up fresh quarries, but for a few churches they used the Purbeck limestone, which was also early in request for fonts * and sepulchral slabs. From the Roman period till the twelfth century little if any demand existed for Purbeck marble ; but with the passing of the massive Norman fashion of building the marbler came into his kingdom. Indeed, it has been well said ' that nearly every English church of any size that was built from 1 1 70 to 1350 imported for its structure these polished dressings which . . . were not only moulded and chiselled with delicate foliage, but were carved too into fine head corbels or into relief panels of figure subjects. *' Fiennes, Through Engl, on a S'tde-saddle, 5-6. " Hutchins, Hist. Dorset, i, 219. ^ Ibid, ii, no. ' A. Strahan, Geology of Isle of Purbeck and Weymouth, 236. ' Arch, liii, pt. I, 266. ^ Teste the late Mr. Micklethwaite. •* The Purbeck marble is not crystalline, but really a dark Paludina limestone, or shell conglomerate. * The font of Studland is rudely axed out of Pur- beck ' burr ' ; Trans. Dors. Nat. Hist, and jintiq. Field Club, xii, 176. Already in the twelfth century Purbeck marble was being exported as far as Dublin for archi- tectural use, whilst such effigies as that in the south porch of Abbotsbury church, or those of Bishop Iscanus at Exeter and Bishop Jocelyn at Salisbury, furnish flat reliefs soon to develop into the fully modelled figures of the knights at the Temple Church, the Peterborough abbots, or that unique royal effigy in Purbeck marble on the tomb of King John at Worcester. But it is no part of our task to trace the aesthetic develop- ment of sculpture in marble ; ^ a few notes only are offered in illustration of the quarrying industry of Corfe and its neighbourhood. By the thirteenth century ' Corfe had become * Archit. Rev. xii, 5. * The reader is referred to the valuable series of articles by Messrs. Prior and Gardner on ' Mediaeval Figure Sculpture in England ' which appeared in the Archit. Rev. d.Vinxig 1902 and the following years. ' Several early records of conveyance of marble and stone from Purbeck exist. Probably the marble mentioned as sent to Clarendon in Pipe R. 23 Hen. II, m. 10, was from Purbeck. Cf, as to marble sent to Chichester, Close, 6 John, m. 2 ; 8 John, m. 4. It was also liberally used in Sussex at Boxgrove. Later we hear of ' lapides Regis qui sunt apud Suthampton et venerunt de Purbec ad operationem castri nostri Wintonie ' (Lib. R. 21 Hen. III). As regards export beyond the bounds of England, Purbeck seems to have been used in Dublin almost as early as the last ten or fifteen years of the reign of Hen. II. Geoffrey of Coldingham, in describing the work of Bishop Hugh Pudsey at Durham, and the marble used in the Galilee, uses the words ' A transmarinis partibus deferebantur columpnae et bases marmoreae ' \Hist. Dun. Script. Tres. (Surtees Soc. ix), ii], and Symeon of Durham also refers to the marble as ' addito de longinquo ' {Opera (Rolls Ser.), i, 168], but mentions neither Purbeck nor Corfe. 331 A HISTORY OF DORSET famous all over England as the head quarters of that to one of these quarries may be referred an the marble industry, but the particulars recover- entry on the roll of Pleas of the Crown for the able as to the quarries themselves, their manner year 52 Henry III,'° that Walter le Vel and of working, or their possessors, are scant Hugh le Mochele were crushed {oppress!) in the and disappointing. A few incidental facts can quarry of Peter de Clavile, where they were be gleaned from the remaining records of the Isle digging stone with a certain pick" {besca) valued of Purbeck or the fuller series of fabric rolls of at 6cl. The verdict was ' misadventure.' great royal works, while a comparison of the six- The Purbeck marble and stone conveyed to teenth-century marblers' code with the customs of Westminster for the abbey and the king's palace Portland may suggest some general conclusions. seem as a rule to have been bought '* from mer- A claim, we believe, has occasionally been chants or such quarry-owners as Peter and asserted by the quarriers of Purbeck to enter William de Clavile. It is well known, how- any uncultivated land in search of stone on the ever, that quarries both for chalk and stone authority of a traditional but non-existent charter, were occasionally opened up in manors belong- but such a right has never been legally estab- ing to the crown or leased during the progress lished, as in the old mining fields of the Forest of of royal works, and in one of the earliest Dean, or Derbyshire. It is more probable that detailed accounts now extant of the works at the regular practice was to obtain the licence of St. Peter's, Westminster, we hear of stone from the owner, or in the case of royal demesne of the ' the king's quarry,' " but its position is not stated.'* constable of Corfe Castle, though encroachment In the greater number of cases, however, when may have occasionally been winked at or con- Corfe marble or stone is mentioned, some note of doned on account of the lucrative dues paid for purchase is added, and royal officers were the right of carr)'ing the stone. Indeed, it may stationed in the Isle of Purbeck to super- be suspected that most of the quarries, even in intend the buying and to ensure that the the thirteenth century, were private enterprises king was fairly dealt with. For instance, about undertaken either on behalf of the lord of a 1257,'' ;f35 ^^ P^''^ ^° Nicholas Red and manor or else by quarriers working in partnership his fellows, ' viewers of the purchases of the king's and holding a lease or licence from the crown, marble at Purbeck for the king's works at West- Some of the more valuable of the ancient quarries minster.' A few of the letters sent by the king's lay in the parish of Worth Matravers near Quarr, representatives at Purbeck with consignments are which indeed took its name from them.* These still extant. They are brief and businesslike, disused workings extend in a westerly direction through Haycroft and Downshay.' It is possible also been exposed. The marble of this quarry varied in colour, green, bluish-grey, and occasionally red from the " The marble strata and the beds beneath them are presence ofiron. It generally weathered brown outside, also clearly seen at Peveril Point, where, as Mr. A. '"Assize R. 202, m. 23, under hundred of Row- Strahan notes, ' the coast crosses the strike of a number barrow, of small folds at right angles.' 11 < Besca ' is generally translated ' spade,' but here ' At Woodyhide between Afflmgton and Downshay ^ pij.^ ^^ < (.g^.gi . ^^^^^ j^ ^^ intended. considerable quantities of Purbeck marble were dug u < j^ marmore empto apud Corfe ad operationes even in the last century. Mr. Woodward, in his ecclesiae Westmonasterii'; Pipe R. 41 Hen. Ill, m. 8. Jurassic Rods 0/ Britain, gives the following section of cf also Pipe R. 42 Hen. Ill, m. 12. As to stone a marble pit open in 1884, and situated 150 yds. north < i„ g nnviUs libere petre et dure de Chorfemptis ad of Coome Farm and half-a-mile east of Langton :— i^j^jj,^ pro petra et frecto et discirgatione ^+8 1 is. 6J.' ; ft. in. Accts. Exch. K.R. bdle. 467, No. 7 (4), 67 Edw. I ; rr >, Ljf_ui f° ^~3 cf. Westm. Misc. Press 6, B. 3, P. 2 2, TT. Two broken-up bands of marble • "l « , . 1, , t7 l i^ n u ji 'J xt '^ [o +-3 " Accts. Exch. K.R. bdle. 467, No. I. Flaggy marble much weathered: » It is possible that this quarry was at Purbeck, but it Paludina on joints .^...08 is equally likely that it lay somewhere on the slopes Shales with ' race ' and thin flaggy of the North Downs, whence enormous quantities of limestone 40 stone were procured for the royal works at West- Paludina marble, much broken by min;ter and elsewhere. Towards the end of the four- joints, and occurring in inter- teenth century we hear of a quarry taken on lease at rupted masses 03 Chaldon in Surrey. Stone from Chaldon was also Clays and calcareous shales with being used .i century before ; cf. Mr. M. S. Giuseppi, 'race' ; 6 F.S.A., ' S;ons Quarries,' in r.C.//. 5Brr^V, ii, 278^ ; Brown limestone, blue-hearted ..04 Scott, Gkaningsfrom IVestmimter Abbef (2nd ed.1, App. Paludina marble 06 258 ; Accts. Exch. K.R. bdle. 467, No. 7 (4). It Shaly parting 01 may be remembered also that there is a Chaldon in Paludina marble, irregular bed . . o 3 Dorset, and Mr. A. Strahan states that 'A small ex- Calcareous shales with ' race ' and posure of Upper and Middle Purbeck strata marks the thin limestone bands ....16 axis of the Chaldon anticline, and some old limestone Paludina marble 07 quarries in them are said to have been opened for Paludina marble 14 stone for Burton Church.' Op. cit. 1 06. Beneath this last bed, another of Paludina marble had " Pipe R. 42 Hen. Ill, m. 1 2. INDUSTRIES Robert de Bremele writes '* to Master John of Oxford :— I am sending you one shipload of marble by William Justise, whom you may pay for freight 5 J marks and 10 shillings, and if God prospers us I will send you a shiplo.id before Whitsunday, and a third if I can find a ship to carry the said stone. You may expect me {sciatis adventum meuni) in Whit- week and not before because the season is now at hand in which, if I am absent, your business cannot be carried out well {non bene possint expedir'i). On another occasion it is possible that some remonstrance had been addressed to Purbeck re- garding slackness at the quarries, for Richard le Wy te of the quarry at Purbeck writes ^' to Robert de Beverley that the bearer, Peter de Sarcesye, had expedited the king's work at the quarry as much as he could, and had purchased and brought two shiploads of stone. The most valuable supplies from Corfe consisted no doubt of the well-known marble, but we also hear of a freestone. This may have been the stone in modern times called Purbeck-Portland. But the matter is uncertain, as the Corfe merchants supplied apparently more than one variety of stone. In a Westminster fabric account for the years 6 & 7 Edward I we read : — " To Edward of Corf on the same day (Morrow of Palm Sunday) for 1300^ stones from the island {petie de huuld), for the stone and freight ^^5 y. \d. To the same for 16 yards {yirgis) and 2 feet of hard Corf stone {dure petre de Corf) 22s. . . . To Robert of Corf" on the day aforesaid for 55 yards of Corf stone, for the stone and freight £^ 1 7/. 6d. For discharging it 2s. 6d. The term ' stone from the island ' is undesir- ably ambiguous, as the phrase may refer to stone from the well-known quarries ^'^ of the Isle of Wight, and even the Isle of Portland is possibly not excluded. Yet as the merchant is a Corfe man the expression may embody an early use of the term ' island ' as applied '" Accts. Exch. K.R. bdle. 467, No. i. " Westm. Misc. Press. 6, B. 3, P. 22, ir. The quarry here referred to seems to have been on the land of the Claviles. " Accts. Exch. K.R. bdle. 467, No. 7 (6). Sir J. C. Robinson kindly suggests that the ' hard stone ' here mentioned m.iy be the local ' burr,' an extremely durable building stone used to a very great extent at Corfe Castle, as well as in the tower of the fifteenth- century church at Swanage. " Probably the Robert le Blund who supplied marble for the Eleanor crosses. "" The stone from these was used to a very large extent, both at Winchester and at Christchurch Twyneham. When Winchester Castle was being repaired early in the third decade of the thir- teenth centuiy, much of the stone employed was ' petra de Insula' (see Accts. Exch. K. R. bdle. 491, No. 13). to Purbeck. The determination of the point must, however, be left to the judicious reader. Not only was stone and marble bought at Corfe for the king's works at Westminster, but even for new building or the repair of already existing structures at Corfe Castle stone was sometimes ^ but not invariably purchased in the neighbourhood. Yet on one occasion at least an attempt made by the constable of Corfe Castle to obtain stone cheaply at the expense of his neighbours provided work for the lawyers. The officer in question, Elias de Rabayne, during his tenure of office was indeed peculiarly unfortun- ate in quarrelling with the Purbeck landowners. One of them, William de Clavile, complained -^ that on the Tuesday after All Hallows, 5 Ed- ward I (1277), the constable had caused five of his oaks to be cut down and carried to Corfe Castle, and furthermore in the Easter week following had ordered one John Doget to open up a quarry within the close (c/ausuram) of the aforesaid William at Holne, from which stone had been raised against the landowner's will. Clavile complained to the king, and an injunction was served on the constable ordering him to cease his infringement of Clavile's rights and to offer compensation for the wrong, but this the aggressor ignored. The constable in answer declared that his predecessors who had held the castle and warren of Corfe had been wont both to cut down trees and make quarries and thence carry stones for the repair of the castle of Corfe when necessity required. He had simply followed precedent in the matter, and furthermore he had taken a part of the stone ^' in order that he might send it to the Tower of London in obedience to the king's writ. He demands that inquisi- tion should be made thereupon. Richard de Colleshulle the sheriff, however, deposed that the constable had no right to take the stone and timber or meddle in the work of repair- ing the castle, since viewers were appointed to see to the business, to whom he as sheriff made the necessary payments for the expense of materials. •» See Accts. Exch. K.R. bdle. 460, No. 27 ; bdle. 461, No. 5. " Assize R. 205. " The only stone found at Holne is apparently a reddish grit or sandstone, and this appears at Corfe to a small extent only in the Butevant Tower and adjacent walls. Elias does not apparently say that he had actually sent any to the Tower, and it is doubtful whether his statement was literally true even as it stands. He might have possibly at some time received a royal order to procure and send 'freestone' to the Tower, but it is hardly likely that the rough stone of Holne would be brought the long journey from Purbeck when Kentish rag and Reigate stone were so easily obtainable. See also the sherifTs statement above. 333 A HISTORY OF DORSET The jury found that wood and other neces- saries could be taken in the warren,^' but pointed out that although the constable had used one oak for repairing a bridge, the rest taken had been made into charcoal for his private profit. They also evidently regarded the quarry as an unwarrant- able encroachment, and fixed the damages in respect of the timber and stone removed at one mark. It is significant that when building operations and repairs were in progress at the castle of Corfe a few years later than the date of this trial large quantities of stone were pur- chased "* from Sir Peter [Doget] (probably the chaplain at the castle chapel), Lawrence Cok, John Lenard, and Thomas Cusyn. Indeed, it may be reasonably suspected that the best quarries of marble and possibly of freestone at Purbeck were during the thirteenth and fourteenth century in private hands. Occasion- ally, however, the officers in charge of the work of repair at Corfe Castle seem to have directly employed quarriers to raise stone in the vicinity of the castle. For example^' in 1377-8 wages were paid to Ralph Ridell, John Waytenan, Benet VVaytis, William Fynche, Benet Kydell, Michael Domersham, William Pyell, Thomas Hugon the less, Ralph Rossekyn, Philip Coule, and Richard Combe, eleven masons (Jatomorum) called ' Roughmasons and Quarreours,' working at digging stones at the quarry at Purbeck and shaping [scapulanchim) and preparing the same stones there. They were paid at the rate of dd. a day, and were assisted by four * garciones ' or mates. Several of these rough masons also worked on the castle with John Combe, Master William Wynford, John Harpetre, and Philip Colyn, who were apparently masons in the higher sense and did no rough quarry work. Not only was marble and stone raised and exported in block from Purbeck, but a local school of sculptors produced to order polished marble dressings and effigies which they sent to all parts of England. It seems likely from inspection ^^ that the marble capitals and bases sent to Chichester^' in the early years of the thirteenth century were worked at Purbeck, while the mouldings ^* of the Purbeck work at *' In another similar case, Elias de Rabayne v. abbess of Shaftesbury, the jury laid down that ' omnia necessaria ad opera ipsius castri perficienda et etiam focalia cum moderamine ' could be taken ' in boscis predictis non dausis vicinibus castro predicto,' but that Elias had taken wood in other manner than his predecessors. It would appear from this and other cases that the right claimed by the crown to take timber and stone for the repair of Corfe Castle was limited to the uninclosed portions of the Warren of Purbeck. ^* Accts. Exch. K.R. bdle. 470, No. 27. " Ibid. 4.61, No. 9. ** Jrchit. Rev. xv, 175. " Close, 6 John, m. 2 ; 8 John, m. 4. '' Mr. W. R. Lethaby, ' How E.xeter Cathedral was Built,' in Archit. Rev. xiii, 175, 176. Winchester Presbytery, Wells Chapter-house, and Exeter are very similar. Orders were sent to the Corfe sculptors for effigies, and we hear ■' just after the middle of the thirteenth century that lOOj. is to be paid for a certain image of a queen to be cut in marble stone and then carried to Tarrant Keyns- ton {Tarente Momalinm\ there to be placed on the tomb of the Queen of Scots. Again, early in the reign of Edward I the sheriff accounted '* for the expense of a marble altar '^ made in Purbeck and delivered as a royal gift to the Carmelite friars in London. Occasionally, how- ever, for especially important work a famous sculptor '" was by royal command summoned to a distance and took with him the tools and raw materials of his craft. This documentary evi- dence is confirmed by the deep layers of marble debris containing fragments of mouldings and foliations, the chips from the workshops, which have come to light in the course of excavations within the town of Corfe.^' Owing to the long series of royal works undertaken in Westminster and London during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and the natural advantages of the capital as a distributing centre, a number of Purbeck marblers ^^ settled far away from their Dorset homes and in some cases probably never returned. It may be that whenever the services of Purbeck men -' Pipe R. 38 Hen. Ill, m. 9. " Hutchins, op. clt. i, 466. ■" Purbeck marble was a favourite material for altar slabs. Some examples still remain as in the Lady Chapel at Christchurch, Hants, in Corton Chapel, and elsewhere. On Monday, 11 March, 1353 (?), 24/. was paid to Thomas Elyot, a merchant, 'for a certain marble stone bought for an altar in eadcm ret'eUiana.^ Accts. Exch. K.R. bdle. 471, No. 6, which relate to works at Westminster and the Tower. "" ' Et Magistro Simoni de Well ad expensas suas in eundo versus Westmon.asterium ad mandatum Regis ad faciendum ibidem quendam tumulum ultra corpus Katerine filie Regis 2 marcas per breve Regis. Et in cariagio utensilium suorum ad operacionem dicti tumuli 4/. %d: Pipe R. 41 Hen. Ill, m. 8. ^^ Hutchins, op. cit. (last edition), vi, 466 n^. " One of these may be mentioned in illustration — Adam de Corfe. Early in the fourteenth century we find him settled in London as a stone and marble mer- chant, and about 1307 supplying for 50/. a slab of marble to place on the high table of the king in the Great Hall of Westminster (Add. MSB. 30263, fol. 11^). A few years later he is apparently contracting for the new pavement at St. Paul's, and about 1315 also supplies stone for an archa goterarum beneath the ' cameram Marculphi super Thamisiam in funda- mento,' since the fun da men turn of the former arch was weak and worn out by the tide of the Thames (Jutta Thamhiae) (Add. MSS. 17361, fol. 14). From the records of the City quoted by Mr. Lethaby we learn that Adam de Corfe lived in Farringdon Ward, and on his death in 1 331 left a tenement in East Street, Corfe {IVestminster and the Kin^s Craftsmen^ 186). 334 INDUSTRIES were required for a considerable time, as at Exeter, a tendency existed as at Westminster towards the formation of a school of craftsmen trained in the tradition of the marble workers of Corfe. By the limited scope of this paper we are absolved from trying to account in detail for the artistic skill of the Purbeck craftsmen. Oppor- tunity in the main calls forth latent faculty, and at Corfe, maybe, an indigenous Celtic strain, possibly reinforced later by Breton immigration,^^ tempered Saxon heaviness. Again, the later settlement of foreign artisans'' may have fur- nished a certain stimulus; but this, even reckoned at its highest value, did little more than whet the already keen edge of native craftsmanship. It is impossible to catalogue here the names of known masons, marblers, and merchants who hailed from Corfe and its neighbourhood during the Middle Ages. But one family was so pro- minently connected with the marble industry of Purbeck for nearly a century and a half that it may be cited as in some measure typical, though the precise relationship between the different members of it is often a matter of doubt or even quite unknown. The first William Canon whose connexion with the Purbeck marble in- dustry is certainly known was already apparently an owner of property there before 1288, and is found associated with John le Mayr of Corfe and others in certain litigation,'' and on the death of Queen Eleanor supplied marble for some of the crosses erected in her memory, especially that of Charing.'^ In 1 291 (Thurs- day before Quindene of Easter, 19 Edward I) he was sitting with other fellow burgesses on a jury to determine the extent of the castle and chase of Corfe.'' About this time he was also con- tracting for the marble required in the recon- struction of the cathedral church of Exeter, and it is most likely that he was the William Canon who paid for marble supplied there in 1310.*" The William Canon, however, who was men- '■" Cf. Eng/. Hist. Rn: Oct. 1907. '* Cf. the case of Durand ' the carpenter,' of Domes- day, from whom probably descended Gerard ' the carpenter ' of the thirteenth century and the De Moul- hams. John, as we know, introduced foreign artisans into Corfe. Cf. Pipe R. 17 John, m. id. and Close, 16 John, m. I 5. " Assize R. 210, m. i 3 \b. " P.R.O. Cust. Accts. K.R. bdle. 119, No. 16 (18-19 Edw. IV). "'^ Although the entries may suggest that one or more pockets of gypsum of sufficient strength and beauty for ornamental work had been discovered locally and used up, yet on the other hand the alabaster referred to may have been obtained from Chellaston or Nottingham. Sir J. C. Robinson is of opinion that the entries relate to Nottingham work brought to Poole for export to France, Spain, and Portugal, especially the two latter countries, with which Poole had much trade. " About two months before this we meet with an entry of a vessel entering the port wnh. alabaster. As it stands alone it is just possible that the clerk who made the fair copy wrote intravit in error for exivit (see, however, the preceding note). It reads ' Batalla vocata le Nic[hoIa5] de Wareham unde Arnulphus mastership of Thomas Togyll on 14 August, and the Customs Accounts mention consign- ments for which Richard Harres was responsible, 'vj tabylys de alabaster' worth £6, and a case {pypa) of images worth 26j. ^d. Nearly a month later (9 September) there left a skiff {scapha) called the Mary of Poole, of which John Duet was master, carrying 'j tabyll of alabastre' value 20s. Four days later a ' batalla ' called the Margaret of ' Kyhavy,' master John Wade, took out another table of alabaster worth 20s. Some three years after this a mutilated entry ^ shows us an outgoing Poole vessel whose master was William Mellett carrying twenty tables of alabaster worth £26 13J. ^d. Marble, however, was still an article of export, for the Leonard of Poole, under the mastership of William Newborough, left the port late in the reign of Edward IV,^' with 5 casks [doliis) of marble on board valued at ^3 ioj., so that John Russe, a denizen, paid thereon in subsidy 3;. bd. The Purbeck stone exported seems at this time to have been largely for roofing pur- poses. Early in the reign '* of Edward IV a foreign ship with a Dutch or Flemish master took out 30,000 stones called ' sclatte stones,' valued at ^^4. On this he paid is. to the Cus- toms as well as a subsidy of 45. Another foreign ship about 20 years later *' took on board 30,000 ' helyng stones' worth 45;. Caen stone was still occasionally imported in some quantity,'* and now and again a Norman marbler settled at Corfe and took out letters '' of denization. In the reign of Henry VIII Purbeck stone *" was being used at Portchester, probably in this instance for roofing purposes, but little is heard during the sixteenth century of Purbeck marble, while in the two following centuries Portland stone of the best beds took precedence of Purbeck, though both have often been used in conjunction. For paving, however, a bluish stone from Purbeck has always been in demand. The Purbeck quarriers and stone merchants have long formed a close society known as the ' Company of Marblers or Stone Cutters of the Isle of Purbeck,' but of its exact origin and Marchall est m[agister] intravit 22 die Junii . . . De Rogero Lane indigena pro vj pety tablys de alabastre et una imagine de Virgine Maria val ^^3.' Amongst the miscellaneous cargo of an entering French ship in 1505 were two candlesticks, a holy ivater stoup and 'j Saynt Johnis hedde,' doubtless of alabaster. Cust. Accts. K.R. bdle. 120, No. 10 (19 & 20 Hen. VII). "Cust. Accts. K.R. bdle. 119, No. 18 (2z Edw. IV). " Ibid. bdle. 1 19, No. 20. '■* Ibid. bdle. 119, No. 8 (6 Edw. IV). '■ Ibid. bdle. 120, No. 3 (3 & 4 Hen. VII). " Ibid. bdle. 119, No. 12, &c. *' Pat. 6 Edw. IV, pt. 2, m. 20. '» L. and P. Hen. nil, x, 780. Purbeck stone is still largely exported from Swanage to Portsmouth. 336 INDUSTRIES history little is known, as no early records are forthcoming.^^ Copies of their rules, however, go back to the sixteenth century, and some of these are probably of great antiquity, as for instance the regulation — That no man of the Company shall set into his fellow-tradcsmen's quarr to worke there without his consent within 12 moneths and a day, nor to come into any part of that ground within a hundred foote of his fellow-tradesmen's quarr upon the forfeiture of 5 poundes to be paid unto the owner of the quarr unto whom the offence shall be dun. Neither shall no man in this company worlie partners with any man, except it be a freeman of the same company, upon the forfeiture of 5 poundes. There were also restrictions as to the number of apprentices. These, after their seven years' probation, were admitted at the annual meeting on Shrove Tuesday at Corfe Castle. According to the rule — Upon any acceptance of any apprentice into the company he shall paie unto the wardings for the use of the company 6s. Sd., a penny loafe and two pots of beer. Apparently the new freeman appeared in court with the penny loaf in one hand and a pot of beer in the other, and on paying the half-mark was declared free, his name being entered in the register. The newly-admitted quarrier was, however, unable to take an apprentice until seven years after his admission. The wife of a free- man on paying is. could also be admitted to the freedom of the company, and was then enabled if she survived her husband to take an apprentice and carry on the business. At the annual meeting a warden and a steward were appointed. The business of the first of these was to arbitrate between quarriers in disputes arising out of their craft, and especially in regard to encroachments. In difficult or important cases it might be necessary to summon the whole body to deter- mine the matter. The last man of the company married in any year provided a football, and this, as we know from a rule recorded later than the sixteenth century, was to be carried to Ower — As also a present to be made of one pound of pepper as an acknowledgement in order to preserve the company's right to the way or passage to Owre key according to antient and usual custom. Although Ower has long ceased to be, as it was in the heyday of the marbler's trade, the port whence the stone was shipped, this custom is still observed. By the eighteenth century the stone was carried in carts to the ' bankers ' at Swanage, and there stored till it could be put on board the stone ships.*^^ And Swanage still retains its position as the practical head quarters of the trade in Purbeck stone. An edition of the rules of the company drawn up in March, 1 697-8, recites the ancient rules substantially as before, but certain articles are added in order to meet the difficulties and incon- veniences arising from the trade being in the hands of a number of small dealers with very slight capital, and in fact to organize the trade as a joint stock company. The preamble of these articles declares that the stone dealers, by reason of the deadness of the trade, have of late yeares made it their practice to carry their said stone to London in small quantities, having but little stocks. And in order to dispose thereof have and still doe endeavour to undersell one another to the infinite prejudice of the stone trade, by means whereof the price and value of the said stone is so lessened and beate down that scarce anything can now bee gotten by it. It is, however, probable, as the editors of Hutchins' History of Dorset point out, that the notorious slackness of trade in Purbeck stone at the end of the seventeenth century was partly due to the inferior stufFsupplied. This inference may perhaps be legitimately drawn from a curious document of 1687, ten years earlier than the date of the revised rules. In this certain persons, being inhabitants of several parishes of Sandwich and Langton within the Isle of Purbeck and county of Dorset marblers and merchants in the said trade, bound themselves to resist the claim of the London buyers to have the stone examined and to deduct the cost of the search from the price of the material delivered. This suggestion of the poor quality of the stone is supported by an allusion in the articles of 1697 to the breaking of the stone by the manager if found to be unmerchantable. The measures taken to consolidate and control the Purbeck stone trade in 1697 seem to have borne fruit, as during the eighteenth century considerable activity is discernible. For instance a tough red stone from Purbeck was used for building Ramsgate Pier, and between June, 1750, and September, 1752, the Harbour Trustees of that town employed fifty sail in transporting 15,000 tons of stone from Dorset to the Isle of Thanet.*'* Again, between January, 1764, and January, 1 771, Purbeck stone was shipped to the extent of 94,000 tons,^* according to the Customs Records. In fact the yearly output at that time was probably at least 14,000 tons. The nineteenth century saw renewed activity in the Isle of Purbeck in marble quarrying. " The early records seem to have been burnt at Corfe Castle in a fire about 1680. '' Hutchins, op. cit. i, 682. 2 337 '' Hutchins, op. cit. i, 657. " Possibly the real amount was much greater, as owing to the absence of any duty no great care was. taken in securing accurate returns. 43 A HISTORY OF DORSET which had practically ceased at the end of the eighteenth century. This revival was due in part to the needs of church restorers," though local marble has also been occasionally employed to some extent in new work, as for instance in the church built by the earl of Eldon at Kings- ton. The stone quarries in the neighbourhood of Swanage continue to be worked in much the same manner as they have been for centuries. They are not open v/orkings, since the best beds of stone lie very deep. Indeed the approaches are inclined shafts to the depth of a hundred feet or more. In 1877 there were at least ninety-two of these stone mines worked, as the late Sir C. Le Neve Foster reported, by I, 2 or 3 men underground, who are in many cases the owners as well as the occupiers. Their work is often most irregular ; if the men can find work as masons, they abandon their quarries for a time, and do not return to them till other work is slack. The annual output of dressed Purbeck stone and marble amounted in that year to 11,816 tons 10 cwt., besides 1,41 1 tons, 10 cwt. of undressed stone. The marble from the Upper Purbeck Series can be got in blocks seven or eight feet long, but seldom more than a foot in thickness. Its gradual disuse towards the close of the Middle Ages was in part perhaps due to change of fashion or in part to the fact established by experience that it was lacking in durability. The local * burr ' of the Upper Purbeck Series has been largely used for local buildings in the past, and was employed in the nineteenth century during the restoration of Wimborne Minster. It is a compact sandy limestone and occurs in thick beds. From the principal veins ^* of the Middle Purbeck Series, the Lane-and-end or Laning Vein, the Freestone Rag, the Freestone Bed and Upper Tombstone Bed, Brassy Bed and Lower Tombstone Bed above the Cinder Bed, and be- low it the Button, Feather, Cap and New Vein, considerable quantities of good stone are still obtained suitable for kerb-stones, paving, building and tiling purposes. The limestones of the Lower Purbeck Series found in the Isle of Purbeck proper are of little value. Outside it they furnish good material at Portisham. In the cliffs between Durlston and St. Albans headlands beds of the same general character as those in the Isle of Portland have been largely quarried under the name of Purbeck-Portland. Some excellent oolitic stone was long worked " e.g. Temple Church and later the Ch.ipter House at Westminster and Exeter Cathedral. "" For a full account of the various veins, see Hutchins, op. cit. i ; Damon, Geology of Weymouth ; Woodward, Jurassic Rocks of Britain, v ; A. Strahan, Geology of Isle of Purbeck, 91 et seq. underground here in galleries as at Winspit and Tillywhim.'' From the ledges of these clifF quarries the stone was shipped into stone- boats when the weather permitted them to lie close in shore. Smeaton was of opinion that this stone was inferior in colour to the best stone from Portland Island, harder to work, and, as he was informed, not in general near so durable.^* Long before the period of recorded history the stone of Portland Island was doubtless occasion- ally quarried, and indeed of its very ancient use for sepulchral purposes evidence actually exists. A tomb possibly of the Early British period excavated in the Purbeck beds and immediately above the upper 'dirt bed' was found in 1897 in the Combe Fields Quarry between Weston and Southwell. Internally it was lined with flat Purbeck stones or ' slats ' horizontally laid and pugged in clay, behind which the roof of the chamber was in part roughly arched and covered with slabs of stone.**' Other similar tombs and cists of stone slabs from the Upper Portland beds have also been discovered on the island.*' Edward the Confessor had granted to St. Swithun's, Winchester, Portland with other manors, but the Conqueror seems to have treated the gift as invalid,'" though his son Henry Beauclerk again confirmed to the monks the manor ' as King Edward had given it them.' "* It is possible that during their tenure of Portland the monks of St. Swithun's may have exported stone to a distance, but of this no documentary evidence exists." The stone used by Walkelin " Damon, Geology of Weymouth (1884), 199. The Tillywhim Quarry derives the second portion of its name from the crane or ' whim ' used to lower the stone into the boats. See Robinson, A Royal Ifarren, 93. The 'best bed' of Purbeck-Portland stone is thickest at Seacombe Quarr}',where it reaches 8 ft. with 4 ft. of inferior stone above it (Strahan, op. cit. 64). '* Smeaton, Eddystone Lighthouse, 66. ^"^ In this tomb was found a mortar formed out of the ' Roach ' bed with a pestle of flint. Another chamber was afterwards opened close by, of similar construction, but nothing was found in it. It was probably used for the storage of grain ; ex inform. Mr. J. Merrick Head. " Proc. Dorset Nat. Hist, and Jntif. Field CM, xix, 128, &c. Captain Mascall, R.E., 'List of Remains discovered in neighbourhood of Verne Hill,' in Damon, Geology of Weymouth, 240 el seq. " In Domesday Portland is surveyed as 'Terra Regis.' " B.M. Add. MS. 29436, fol. 14. " Some of the stone, however, found in the Norman work at Christchurch Twyneham cannot be distin- guished from Portland oolite, and may not un- likely have come from quarries at Wyke or Portland. Mr. J. Merrick Head informs us that the earlier of the two ruined churches at Portland, which is of twelfth- century date (? 1 140-60), is built partly of local stone and partly of Purbeck marble. The original tool- marks are still visible. Rufus Castle, which lies 338 INDUSTRIES at Winchester is supposed in the main to have been procured from Quarr in the Isle of Wight. In the thirteenth century Portland passed to the Clares by exchange, and from them later to the earls of Ulster, the earls of March, and thus in the fifteenth century to the crown. During the whole of this time there can be no doubt that quarries within the island were worked for purely local use, but even as early as the begin- ning of the fourteenth century Portland stone in considerable quantities was being exported as far as Exeter, as the Fabric Rolls '' of the Cathe- dral Church bear witness; and fifty years after, if not much earlier, it was in request for the con- stant fresh building or reparatory work proceed- ing at the royal palace of Westminster and elsewhere in London/'' Towards the close of this century, however, there was for a time at least a lull in the activity of the quarry belonging to the manor, for we read in a Minister's Account for the year 20—21 Richard II that in respect of the issues of the quarry nothing was returned/* For the next century and a half little is heard of the Portland quarries, though there is no reason to doubt their continued working/^ within the grounds of Pennsylvania Castle, is also built of the same local stone, and is a fine example of the great durability and strength of Portland oolite. The angles and walls are in general as sharp and intact as on the day they were built, and the additions and openings for defensive purposes equally so. The tool-marks are distinctly shown on the stones of this building. " Cited by Freeman, Orckit. Hut. of Exeter Cath. 123. It also seems to have been used in the choir of Christchurch Twyneham ; Ferrey and Britton, Antig. of Christchurch (1841), 15. Mr. J. Merrick Head points out that there exists in Portland a locality known as Priory, where quarries have long since been opened and are now disused. '* Cf. Pat. 23 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. 32(2'. and Accts. Exch. K.R. bdle. 471, No. 6 (25-28 Edw. III). 'Thome Elyot pro j navata petrarum de Portland empta pro fundamento muri palacie iuxta aquam reparando £\l 5/.' At the same time two shiploads of rag cost only £2 zs. It was used in connexion with the Portland stone in the same work. A very large amount of Portland stone was also purchased for the King's Chapel at Westminster and for the Tower. See Accts. Exch. K.R. bdle. 470, No. 18, and bdle. 471, No. I (21-22 Edw. III). " Mins. Accts. (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 832, No. 29. " The fifteenth-century ruined church of Portland was built of local oolite resembling Top Bed. The original tool-marks still appear on the north front. The main walls of Wyke church are built of a stone very similar to Portland oolite, which, however, may have been quarried outside the limits of Portland manor. The main walls of Sandsfoot Castle near Weymouth were built of Portland stone in the reign of Henry VIII. The stone is generally in excellent condition; certain decayed blocks in the interior are not from Portland, but were procured from a quarry in the vicinity of the castle. Leland," however, notes that ' the people be good there in flyngging of stonys and use it for defence of the isle,' and he adds further they ' be politique inough in selling their commodities, and sumwhat avaritiose.' Elizabeth had reigned about fifteen years when depositions were taken by commission ^* as to the crown rights in Portland, and amongst the interrogatories administered was the following : What quarries [are] within the saide demeane lands ? What rent the Quenes Majestic hathe byn aunswered for the same and what it would yerelie yielde, and who hath taken the profittes thereof? The reply given to these questions is instructive. One deponent declared that there is no quarry of stones whereof the Quenes Majestie hath bene aunswered any rent of the same [and he explained further] that the custome of the island is and hath bene by all the tyme of his remem- brance, that is if any man do break any ground of the Quenes demaynes he must have warrant from the officers for the quarringe and getting any stones there and also must compound and agree for them and touchinge stones lyinge uppon the ground in a certayn common called Wathe which have bene solde in oure tyme and [sic] the profittes thereof have bene taken and converted to the use of all the inhabitants . . . and that if any quarry be broken by the princes commandement or license that then the tenants ought to have thereof half of the profittes that [the stones] are sold for and in consideracion of breakinge the ground and consumlnge of their grasse in lyinge and carryinge away the same to the waterside.'*^ " I tin. '* Exch. Dep. by Com. Mich. 15-16 Eliz. No. 12, Dorset. "* It may be interesting to compare with this cer- tain presentments of the last century, concerning which Mr. J. Merrick Head kindly furnishes us the following note : — At a Court Baron and Court of the Island and Manor of Portland together with the Court of Sur- vey concluded on 7 July, 1846, It was presented, after the Homage had made a personal survey and perambulation of the island and Manor, inter alia, ' That all stone exported from the Common or Commonable lands doth pay 1 2d. per Ton; one moiety of such I2rf'. belongs to the Lord or Lady in Chief, and the other moiety to the tenants; and by Ancient Grants, and also by one from Her present Most Gracious Majesty, we have 3^'. per Ton given us out of Her Majesty's said moiety, which makes Her Majesty's part 3a'. and ours 3d'. ' And all such Stone as is for Her Majesty's own use is free, paying nothing. ' And likewise we that are Tenants for our Buildings within the Manor take for our use what Stone we please, paying nothing and asking no leave. And all such Stone liable to such Tonnage as aforesaid is accounted for at our Courts on the oaths of the persons exporting the same, and the duty paid to the Queen's Receiver or his Agent and divided as before mentioned. All Stone raised and drawn from the Quarries in the Farm has time out of mind paid to 339 A HISTORY OF DORSET About twenty years later (1594) under warrant from Lord Burghley, a survey or view" was taken by William Pitt ' of the quarries of stone and mines of oare earth which will burne within the Islande of Portlande.' He found the sea-cliflFs for the most part 'all full of workes and quarries of stone,' and further discovered ' in the same clyfFesand in thesandesandshoares . . . and in other places round aboute and in other places there but especially eastewardes from Her Majesties Castell there a kind of black stone or o.re earth of minerall matter apte to burne which is not granted by lease but remaineth in Her R'lajesties hands as parcell of her manner and the Tenants 3d', per Ton, but by Her Majest}''s late Grant ■^li. cut of every I zii. payable to Her Majesty for such Stone has been granted to the Inhabitant;, as appears by such Grant, which 3a'. to the Tenants and Inhabitants is for damage done to the herbage on the Commons by laying rubble or rubbish thereon, but Stone drawn in the Quarries on the Farm for Her Majesty's use pays nothing.' Also presented, ' That all the Tenants and persons belonging to the parish employed by them (but no other persons) have had time out of mind a right to open and work what Quarries they please in the Commons or Commonable lands, provided they do not thereby hurt or injure the Highways, paying the Customary duty ; and all Tenants from time immemo- rial have raised what stone they pleased in their own respective tenements, as they are freeholders and never did pay any acknowledgement to any person for the Stone so raised in their own respective grounds.' Then follow presentments as to deposit of rubble on weirs or rubble grounds, and payment in respect of same ; and for erecting piers with cranes or sheers for shipping off stone ; also presentments of commons and commonable lands, and of the queen's quarries, and of the custom and pnctice of making an ar- rangement in respect of labour and payment for the same ; and of forfeiture in certain events such as improperly stopping or obstructing the working of quarries. Further presentment, that where in working quarries in either p.irish or private lands in the cliffs a public road or way would be destroyed or worked through if the work were continued, it is the custom for the pro- prietor of the adjoining land to allow an equally con- venient roadway through such land for the public on receiving the tonnage-dues for the stone raised under the road so intended to be worked through, and that no person shall work any quarry in the cliffs nearer than 1 8 ft. of any private lands, unless or until he shall obtain from the owner of such private land a substituted road or way of at least 1 8 ft., and so as often as occasion or necessity sh.ill require. These extracts are given to show the peculiarity of the customs existing at Portland in respect of quarr}'ing of stone ; other customs are also given, and reference should be made to the Court Rolls for more detailed information. It may be mentioned that the present- ments cannot always be relied upon ; some of them are in opposition to common and statute law, and are of questionable legality. " B.M. Add. MS. 29976, fol. 1 1 8^. islande of Portlande of which stone or oare earth Her Majesties tenantes in the said Island doe sometimes take and gather to burne for want of woodes and other fewell and may be valued togaether with the said workes and quarries of stone in yerely rent to Her Majestic x;.' Be- sides these, certain stone quarries had been leased for various terms yet ' indetermined, with certain exceptions in the saide grante unto one Nicholas Jones at the yerely rent of 51.' Although, as the foregoing references prove, stone had for many hundreds of years before the seventeenth century been quarried in Portland, yet the wide and establibhed repute of the ' mer- chantable ' stone of the true Portland beds re- ceived an enormous extension from its use bv Inigo Jones in the reign of James I, especially in the building of the Banqueting House at White- hall and the additions made to the fabric of Old St. Paul's. In connexion with the first of these enterprises, a new pier was built at Portland at a cost of £112 igs. 2d. and a lasting impetus was given to the quarrying industry of the island.80 It may be remarked, however, that the quarrying of stone at Portland for the work at Old St. Paul's and its carriage to London met with certain obstacles in the next reign,*' and as a result a spirited remonstrance was addressed in 1637 to the archbishop of Can- terbury. From this it appears that Ralph Bunn and John Elliott ' who have wrought in the quarry at Portland about the stones for the West End of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in London ever since that work begun,' had been taken by the press-gang for the royal navy to the great hindrance of the work. Furthermore com- plaint was made that the ' ships which did bring the stones for St. Paul's had their men pressed out of them the last year, and could not be released though they had a warrant from the officers of the navy.' The press-gang, indeed, held the warrant invalid, as it was without the Admiralty seal, and therefore sufficient warrants were prayed for by the petitioners to secure both quarrymen and sailor?. Laud on the reception of this appeal at once took action, and on 20 April informed Mr. Secretary Nicholas that ' it is His Majesty's express pleasure that sufficient warrant *■ It may be noted that, in the purchases made by the Corporation of the City of London in 1630 for the repair of Newgate Prison, while Purbeck stone cost only 5a'. a foot, Portland stone was priced at \s. SJ. Rogers, ^gric. and Prices in England, v, 5 1 1 . In the reign of James I also large quantities of Portland stone were employed in building or repairing the town houses of certain noblemen, as, for example, the dukes of Richmond and Buckingham. Several refer- ences to the Portland quarries will be found in the contemporary State Papers, e.g. S. P. Dom. Jas. I, cxiii. No. 71 ; cxv, No. 75 ; cxlvi. No. 61 ; clxx, No. 25, &;c. "' S.P. Dom. Chas. I, ccclii. No. 57. 340 INDUSTRIES be given to secure both the one and the other as is here desired.' The increased demand for Portland stone from this time forward gave ample employment to the quarrymen who were free of the island, and after the Great Fire it was extensively used in the re- building of London, where St. Paul's Cathedral and the churches of Wren are sufficient monuments of its strength and beauty." In 1696 the inhabitants of Portland are said to have been about 700 in number,*' while the fees or king's rents amounted to 14s. ^d. per annum at T^d. per acre, besides which there existed an inclosed farm of ;^I0 per annum which had then yet thirty years to run. The herbage of all uninclosed ground was common to the fee-tenants, but as to the quarries worked by them in such common land a fee of izd. per ton on all stone raised was due to the crown as an acknowledgement. The writer of the account we are here quoting states that Charles II gave by sign manual 9/ of this I2i. "* I am indebted to Miss E. M. Hewitt for this and the following paragaph. fib Wjg„ had control of the quarries from 1 67 5 to I 717. Many of the blocks which were excavated at that time, but rejected for his purpose, remained for several years lying about in or near the quarries ; Phillimore, Mem. Sir C. ff^ren, 221. 341 A HISTORY OF DORSET by the present working of the quarries, yet, if they were taken from you, I believe you might find the want of them in very little time ; and you may be sure that care will be taken both to maintain the Queen's right, and that such only be employed in the quarries as will work regularly and quietly, and submit to proper and reasonable directions, which I leave you to consider of, and am Your friend, Chr. Wren. P.S. — I am sorry Mr. Wood has paid you the tunnage money, but if I have not a better account of your behaviour, I shall ende.tvour that you be made to refund it ; and whether your jury present Mr. Wood or not for the stone, 'tis all one to me. If you take upon you to pay the duty for any stone, for St. Paul's or other uses that I give orders for, you shall not have one farthing allowed you for it. To Mr. John Elliott, Bart. Comber, Thomas Ouseley, Ben Stone, Henry Atwel, Robert Gibbs, at Portland."' The allusion to Greenwich in the above letter is explained by reference to the Treasury Papers of 1702, concerned with the report of James Moun- tague to the Lord High Treasurer, on the petition of the directors of Greenwich Hospital touching the demand by the islanders of Portland of lid. per ton and bd. by the commissioners of all stone shipped for the use of the hospital. In this report we find it set forth that the whole island is the queen's manor. Also that time out of mind a duty had been paid of is. z ton, 3^/. of which was in consideration of the damage done to the herbage by the quarry workings.*^'' We are unable here to trace further in any detail the history of the Portland quarries, but a few notes may be allowed on the different strata of stone and the fashion of working. In a typical quarry the strata in descending order may be found *' as follows : — ft. in. Mould 10 Shivered stone and rubble — the debris of Purbeck stone and slate stone 10 o Bacon tier with layers of sand ,.19 Aish stone ^ 3 Soft Burr 16 Great Dirt-bed (with trees and Cy- cadeae) 10 Cap Rising 20 These are excavated and then the top-cap is reached, with a thickness of from 8 to I O ft. A "= Hutchins, Hist. Dorset, ii, 818. "■^ Cal. Treas. Papers, 1702, vii, 498. "* It must be remembered, however, that the thick- ness of the different strata varies considerably according to the nature and position of the quarry. A shorter section of a quarry as known among the quarrymen is furnished us by Mr. J. Merrick Head. The names are in descending order : — Soil, Rubble, Soft Burr, Dirt Bed, Cap, Skull-Cap, Roach, Whitbed, some- times Curf Bed, Base Bed, Flint Bed. very thin dirt-bed follows between this and tiie Skull-Cap (2 ft. 6 in.), which is succeeded by the True Roach, which averages from 2 ft. 6 in. to 3 ft. The Top-Cap, Skull-Cap, and True Roach are generally blasted off to get at the ' merchant- able' stone beneath. For heavy engineering works, however, True Roach, which is very light brown in colour, furnishes excellent mate- rial. It weathers well, is tough and strong, and owing to its resistance to the action of water is suitable for dock and sea-walls and break- waters.*' Next below the True Roach are found the Whitbed 8 to 10 ft. Curf or Bastard Roach with flints Basebed Roach Basebed stone 5 to 6 ft. Flat beds or flinty tiers Whitbed *' is in many respects the most valu- able of the Portland series. The material with which the fine oolitic grains are cemented to- gether is hard and crystalline. This stone, if of good quality, weathers excellently, and is markedly superior in this respect to Basebed, which re- sembles it in appearance, but is softer, more easily worked, and adapted rather for internal work. Bastard Roach or Curf may be distin- guished from True Roach by the absence of the fossil known as the Portland Screw {Cerlthium Portlandicum), which seldom if ever occurs in Curf. Its weathering qualities are poor. Smeaton,^' the builder of the Eddystone Light- house, on his visit to the Portland quarries, remarked how — When tlie merchantable blocks are cleared of the cap the quarrymen proceed to cross-cut the large flats which are laid bare with wedges. The beds being thus cut into distinct lumps the quarryman, with a tool called a ' kevel,' which is at one end a hammer and at the other an axe, whose edge is so short or narrow that it approaches towards the shape of a pick, by a repetition of sturdy blows soon reduces a piece of stone, by his eye, to the largest square figure which it will admit. At the present day blocks of from 10 to 12 tons can be obtained easily if required. The mode of carriage of stone for shipment down the hill was formerly by large wooden trollies with solid wheels of wood, drawn by a team of horses, three behind, two abreast, and one following — the three behind operating as a drag. The whole island is full of the quarries, which are wrought from open faces. The stone is *' It has also been used for fortifications, as it was found by experiments to offer more resistance to shell- fire than even Cornish granite. *' The colour is more commonly white, but a brownish hue is perceptible in some of the best stone. Notes on Building Construction, iii, ' Portland Stone.' '^ Eddystone Lighthouse (1791), 62 et seq. 342 INDUSTRIES worked by the ' Ope ' joints, known as ' South- ers,' ' Ope Gullies,' north to south, ' East and Westers,' which cross 'Southers' and 'Rangers,' south to east. The marks placed on the stone when quarried to indicate its measurement and weight are shown in the illustration here given. A hori- zontal line is placed on the block of stone. Each of the perpendicular lines across it represents lO cubic ft. The downward oblique line to the right represents 5 cubic ft., and each stroke following I cubic ft. up to 10 cubic ft. Then instead of continuing these strokes (making in all 10 cubic ft.) an additional perpendicular stroke is added to the horizontal line and so on. The oblique upward line to the left must be placed in such a position that if produced it would bisect the right angle, but must not be allowed to touch it. This line represents half a cubic foot. If the blocks of stone are very large, figures are sometimes substituted for the marks. The amount of stone represented in the diagram is Lmes thus represent 10 (eet eakch A line Thus* represents ;^ Cubic foot- At the beginning of the last century upwards of 25,000 tons of Portland stone were annually exported, and the stone was then sold at 9a'. a foot at the quarries, and was rising in price,'" while aquarryman working in the island expected 2s. 6d. a day. In 1 81 2 800 men and boys, i8o horses, and 50 ships were engaged in the stone trade of Portland, and from 20,000 to 30,000 tons were being exported every year at prices varying from 16s. to 24.S. per ton of 16 cubic ft., the duty being 6^. a ton.'^ In 1839 the annual output of the Portland quarries was estimated at 24,000 tons, that is about one acre of good stone, while it was believed that 2,000 acres of stone remained un worked. In 1855 the Portland railway carried 22,995 tons of Block and 3,547 tons of Roach, while a further amount was shipped directly from the island. In 1865 the amount carried by the Portland quarries railway reached 81,649 ^ori^, but in 1875 this figure had been reduced to 56,841 tons, and in 1882 to 45,967 tons. Besides the quantity carried on A line thus represents 5" feet. Unas thus represent 1 foot each 59 J cubic ft., and it may be remembered that the measurement of a ton of Portland stone is 16 cubic ft.«'^ According to the opinion of the Commission- ers of 1839 the stone in the north-eastern part of the island is superior to that in the south- western part. Although many of the quarries belong to the crown and are worked by convict labour, some of the best are still privately owned. It is impossible to give here a complete list of the Portland quarries, but the Waycroft, Wide Street, Maggot, Weston Independent, Inmosthay, Tout, and Bowers may be mentioned.^''' '^" Ex informatlone Mr. J. Merrick Head. ''"' It was presented 7 July, 1 846, that the queen's quarries were in part of the farm and demesne lands called Grove, Way Croft, Bowers, and Under King- barrow, and that other quarries were on Vern, on Higher Down, in Wide Street, at Sturt, in East Weir, and in Yelland Cliffs (Yeolands) and West Cliff: Since then large quarries have been opened in Combe Fields and Portland Bill. Ex informatione Mr. J. Merrick Head. the railway, large shipments varying from 5,000 tons or less to 10,000 tons were removed directly from the island every year during the latter half of the last century. And to get the total output we must add to the figures mentioned the stone won by convict labour for government works, and the enormous quantity, especially of Roach, used in the making of the breakwater between 1847 and 1862.'^ Since 1882 the amount of stone quarried in Portland has largely increased, and immense quantities have been used of late years in inclosing Portland Roads by other break- waters, in order to form a secure harbour for naval defence. The Portland beds have also been worked " Hutchins, op. cit. ii, 819. " Stevenson, V'uiv ofjgrlc. of Dorset, 55. '■ For most of these figures we are indebted to the valuable account of the Geology of Weymouth and Port- land by Mr. Robert Damon and The Rep. of the Royal Com. on the Selection of Stone for the New Houses of Par- liament (1839). 343 A HISTORY OF DORSET from the Middle Ages, at least near Upwey and Preston, where the bed corresponding to the Portland Basebed is known as ' VVhite Freestone.' About the middle of the reign of Edward III we hear '' of ' Wynesbache ' (Windsbatch) stone being carried from Westminster to the Tower, and Preston is also occasionally mentioned towards the end of the fourteenth century as the locality whence stone was exported to London.''' In Portisham parish Hutchins mentions a quarry of stone used for paving and tiling, and about a mile east of the ' Hardy Monument ' a quarry was opened to provide stone for the bridges of a local railway. The best freestone bed is inferior to the Basebed of Portland island. Of the quarries of purely local repute in Southern Dorset no account can be given here, but references are occasionally found in records, as for example to the quarry on AUington Hill, whence William de Legh, in the thirteenth centur}', permitted the hospital of St. Mary Magdalen of Bridport to take stone for necessary uses.^* In respect to ornamental stone it may also be noted that septaria from the Oxford Clay of Radipole Backwater, when cut into slabs and polished have been used as tops for fancy tables.'' It is possible that oolitic iron ore found in the upper part of the Coral Rag at and near Abbots- bury may have been quarried in the early medi- aeval period, when, owing to the difficulty of transporting Gloucester iron and the expense of Spanish iron, local bloomeries were not infrequent in places where little or no iron is worked to-day. But no documentary evidence of the smelting of Dorset iron has been published. We hear, how- ever, that the Constable of Corfe '^ in the thir- teenth century took from the abbess of Shaftes- bury for her land in Blackenwell twenty-four horse-shoes as rent, while a rental of Kingston " shows us Beorn the smith doing all the iron-work and shoeing exacted of him by the abbess for his half-virgate, but the metal employed may have been obtained from Hampshire. To conclude, a mere mention can be made of a very few of the northern quarries of the county. At Sturminster and MarnhuU the lower beds of the Coral Rag yield an excellent oolitic building stone which has been employed locally to a considerable extent. The limestone layers oc- curring in the Forest Marble are frequently quarried for flagstones, and at Long Burton, not far from Sherborne, the finer varieties have been polished for ornamental use as chimney-pieces, under the name of Yeovil Marble. The latest government returns of the stone raised in Dorset during the year 1906 show that 8,147 tons were raised from mines,'' and 94,463 tons from quarries. Underground and above ground at the mines, which included a good many workings for clay, producing 35,038 tons of this material, 261 persons were employed. Inside and outside the quarries, which besides the stone showed an output of 122,437 tons of clay and 700 tons of chalk, the number of workmen reached 1,057. THE HEMP INDUSTRY One of the oldest industries in Dorset is that connected with the manufacture of hemp and flax ; in importance it ranks next to quarrying. The centre of the trade, which has been chiefly con- cerned with the production of ropes, sail-cloth, and nets, has been, from time immemorial, the town and neighbourhood of Bridport, though there are mills also at Poole and Hamworthy.^ There is no direct reference to the industry in Domesday, although it has been pointed out by Mr. Eyton, in his study of the Dorset Domesday, that Bridport, the smallest borough in point of burgesses, and with fewest acres of annexed terri- tory, was taxed at the rate of a full firrna noctis, a fact which he considers to have been * the co- ordinate of a great commercial position.' ^ Having regard to the very primitive character of the " Accts. Exch. K.R. bdle. 471, No. 6 ; cf. Pat. 24 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 31. " One of the masons employed on the royal works in London as early as 1 348 was one William of Pres- ton. See Accts. Exch. K.R. bdle. 471, No. I. "' Hisi. MSS. Com. Rep. vi, App. 486. " Strahan, Geology of Isle ofPurbeck, 236. rope-making industry, it is reasonable to suppose that even in io86 the 'human spiders' had begun their long, monotonous tramp, and that the manufacture for which they were to be so widely renowned accounted in some measure for the high figure at which Bridport was rated. However this may be, the town's seal bears wit- ness to the fame and profit which were brought to Bridport by ropemaking, for on it are engraved three ' cogs ' or hooks employed in this industry. There seems to be no record of the exact date when the use of this seal was granted to the borough, though there are repeated notices of it in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The documentary evidence concerning rope- making begins in 121 1, and the interest of the "Add. MS. 24775, fol. 67. " Harl. MS. 61, fol. 62. '' The greater portion of the stone derived from mines no doubt came from the Isle of Purbeck. ' The people of Bridport have been styled by Defoe the ' best artists in ropes, cables, and nets.' Tour through Great Brit, i, 327. * Eyton, Key to Domesday, 73. 344 INDUSTRIES liistory lies in the antiquity of the manufacture, in its sometime national importance, and in the obscurity which involves the withdrawal of the manufacture of heavy cordage, as the reasons which are at present suggested are considered inadequate by experts. There have been three great periods in the history of the Dorset industry. During the first of these the town was chiefly concerned in the making of rope and tackle for the royal navy, and this culminated in the statute of Henry VIII,' which destroyed the rivalry of its near neighbours. During the second, the connexion between Brid- port and the Newfoundland fishery reached its highest point in the prosperity induced by the French war (1792-18 15). During the third period, nets of every description, from a billiard- table net to a trawl, have been sent all over the world. In the Pipe Rolls for Somerset and Dorset, 13 John, the sheriff accounts for moneys which he has paid for 3,000 weighs of hempen thread, according to Bridport weight, for making ships' cables, and for the expenses of Robert Piscatoris whilst he stayed at Bridport to procure his nets.* Two years later, in 121 3, King John sent a letter to the sheriffs of Dorset and Somerset,' commanding them as they love themselves and their own bodies to buy for his use all the oats they could lay hands on. They were to seize the money from abbeys or wherever they could get it upon loan or in any other manner, and they were ' to cause to be made at Bridport, night and day, as many ropes for ships both large and small as they could, and twisted yarns for cordage.' ^ In this year a French fleet, prepared by King Philip at the instigation of Pope Innocent, was lying in the port of Damme ready to invade England. An English fleet under William Longsword, earl of Salisbury, fell upon it and took or sunk well-nigh every vessel. Perhaps this was some satisfaction to the inhabitants ot Bridport, as it is most unlikely that they ever received full payment for the rigging which they made. In 5 Edward I Michael de Langestone and John de Hokestone, bailiffs of Plympton, ad- dressed a complaint to Richard de Ramesham and Nicholas Prikeny, bailiffs of Bridport, en- joining them to admonish Robert Lautrepays to pay to John de Stodbury, their burgess, 3/. Sd., or else the hemp and cords which he agreed to deliver to him a fortnight before Michaelmas last ; also to admonish a similar offender, David ' ' An Acte for the true Makynge of great cables, halsers, ropes, and all other takelinge for shippes in the Boroughe of Burporte in the Countye of Dorset.' Stat. 21 Hen. VIII, cap. 12. * Rot. Pip. Dors, and Somers. 1 3 John (Rec. Com.). ' Wainwright, Bridport Doc. ' Ibid. Nos. 12, 13. de Wynterburne, ' who is vulgarly called Davye,' to satisfy the same John for 1 1 st. of hemp and cords which he had covenanted to deliver at the preceding Christmas ; the said Davye having had yarn to the value of 4;. 215'., and he to receive the rest when he had given satisfaction as to the said hemp and cords. Robert Stok was to be 'admonished' with regard to 12 St. of cord which he should have delivered by St. John the Baptist's Day, having received 55. bd. on account for yarn. John le Cherwode again had failed to deliver 4 st. of hemp by Mid-Lent, though he had been paid I2d. The bailiffs of Plympton in conclusion informed those of Bridport that, pending satisfaction, they had confiscated the boat of Richard Blanchard.' Interesting references abound in ancient re- cords at an early date to the frequency and importance of the hemp trade of Bridport. ' Cultures,' or lands cultivated with hemp and flax, are mentioned in deeds, &c. of the reign of Edward III, whilst 'searchers of flax and hemp' held office in the reign of Richard 11." The following entry appears in an account- book of St. Michael's Chantry of Munden or Mondene in Bridport in 1453 under the head of ' Necessary Expenses ' : half a bushel of hemp- seed, 3j(^.' In 45 Edward III Nicholas Tracy granted to John Feldaye and Matillidis his wife one rood of hempland lying in the 'culture ' called Ponches- ford in Bridport.^" Those municipal gifts to great personages which were such a feature of the mediaeval social system, and which were invariably repre- sentative of local industry, took traditional shape at Bridport, where the corporation made frequent offerings of webs, reins, horse-nets, and girths to those whose friendship they were desirous to secure. ^^ Cords and yarn figure re- peatedly in assessments ; whilst hemp is con- tinually recorded as part of a man's possessions, and with it lucelli, hempen wicks for lamps and torches.'^ Forfeitures of yarn and hemp appear in the Bailiffs' Accounts, 18 & 19 Richard II, in one instance to the amount of gj. 6d., and of hemp-seed to the extent of /^hd.^'^ Hemp was grown in Bridport and then sent to Plympton to be made into rope-yarn. It was next sent back to Bridport to be made into rope, and when finished was sent again to Plympton, presumably to be used by the navy.'* Not only was yarn sent to Bridport to be spun into rope, but rope-makers were sent all over the kingdom to exercise their handicraft. In 16 Edward II the late sheriff petitioned '* for 79s. ' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vi, App. 489. ' Ibid. 476. ' Ibid. 479- ■° Ibid. " Ibid. 490. " Ibid. 492. " Ibid. '* Ibid. 489. » Ibid. 345 44 A HISTORY OF DORSET which he had paid for the expenses of six ropers proceeding from Bridport in the county of Dorset to Newcastle-on-Tyne. In the documents belonging to the Bridport Corporation there is very little direct reference to the making of ropes until the town procured its Act of Parliament in the reign of Henry VIII, but there are several allusions to the fact that flax and hemp were ordinary crops, while in the lists of forfeitures yarn, hemp, and hemp-seed continually occur. The manufacture of ropes seems to have gone on steadily increasing from the thirteenth to the first quarter of the fifteenth century, when for some time a great quantity of rope was imported from Genoa and Normandy. But Bridport recovered its pre-eminence, and orders for cables were again received. In March, i486, a command was sent from the dockyard at Ports- mouth to John Browne of Bridport, to deliver ' a pair of takkes [tackle] and a pair of shets weighing 741 lb., and for a hauser for a tye wei2:hing 500 lb. ' the total cost being The industry seems to have been badly organized, and the regulations oppressive, con- sequently manufacturers tended to leave Brid- port and set up rival businesses, near enough to share in the supply of excellent hemp, but beyond the reach of the burgesses' rules. The inhabi- tants of Bridport noted this tendency with increasing uneasiness. Tradition says that they were finally stung into action by jealousy of the rope-walks at Burton Bradstock, a village with- in three miles of their town hall. They peti- tioned for an Act of Parliament limiting the industry to their own town. The preamble to the statute 21 Hen. VIII, cap. 12, explains their position, their fears and their precautions, as clearly as possible. ' The Bailiffs burgesses and other inhabitants' of Bridport represent to the king that where they out of time that no man's mind is to the contrary, have used and exercised to make within the same the most part of all the grc.it cables, halsers, ropes and all other tackling as well for your royal ships and navy as for the most p.irt of all other ships within the realm, by reason whereof your said town was right well maintained and inhabited, your High- ness and your subjects right well served, until now of late, many diverse and evil disposed persons, intending the destruction of your said town for their private lucre and advantage, have withdrawn themselves into the country in diverse places there taking farms and using husbandry out of the said town and also daily resort to buy and provide hemp and thereof make cables, ropes, halsers, traces, halters and other tackle, being by the said persons slightly and deceivably made by reason whereof not only buyers of the same have been continually thereby deceived, but also the prices of the said cables, halsers, traces, halters and other tackle thereby greatly inhaunsed, and your said town or borough by means thereof is likely to be destroyed, ruined and desolated if speedy remedy be not by your Highness in that case provided. Evidently the burgesses saw no advantage in competition, and they had probably persuaded themselves quite honestly that the only reason they objected to other rope-walks was because of the inferior quality of the goods produced and the disrepute into which such quality plunged the industry. The Act they obtained was curiously short- sighted and petty. It prohibited any persons living within five miles of the town from selling hemp except at the Bridport market, and further enacted that no person or persons other than such as dwell and be inhabitants within the said town, shall make, after the feast of Easter next coming, out of the said town any cables, halsers, ropes, traces, halters or any other tackle except for their own private use. Various penal- ties were imposed on those who broke the statute. The hemp and rope forfeited were divided between the king and the informer. In the first place its action was only to endure until the next Parliament, but the statute was con- firmed and continued by various Parliaments in the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, Elizabeth, and James I. The natural result of this statute with its five- mile limit was to drive manufacturers further away, and a great part of the industry is said to have migrated to Yorkshire, where it could develop more freely. The lines on which the trade was organized are indicated by the draft of the lease of the common beam and weights preserved among the Bridport documents.^' This manuscript is not dated, but, judging from the writing, it is not later than Elizabeth's reign, and it is probably earlier. The bailiffs, with the assent of the burgesses, let to farm to Morgan Moore for 2 1 years at a rent of ^^4 per annum, the common beam and weights used for the only weighing of hemp within the borough of Bridport, with all the usual fees, profits, penalties, commodities, and advantages, and do constitute him their officer and minister for viewing, surveying, and searching of hemp, and for the true making of cables, hawsers and ropes according to the statute in that case provided. The lessee is prohibited from transferring the lease, from enhansing or raising any payment or duty, and from demanding a larger fee for the wind- ing of hemp than heretofore has been payable. He is also required yearly, on Michaelmas Day, to deliver to the Bailiffs a book containing the names of all persons that have hemp growing within 5 miles of Bridport, the quantity grown by them and the value thereof, and to inform the Bailiffs what fore-stalling and regrating are carried on, and what conveyance from the said market contrary to the Statute. Bridport Dagger,' Tie Globe, 24 Feb. 1906. 346 " Bridport Doc. K. 25. INDUSTRIES The impression left by this lease is that the manufacturers were subject to, if they did not actually suffer, an amount of supervision which probably became more and more irksome, despite its laudable object of upholding the prestige of the hempen goods made in Bridport. Among the numerous uses to which Bridport rope was applied was that of hanging men ; and the custom was so common that when a man was hanged he was said to be ' stabbed with a Bridport dagger.' Leland seems to have heard this saying in the Midlands, and to have under- stood it literally, for he left a note in his Itinerary^ 'at Bridport be mace good Daggers,''* when he should have written * good hempen ropes for hanging rogues.' There is also a morality play called ' Hycke Scorner ' (probably printed early in the reign of Henry VIII), in which one of the characters, ' Imagynacyon,' makes the grim re- mark that the inhabitants of Newgate have ' ones a yere some taw halters of Burporte.' Probably in the sixteenth century the town's halters were as famous as its hawsers, and the demand for the first article was out of all proportion to the de- mand that exists to-day ; but they could not have been such a profitable item as hawsers, especially in Elizabeth's reign, when the fabulous riches of America inflamed men's minds, and the prohibi- tions of the Spaniards stirred up their obstinacy. Historians of Bridport have sought in vain for evidence that the town sent any ships to help to fight the great Armada, but they com- fort themselves by maintaining that nearly if not quite all of the cordage and ropes for the English fleet of that time was supplied by Brid- port ; as the victory was due in great part to superior seamanship, and as such skill is of no avail without trustworthy rigging, the inference redounding to the honour of the town is obvious. If the fact about the rigging of the English fleet be true, it would account for the myth with regard to the power and the extent of ' the statute,' as the Bridport burgesses called it, which sprang up in the forty odd years between the time it became law and the visit of Camden. It is true he collected his information in the years 1575-86, i.e. before the great sea victory, but he may have found the town all agog with excitement over some order for rigging, as there must have been continuous supplies from Brid- port if it were responsible for so much rigging in 1588. His version of the myth is all the more interesting, as it is quoted by almost every writer who mentions the hemp industry in the seven- teenth and eighteenth centuries. He wrote : — In our time in respect of the soil using the best hemp and the skill of the people for making ropes and cables for ships, it was provided by a special statute to remain in force for a certain set time, that ropes for the navy of England should be twisted no where else." " Leland, Itin. (ed. Hearne, I 7 10), vii, 48. " Camden, Brit. (ed. Holland, 1610), i, 54. But most probably the statute never did confer this monopoly, and was never intended so to do. The second clause of 21 Henry VIII, cap. 12, reads as a general prohibition of rope-making except at Bridport, but it is qualified by the first clause, which forbids the sale of hemp grown within five miles of the town except at the Bridport market, and by the fifth clause, which gives permission to people 'dwelling within the said distance,' i.e. five miles, to make whatever kind of rope they need for their own use and occupation. Later writers have taken Camden's description as a convenient high-water mark by which they can ascertain the degeneracy of their own days. The close connexion between Bridport and the royal navy was seriously affected in 161 o, when a contract was signed with William Greenwell and Thomas Still, 'merchants in London trading for the East country,' by which they undertook to erect a rope-walk at Wool- wich, and thence supply the navy, delivering their goods as required at the government stores in Deptford. Later a royal rope-walk was estab- lished at Portsmouth, and in the second half of the seventeenth century hemp yarn was imported from Holland.^ The choice of Woolwich and Ports- mouth for the new rope-walks points at once to Bridport's heaviest handicap in the industrial race. Some trade had been driven away by rules and regulations, but it is safe to say that much more was lost through its position. The ropes required for the navy were very bulky, and the cost of their carriage must have been a consider- able item. It was considered cheaper and more convenient to set up rope-walks near the ships, and to import the hemp, than to bring the ready-made ropes, either by land or sea, from Bridport. The Dorset hemp was the best in England. This is asserted by everyone, and is never dis- puted. Drayton mentions the Bert whose bat'ning mellowed bank, From all the British soil for hemp most hugely rank. Doth bear away the best. And in his poetical journey round the coast of Dorset he describes Bert port, which hath gained That praise from every place, and worthilie obtained Our cordage from her store, and cables should be made Of any in that kind most fit for marine trade." But whether poet laureates or country clergy- men, the panegyrists never discuss the relative quality of English and foreign hemp ; and, judging from the climatic conditions which are required to bring the plant to perfection, '" Pepys, Diary, i, 330. " Drayton, Polyolbion, Song 2. 347 A HISTORY OF DORSET English hemp was probably always somewhat inferior to that grown in Holland and Russia. However, despite the growing import of foreign hemp, and the fact that government orders became less and less frequent, the industry at Bridport continued to flourish, and in the latter years of the sixteenth century a new source of trade was opened up, and another and local monopoly was established which lasted for about two hundred and fifty years. The Newfound- land fishing industry was founded by West- countrymen in Elizabeth's reign and grew steadily in importance. Ships were sent from all along the Dorset coast ; but Bridport itself was more interested in the new market for its goods than in the fishing profits, though it took its share in them when occasion arose. It sup- plied most of tlie heavy cordage, nets, and tackle to the fishing fleet. As time went on the town seems to have specialized in nets and fishing tackle and to have gradually left off supplying heavy ropes except to Bridport-built ships. This change seems to have taken place before 1770, as from that time twine, nets, and seines are always mentioned first in the lists given of the hempen products of Bridport. Rope-walks fell more and more into disuse, though ropes were made at Bridport Harbour until the shipyards were closed late in the nineteenth century. There are still some rope-walks in Bridport itself, but they no longer make the enormous hawsers, about 25 in. in circumference, which were once used for mooring vessels. This branch of the trade was killed by the intro- duction of chain cables, which after various experiments were served out to the navy in 1810— II, and were universally adopted after the disasters which befell the merchantmen bringing supplies to the English soldiers in the Crimean War. The men-of-war rode at safety in the roughest weather, relying on their chain cables ; but the merchantmen, with hempen hawsers, continually broke away from their anchors. There are various references to the hempen industry by writers in the first half of the eigh- teenth century. Though the monopoly described by Camden has come to an end, yet the ' town is still in vogue for that sort of manufacture in I720.'^- Twelve years later Coker found that the people of Bridport ' reap their best commodity from their skill in making up hemp, and their trade in linen thread, which is sold weekly in great abundance.'"' But it is from descriptions of the Newfound- land fishery that the clearest idea of the extent and importance of the industry can be gathered. The connexion between Bridport and New- foundland, though it has passed through various phases, has never been entirely broken, and cot- tagers in Dorset still rejoice in the extra orders for fishing tackle which follow a good season, while ' hands ' are still thrown out of work by the shortage in orders which inevitably accom- panies a bad season in Newfoundland. When their harbour was in good repair the merchants of Bridport sent out cargoes of nets in their own ships, until sailing vessels were superseded by steamers ; but until 1741 there are continual notices that the harbour was ruined and choked up with sand. This harbour is formed by the little River Brit, which is not strong enough to make a safe channel through the sand-bars which occur at its mouth. There are constant references to building or repairing Bridport Harbour, the piers which were rebuilt in 1741-2 seem to have been fairly effective, and by the end of the century a con- siderable amount of trade was carried on. The harbour accommodated vessels of 150 tons. The ships which were sent to Newfoundland often took out apprentices, to be bound to masters at their journey's end, and after the fishing season was over some of the ships themselves were sold to inhabitants of Newfoundland, who employed them for fishing, or for trading with America and among the West Indies. Probably some were used for smuggling rum, which was a profitable source of income in the eighteenth century. The merchants at home arranged what ships and what cargoes they would send out, and the town was filled with the busy hum of work. Besides their own ventures the merchants fitted out most of the other boats that sailed to New- foundland at the end of the eighteenth and be- ginning of the nineteenth century .^^ And even after the English fishing fleet was ruined, Brid- port still supplied all the nets and fishing tackle required in Newfoundland. But a factory was set up on the island and protected by boun- ties and import duties ; this gave the home- made a distinct advantage over the English goods. The factory in Newfoundland was further benefited by the introduction of the use of cotton for fishing purposes, as its nearness to the United States lessened the cost of the cotton which was used. Bridport still supplies a great deal of fishing gear to Newfoundland, and the bulk of goods exported is still very consider- able, though the connexion is no longer so important as it once was. Bridport has ceased to put so many of its eggs in one basket, and Newfoundland trusts to some extent to its own skill. About the middle of the eighteenth century a branch industry was developed, and Bridport began to emulate its Somerset rival, West Coker, in making sail-cloth. Pococke is the first to " Cox, Magna Brit. (1720), 313. " Coker, Surv. of Dors. 23. 348 Harvey, Hist. ofNevifoundlond, 37. INDUSTRIES notice this new departure, and he mentions a curious use to which inferior flax was put : — They have (he writes) a great manufacture of twine, cables, sail-cloth and coarse cloths not exceed- ing I/, a yard, the county producing abundance of hemp and flax ; when the latter happens not to be good they thatch with it, and it lasts much longer than any other material." Coker sail-cloth was famed for its excellence, which was said to be due to some particular quality in its water. The Bridport manufac- turers, not to be outdone, changed the style of their town and labelled their goods as coming from 'Bridport, near Coker,'^' though the towns are about fifteen miles apart and have no con- nexion with each other. At one time the manufacture of sail-cloth seemed to be all-im- portant, and to be much more profitable than net-making ; but its importance has died down, while that of net-making has developed and increased. There are only a few sail-cloth mills still working. There are three very pessimistic accounts of the condition of the hemp industry between 1760 and 1770, but the two published in 1769, England displayed by a Society of Gentlemen and the Description of England and JFales, published by Newbury and Carman, echo each other word for word, and with regard to Bridport are prob- ably both based on the sixth edition of Defoe's Tour through Great Britain, which came out in 1 76 1, but in some cases described the state of affairs which existed in 1724. This would account for the fact that all three describe Bridport Harbour as choked with sand, which was true in 1724 ; and that they agree in say- ing ' there are scarce any remains ' of the once flourishing hemp industry. Defoe was much interested in the mackerel fishing when he came along the coast road from Abbotsbury in 1724, and whether he was tired or whether he was pushed for time when he reached Bridport it is impossible to say, but his description of it is meagre, uncomplimentary, and, as far as concerns its industry, contradictory to every contemporary writer. Probably the only in- formation supplied by the three pessimistic accounts is the fact that Bridport derived a certain amount of profit from its position on the great western road between London and Exeter. There may have been some temporary depression in the industry as it is peculiarly liable to such depression, but it is much more likely that all the descriptions are derived from a mistaken view of the condition of the trade in 1724. The rector of Wareham, Mr. Hutchins, col- lected his information at the same time as the * Society of Gentlemen.' Pococke says that '* Pococke, Travels through Engl. (1750), ii, 87. "' From local information. Hutchins had begun working at his county his- tory in 1750 when they met at Wareham, though it was not published until 1774. He alludes to 'the resort of travellers' as one of the 'supports' of the town, but says that 'the staple trade is large seines and nets used in the British fishery and other hemp manufacture ; ' "'' this is corroborated by the references to Bridport goods which occur in histories of Newfoundland. The next forty years mark the zenith of Bridport's connexion with Newfoundland as they mark the zenith of the fishing industry on which that connexion so largely depended. A description of the industry in 1802 is the first to mention the circle of dependent villages in which netting as a home industry kept pace with the increase of the demand for nets : — I'he manufacture at Bridport is at present varied, but perhaps flourishes more than in any former time and furnishes employment not only for the inhabi- tants of the town, but for those likewise of the neigh- bouring villages to the extent of ten miles in circum- ference. It consists of seines and nets of all sorts, lines, twines, and small cordage and sail-cloth. Upwards of 1,500 tons of hemp are worked up annually and nearly 1 0,000 hands are employed." Mr. Britton does not state how he arrived at this last number, and it seems curious in view of the fact that in 1 821, when a census was taken of the families engaged in handicrafts, there were only 10,811 in the whole of Dorset. A rough calculation of the families so engaged in the division and borough of Bridport and the various hundreds in which the industry flourished gives a total of 2,164 families, but this would include all the masons, smiths, carpenters, and cobblers. If these families were deducted the total would probably fall below 2,000, and it is highly improbable that a family would have averaged five persons capable of making up hemp. Allowance should also be made for the fact that according to the report on the census of 1821 the population of Dorset had increased from 119,100 in 1801 to 147,400 in 1821. However, the whole description was considered so good that it did duty for sixty years, and is reproduced verbatim as an accurate contemporary account in 1864. There are various other references to the industry throughout the nineteenth century, but its history is really a history of the reorganiza- tion of the trade under the new conditions in- volved by the use of machinery, and of its de- velopment under the spur of competition ; it can therefore best be gathered from a descrip- tion of this reorganization. The handicraft continued unchanged from early days until the introduction of machinery "Hutchins, Hisl. Dorset (1774), i, 233. ^' Brayley and Britton, Beauties of Engl, and Wales 801), iv, 519. (1801) 349 A HISTORY OF DORSET at the end of the eighteenth century. This view of the industry is not contradicted by the evi- dence afforded by the Bridport records. Prob- ably an account, pieced together from oral tradition, of the way the work was done to- wards the end of the eighteenth century would give a fairly accurate picture of the work at any given time in the preceding centuries. The only changes necessary would be in the costumes of the workers. Originally, the ropes were made of the hemp grown in the neighbourhood and sold in the Bridport market."' A rough division of labour was usually practised, the work was divided between the 'combers' and 'spinners,' names which still survive ; the spinners were assisted by ' turners,' boys or girls who turned the spinning-wheel ; these have been replaced by steam. The raw hemp was given out to the ' combers ' to be combed, and when thus prepared was spun into yarn by the ' spinners,' and finally was twisted into the required thickness of rope. This last operation seems to have taken place in the master spinner's rope-walk. Both the spin- ning and the twisting were carried on in the long gardens behind the workers' houses ; and the yarn, twine, and ropes were dried on hooks called ' waggles ' which were fixed in front of the houses. These processes have given to the town of Bridport its distinctive features — the two main streets are curiously broad, and the gardens lying behind the houses which front these streets are very long in proportion to their breadth. The custom of drying the twine, &c., on ' waggles ' in the main street was maintained until within the last thirty years. The rope, yarn, and raw hemp were all subject to inspection by an official appointed by the town council. The rope-walks and spinning-walks were all open, and old inhabitants say that they were very picturesque. Most of the rope-walks still in existence have been roofed over. Longfellow's description of rope-making is most vivid and ac- curate : — In that building, long and low. With the windows all arow, Like the port-holes of a hulk, Human spiders spin and spin. Backw.^rd down their thread so thin Dropping each a hempen bulk. At the end an open door, Squares of sunshine on the floor, Lights the long and dusty lane. And the whirring of the wheel Dull and drowsy makes me feel, All the spokes are in my brain. '^ Stevenson gives the following list of hemp- growing parishes in the county in 1812 : Bridport, Loders, Bradpole, Powerstock, Symondsbury, Chid- eock, Bothenhampton, West Milton, Walditch, Stoke Abbott, Beaminster, Netherbury, and Abbotsbury. ■^gric. of Dors. 287. There was one rope-walk of which the tale is still told that for some reason it was so dark that the spinners had to walk to and fro with lighted candles on their shoulders to enable them to see what they were doing. The story sug- gests Rembrandtesque effects of light and shade. Old workers living in Bridport report curious customs in connexion with the open rope-walks, which seem to point to some corporate organiza- tion of the details of the work. Trees grew in most of the walks, these were usually ' witheys,' i.e. willows, and they were all cut on Christmas Day. In autumn and winter, as the days drew in, the work was done by artificial light, but despite the natural differences of different walks with regard to the date when artificial light became necessary, the lanterns were all put up in the first week of October amid general re- joicings ; and they were all taken down on the last Friday in February. Besides the lantern festival in October the workers rejoiced in various other especial feast days. On Shrove Tuesday they received ' Pan- cake money,' which amounted in the case of ' Spinners ' to yi. a head, and in the case of 'Turners' to half as much. On Easter Tues- day all hands ceased to work at four o'clock, and some, at any rate, betook themselves either to cock-fighting or to jumping in sacks for Easter cakes. Whitsuntide they celebrated by eating treacle rolls. ^^ Among the Bridport documents is an inden- ture dated 20 June, 1683, by which the over- seers of the parish apprenticed 'a poor fatherless and motherless child,' John Baillie, to John Keich, spinner, who undertook to teach and instruct his apprentice ' in the craft and mistery and occupation of a spinner.' The apprentice- ship was to last until the boy was twenty-four years old, and on his discharge the apprentice was to be given two suits of apparel.'^ This system of binding out the 'parish ' chil- dren may, or may not, have worked well in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries ; it scarcely ever led to open revolt, as very few cases between apprentices and masters came before the quarter sessions for Dorset. There is a good deal of hearsay evidence as to what happened in the early nineteenth century. The children were bound by indentures to the age of twenty-one, and worked as their masters thought proper, sometimes working from 4 a.m. to 9 p.m. They did not earn wages until after they were twenty-one years of age, when they could work for whatever master they chose, and earned %d. a day. The employers of apprentices recei\ed money from the parish.'^ This account is perhaps biased, since the people who remember '" Local information. " Bridport Doc. K. i 3. " Local information ; my informant thought the facts only applied to women. 350 INDUSTRIES are the workers and not the masters, but the fact about the long hours is most probably true. Children, other than apprentices, employed as ' turners ' began to work at six, seven, or eight years of age, turning the spinning-wheel from 6 a.m. in the summer and 7 a.m. in the winter until 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. They received is. ()d. to 2s. per week.'' The making of twine, whether for immediate sale or for use in nets, followed the same lines as rope-making. The hemp was prepared by the 'combers' and then given over to the 'spinners.' Nets seem to have been made in the same way from time immemorial, and the description of a woman netting to-day would probably be equally true as a description of her ancestor working in King John's reign as far as the actual netting went, but the woman of to-day works far fewer hours and earns more in coin, if not in kind, than her ancestor did. Present Organization. — This is dependent partly on the goods made and partly on the materials used. To recapitulate, the goods that are made in Bridport are : — Rope : Of this a little is now made, but not of the heaviest kinds. Twine, thread, and small cordage of every de- scription : The speciality of the town is a particu- lar kind, which is known as Bridport laid twine. Nets of every variety made by machinery and by hand : Machine-made nets are chiefly used for drift nets for herring, sprat, mackerel, and pilchard. Among the various nets made by hand are : — seines — these are very long, but not very wide ; one side is loaded with lead, the other buoyed with corks ; some of them are as much as 1 90 fathoms long ; trawl nets — these are dragged along the bottom by fishing boats ; minnow nets and trouting nets. Besides fishing nets, all sorts of nets for games, sports, and practical purposes are made, for cricket, tennis, billiard-table pockets, forage, hammocks, hatch- ways, laundries, &c. Sail-cloth : Of this a small quantity is still made. The materials used are hemp, Manilla fibre, flax, and cotton. It is obvious that Bridport manufacturers can no longer depend on home productions to supply the raw material they need, and as a matter of fact, hemp is no longer grown in Dorset, but is imported from Russia and Italy. The Russian hemp is sometimes shipped direct to Bridport, at other times it is sent to an East-coast port by sea and then is transported by rail. The connexion between Russia and Bridport is so close and so firmly established that at Riga there is a special brand of hemp which is called the ' Bridport selection,' and this is said to be the best of all the Russian hemp. The Italian hemp is imported through London or Liverpool. " Loc.ll information. A small quantity of Manilla fibre is imported from the Philippines; this is the only fibre which is now spun by hand ; it is used for the trawl twine for which Bridport is so justly famous. Flax is imported from Russia, Belgium, Hol- land, and a little from Ireland, though Irish flax is generally kept for finer manufactures. A very small proportion is still produced locally. There was a flax market at Yeovil until within the last twenty years, and still from time to time a farmer grows a field or so of flax and sells his crop to Bridport manufacturers, though the knowledge of the proper way of ' retting,' i.e. soaking and pre- paring, the flax is becoming more and more rare. A feature of the last half century has been the introduction and increasing use of cotton in the industry. This is imported in the form of cotton yarn. It is made up into nets, lines and twines. The majority of machine-made nets are composed of cotton. The introduction of machinery marked the beginning of the reorganization of labour which was involved by the gradual substitution of mills and all that they imply for the old system of home-work. This process was very slow. The first step was taken when water-power was ap- plied to turn the spinning-wheels. Up to that time a boy or girl supplied the power required by the single wheel, and each man span alone, usually in his own premises. Water was in its turn superseded by steam ; sometimes water-power was not used at all, but the change was made directly from human power to steam-power ; in other cases the water-power was retained until late in the nineteenth century. The introduc- tion of water or steam necessarily implied that the spinning-wheels were brought together and driven by one force, usually at the head quarters of each manufacturer for which the individual men had worked. Despite the use of steam or water to turn the wheels the spinning was almost all done by hand ; this continued to be the case until within the last fifty years, although spinning- machinery was introduced between 1789 and i8oi. The 'combers' followed the 'spirmers' to the mill. This move was probably dictated by a desire to economize in space and to institute some method of supervision, for a good deal of the combing is still done by hand. Some of the hemp is ' balled or rolled ' before it is ' combed or heckled,' then it is roved and spun, and finally twisted into threads. Cotton yarn also under- goes this last process. All this is done in the mills. The men work by time and by piece. The wages are so influenced by the kind and quantity of the work done and by the individual skill and industry of the worker that it is almost impossible to give any figures about them which would not be called in question. The aristocrat among the workmen is the man who makes small cordage, as this branch of the industry 351 A HISTORY OF DORSET is highly specialized and successful results depend on the individual skill of the worker. The use of machinery has brought into the mills most of the home workers on rope, twine, thread, and sail-cloth, but in netting it has only affected certain kinds of work. At present there is no satisfactory machine for making nets with square meshes or making nets which decrease and increase in size, consequently there is a large field open to the home worker. Nets are fabrics in which the threads cross each other at right angles, leaving a comparatively wide open space between them. The threads are also knotted at the intersection. The open spaces in the net are called meshes." The machinery by which nets are made is very ingenious, but it is the same at Bridport as at Musselburgh or in the United States. The art of net-making by hand is also universal, and has been practised from the earliest times by the most savage as well as the most civilized nations, but its organization as a by - industry seems peculiar to this neighbourhood. Net-making is called 'braiding' in Dorset; it is chiefly carried on by women. There is a great deal of competition for the work, which can be done at home in the intervals of house- work. The twine is given out from the mill ; some mills have special net foremen. It is generally brought by the carriers to the various villages where the women live. Different arrangements are made by the different mills as to the payment of the carriage of the twine and the nets. At one time there existed a set of middlemen who carried the work to and fro, and many of these thoroughly understanding the business were able to render considerable services both to the manufacturers and the braiders. A few black sheep among the middlemen used their position to trade on the ignorance of the women ; but this has now been effectually stopped, and when a woman receives twine she receives also full particulars of the work required, the length and breadth which the net is to be made, and the rate of pay which will be given her. The work is paid either by the length of net made, or by the weight or length of the twine worked up, and varies in accordance with the size of the mesh. The ordinary measure of pay- ment is so much per ' ran,' a local standard of length. The industry is said to circulate a large sum of money annually in the cottage homes in the neighbourhood of Bridport. Braiding is in itself pleasant, healthy, and clean, and is a very popular form of work. It is very picturesque in the summer in those villages where the women work out of doors, securing their nets to a hook in the wall and talking busily as they braid. When the work is carried on ** Chambers, Encyclopedia. indoors in the general living-room of the family, the larger nets take up too much room to be very convenient, but they can be easily put aside and packed away into a very small space. Though braiding is only a branch of the hemp industry, it is itself very much subdivided and localized. The lines of division follow the mesh which the women net, and are in no way dependent on the firms which may chance to employ the women. Thus small-meshed netting is made in one district and large-meshed in another. There is not much change in the kind of mesh which any particular village makes. This is handed down from mother to daughter, and any innovation is regarded with disfavour. This rule is so universal that if a firm which usually supplies large - meshed nets chances to want small -meshed nets, or vice-versa, it is obliged to send to a village where the nets it may require are made, even if it has had no previous connexion with that village and has employed a totally different set of women. The successive generations of workers are trained from childhood. They are quite young when they begin to take their turn in helping their mothers to braid. The elder women com- plain that the present school regulations prevent the children from learning to work as well or as fast as the previous generation ; but then, even before school regulations were invented, the same complaint was made, though some other reason was given to explain the inferiority of the younger generation. The hemp industry is fixed in this neighbour- hood by the hand-made nets, as the produc- tion of these is dependent on home-workers. Machinery and factories might be trans- planted ; but one can scarcely conceive any- thing more immovable than the inhabitants of small Dorset villages, the houses of which seem to have become one with the hillsides on which they are built. And this impression is true despite the apparently contradictory fact that many of the workers have changed their homes annually, as their husbands, who are usually agricultural labourers, have seen fit to change their masters, for the custom of engaging men by the year is not far-reaching, and often it only involves a re-apportioning of houses and families on 6 April, when the change takes place. The establishment of a by-industry is often suggested as an adequate method of pre- venting the exodus from the country to the town, but people who are of the opinion that such a course of action is sure to succeed will do well to shut their eyes to the facts about the country districts of South and West Dorset, where braiding is carried on, as there the popula- tion is rapidly decreasing, and it would be hard to say that the by-industry had any counter effect. According to the census of 1 901, 597 men. 352 INDUSTRIES 733 women, and 33 children are employed in the hemp industry,'^ but this is probably an understatement. All Bridport is directly or in- directly dependent on the mills, except for the few people attracted there to supply the needs of the agricultural district round the town, while the women in the surrounding villages habitually or occasionally supplement their husband's or father's wages. The handicraft is also practised by the widows of agricultural labourers who wish to keep themselves and their children out of the workhouse, but their earnings are usually augmented by outdoor relief. In the town the workers earn their living at the mills, but in the country the earnings are only supplementary to agricultural wages, and though the netting in- dustry is of great value to the villages it has no pretension to being anything more than a by- industry. The goods which are made in Bridport and its neighbourhood are sent all over the world. Perhaps the most important are nets and fishing- tackle, but other twine and goods are also ex- ported, and numbers of government contracts are executed in the town. The industry neces- sarily fluctuates with the fishing seasons, and the workers are usually busier from January to June than from July to October. Bridport receives every kind of order, from government contracts to orders for twine from the old-fashioned fisher- men who make or mend their own fishing or rabbit nets. Some of the present houses of business have almost continuous records from 1813 to the present day, and before 1813 occasional records which carry the practical history of the industry far back into the eighteenth century. Briefly the his- tory of the nineteenth century seems to have been that when the manufacturers lost their monopoly in Newfoundland they opened up other markets all over the world, so that Bridport twine is used everywhere. When they were hard pushed bv machine-made nets they developed the industn' of hand-made nets, which already existed in the thirteenth century, and as competition has be- come more and more severe they have tended to develop each in an individual direction, so that while they all supply twine and nets of every description, each has a branch of the manufacture to which he devotes special atten- tion. The whole industry is flourishing and seems to owe its success to its old-fashioned methods which can be maintained, but scarcely initiated, in the twentieth century. FISHERIES The fisherman's craft has had a numerous following among Dorset men from a very early date,^ although the records of the industry have been somewhat overshadowed by the neighbouring fisheries of Devon and Cornwall, one branch at least of the ancient Dorset fishing, that of the pilchard, formerly caught in considerable quanti- ties off the coast, having actually passed almost exclusively to the last-named county.^ The returns^ belonging to the year 1340, known as Inquisitiones Nonarum, show that the Dorset fishing industry was of considerable im- portance. In Portland * the fisheries were worth /lO, 'in qua proficuum dicte ecclesie maxime consistit,' and the surveyor, forsaking for a moment his dry official fashion of setting down the returns, tells us further, ' also the said parish " Population Returns, Dors. 190 1, p. 8. ' We are told in Domesday Book that at Lyme, which belonged to the church of Salisbury, the fisheries tenants rendered 1 5/. to the monks in respect of their fish {ad pisces). An early grant of King Athel- stan to the monks of Abbotsbury of certain ' waters ' adjoining their monastery, seems to a Weymouth historian to suggest the ancient repute and abundance of the fishing there. Ellis, Hist. Weymouth, 5. ' Ibid. 242. ' For this and the five following paragraphs Mr. C. H. Vellacott is responsible. ' Inj. Non. 50■ Ibid. 30. »« Ibid. 44. " Claridge, Agric. of Dors. 18. '° Hutchins, Hist. Dors, i, 259. ^' Engl Displayed (1769), 63. '»'' Hutchins, Hilt. Dors, i, 538. ""= Ibid. 30,000 to 40,000 being caught at a draught near Abbotsbury, and sold at id. per loo.'"*^ In the summer of 1724, Defoe, travelling along the coast road from Abbotsbury to Brid- port, 'all the way on the sea shore,' saw 'ships fishing for mackerel, which,' he explains — they talte in the easiest way imaginable ! for they fix one end of the net to a pole set deep into the sand, then the net being in a boat, they row right out into the water some length, then turn and row parallel with the shore veering out the net all the while until they have let go all the net, except the line at the end and then the boat rows on shore, when the men haling the net to the shore at both ends bring to shore such fish, as they surrounded in the little way they rowed, this at that time proved to be an incredible number in so much that the men could hardly draw them on shore. ... In short such was the plenty of fish that year, that the mackerel the finest and largest I ever saw, were sold at the sea side a hundred for a penny. ^' A traveller of to-day would see practically the same sight if he chose a prosperous summer for his journey. The pole spoken of by Defoe is nowadays dispensed with, as there are generally enough loafers on the shore to hold one end of the rope attached to the seine while the net itself is being towed out to surround the fish ; an anchor is sometimes used, and when this is the case it is deeply rooted in the sand. The seine is paid out as the boat is rowed through the school of mackerel. Then both ends are hauled in ; the net is preceded by a glimmer of white- bait as these leap madly on land to avoid the voracious mackerel, who take no heed of the encircling net in their eager pursuit of food. The whitebait are left on the sand, and the mackerel are sold at a very low rate, though not at a 'hundred for a penny.' The mackerel approach the coasts in the spring ; some fishermen say that they are bent on finding suitable ground for spawning ; others that they are hunting for food, which is more abundant near the land. This second theory is more usually accepted as correct. In and just before the season men are stationed with telescopes on vantage ground all along the coast — for instance by the remnants of the old village cross at Swyre, on the cliff-head at Burton Bradstock. Their duty is to report the first ap- proach of the mackerel. This is shown by a darker patch on the sea, by curious ripples, and by the company of greedy birds. Usually the crew are waiting in a neighbouring public-house, or in a convenient cottage with a hogshead of cider. Report states that three hogsheads of cider have been consumed by men waiting for long-delay- ing fish. The payment for this makes a great hole in the money earned when the fish do come ; while as Dorset cider is a quarrelsome '"'' Stevenson, /igric. of Dors. 72. " Defoe, Tour through Great Brit. (1724), iii, 327 355 A HISTORY OF DORSET drink, its consumption leads to rough language and rougher behaviour. Sometimes when two crews crossed their seines in pursuit of the same school of fish they ' larrupped ' one another with their tongues while their friends on the beach assisted in the quarrel with pebbles ; '^ but such behaviour and drinking is exceptional, and not typical of the industry. When the fish are seen the look-out signals or shouts, and at once the men run down pell- mell to the beach, their heavy boots thundering and their coats flapping as they run. The nets are snatched up from the beach where they were drying ; the boats are hastily launched, and the school is pursued — often fruitlessly, often with moderate success, and occasionally with results similar to those described by Defoe. A man may wait night after night for a week or more and earn nothing, and then if he happens to stay at home one night it may chance that his partners earn ;^I or £1 each. The money earned is divided into shares, of which the boat has two, the seine two, and each of the crew one. The loafers who help to pull in the net are usually paid with a few of the inferior fish. All the mackerel-fishing by day and by night is carried on in the same way. The fish are inclosed in a seine the ends of which are attached to long ropes, and these are gradually drawn in until the seine is brought to the shore. The end of the rope left on shore is called the ' long arm,' and the end taken in the boat the 'ship arm,' and sometimes the ' short arm.' The best idea of the picture made by the fishermen and their nets can be obtained by imagining Raphael's cartoon of * The Miraculous Draught of Fishes ' with typical English fishermen clothed in sea- boots and jerseys instead of Italians in conven- tional draperies. At Abbotsbury a farmer, whose son now farms in his stead, had an especially long seine and a larger boat (pulling six oars instead of the usual four) ; with these he was able to make larger sweeps and to inclose larger hauls. As he had horses at his disposal he was in the habit of hitching one to the ' long arm,' so that the horse with one man could pull the net in, saving both labour and expense. His name and the name of his boat still live on the beach and among old fishermen, but his practice has not been followed. In Defoe's time a ' guard or watch was placed on the shore in several places,' and he found these to be officers appointed by the justices and magistrates of the towns about ' to prevent the country farmers buying the mackerel to dung their land with, which was thought to be dan- gerous as to infection.'' Similar abundance and " From local information. " Engl. Displayed (1769), 75. similar precautions are recorded in other histories and descriptions of Dorset. At the present time the fish is sent to London from Bridport by the Great Western Railway. 1906 was an especially good year, and a great deal of money was divided among the crews along the coast. Though the supply of mackerel is precarious, the fishermen derive a fairly steady income by catching herring, cod, whiting, rock salmon, grey mullet, red mullet, and occasional lobsters. These are usually hawked through the inland villages by fishwomen, each of whom has her own particular beat. Many of the men do odd jobs on shore, and nearly all possess or rent a potato ground, so that they are able in some measure to supple- ment their earnings from the fishery, while their wives, daughters, and younger sons make nets for the manufacturers at Bridport. The pilchard fishery at Lyme Regis was new in 1724.'^ It seems to have been fairly success- ful. In 1769 merchants of Lyme were reported to have ' engaged with good success in the pilchard fishery;''* they are represented as taking up the industry because the fishing in Newfoundland had become less profitable. Yet, as Defoe pointed out, the interest in the pilchard fishing has never been so considerable as it is farther west, * the pilchards seldom coming up so high eastward as Portland and not very often so high as Lyme.' This sound geographical reason still holds good, though the movements of the pil- chards vary from year to year, and a certain number of Dorset men are engaged in this fishery. The commercial relations between Dorset and Newfoundland, growing out of the early attrac- tion of West-countrymen to the North Ameri- can fishery, have been long and close, forming a chapter in the economic history of the county which no student of the subject can afford to ignore. According to the evidence of mer- chants, many of whom were Poole men, before a Parliamentary Committee in 1793, the New- foundland fishery was regarded as part of the fishing industry of Dorset ; '^ whilst the inti- macy of the commercial relations alluded to above is clearly shown by an order of the Star Chamber in 1633, whereby the mayor of Wey- mouth, in conjunction with his brethren of Southampton and other neighbouring seaports, was to ' take cognisance ' of all offences and " Defoe, Tour through Great Brit. (1724), i, 330. " Ibid. 242. " According to a letter quoted in the above evi- dence, written by Mr. Antonie Parkhurst, and pub- lished in Halduyt's Voyages, the Newfoundl.ind fishery was firmly established in 1574, a fleet of thirty ships sailing in that year to the colony, the number increas- ing rapidly, until fifty were dispatched in 1578 ; Pari. Rep. N etcfoundland Trade, 1793, p. 2. 356 INDUSTRIES ■crimes committed on the soil of Newfoundland, the vice-admiral in Dorset being similarly em- powered to proceed against offenders by sea.'' In 1649 Poole had eight ships engaged in the trade with Newfoundland.'* No small profit was reaped by those who took part in these expeditions in the reign of James I, the mer- chants of Lyme Regis, ' being engaged in trade to Newfoundland, acquired large fortunes and raised the town considerably.' This town, in common with Poole and Weymouth, suffered by the loss of this trade, temporarily caused by the war of the Spanish Succession. Weymouth seems to have recovered more quickly than the other two towns, for even before the Peace of Utrecht ' its trade began again to flourish, and the merchants fitted out 20 ships for Newfound- land in 1711.''^ At Poole, in 1724, Defoe found that 'a good number of ships were fitted out every year to the Newfoundland fishing in which the Poole men were said to have been particularly successful for many years past.'^" In 1732 Weymouth and tons Melcombe Regis had as many as ' 80 sail of ships and barks engaged in the Newfoundland industry.' ^^ This number was probably excep- tional, and refers to a record year rather than to the average number of vessels sent out. The editors of the sixth edition of Defoe's Tour through Great Britain rival Defoe himself in the clearness with which they describe this industry, and their account is corroborated by every writer in the eighteenth century. The principal branch of the foreign commerce of Poole's inhabitants is the Newfoundland fishery, to which they send every spring in time of peace upwards of seventy sail of vessels from the burden of 100 to 150 tons, laden with provisions, nets, cordage, sailcloth, and all sorts of wearing apparel, with variety of other commodities for the consumption of the inhabitants and their servants. The smaller vessels fish on the banks, and make two or three trips every season. Their returns are in cod, oil, skins, and furs, and in autumn they export their fish to Spain, Italy, and Portugal. This is a trade not more profitable to those concerned than beneficial in general to the kingdom, as it subsists a prodigious number of hands, occasions a great export of our commodities and manufactures, and breeds excellent seamen ... In time of war they have hitherto suffered extremely, and as this is so exceedingly detrimental to a trade which is so apparently serviceable to the Royal Navy it deserves notice." This description is as true of Dorset as a whole as it is of Poole in particular, though the industry seems to have had an especial attrac- '' Reeves, Hist. 'Newfoundland, 9. '' Hutchins, Hist. Poole, 39. '' Cox, Magna Brit. 549. *° Defoe, Tour through Great Brit. (1724), 319. *' Coker, Sarc. of Dors. (1732), 35. *' Defoe, Tour through Great Brit. (1761), 319. tion for the adventurous and reckless sailors of that town. Throughout the eighteenth century the trade with Newfoundland was the most important commercial venture in the county, and Dorset seems to have been the largest adventurer in this trade. In the ' Report of the Committee appointed to enquire into the state of Trade in Newfound- land in 1793' an analysis is given of the number of ships sent to Newfoundland between 1769 and 1792 by the various towns engaged in the industry. In this analysis Poole and Dartmouth are shown to have sent more ships than any of the other towns. In the years 1774, 1787, and 1788 Poole sent fewer ships than Dartmouth, though the total tonnage sent by each town was almost the same. In the remaining years Poole sent more ships or ships of greater tonnage than Dartmouth, e.g. in 1 791 Dartmouth sent eighty-three ships whose total tonnage was 7,254 tons, while Poole sent seventy-eight ships whose total tonnage was 9,528 These ships were usually built in the towns in which their owners lived, and shipbuilding was a considerable business in Poole " and Lyme Regis,^' Poole being famed for ' Leith smacks ' and revenue cutters, while Bridport received most of the orders for cordage, sails, and nets for Newfoundland-bound ships at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries.^' The history of the industry is bound up with the history of Newfoundland, and this consists, as Chief Justice Reeves pointed out,^' in the history of the quarrel between the adventurers and planters. There are numerous descriptions of the origin and growth of these two classes, and one of the best seems to be that given by Mr. George Garland to the Select Com- mittee on Newfoundland Trade on 19 June, 1817 :— When the trade was first established the merchants and their immediate servants were the only classes of persons engaged in it. The merchant residing in England made his outfit in the spring of the year, both as it represented the number of servants he engaged and the quantity of provisions and tackle he provided on a scale proportioned to the extent to which he intended to carry on the fishery. The fish was wholly caught, cured, and exported by his own servants, and a very small establishment (if any) was left in the island through the winter. In process of time, however, a third class of persons sprang up con- sisting of servants and sailors who had chosen to " Rep. Select Com. Newfoundland Trade (1793), 4. *' Pococke, Travels, i, 87. See Introduction. " Handbook of Travel round the Southern Coast of Engl. (1849), 301. " Harvey, Hist, of N ewfoundland, 37. " Reeves, Hist, of the Govt, of the Island of New- foundland (1793), 21. 357 A HISTORY OF DORSET remain in the island after the period of their servitude had elapsed, and of their descendants born in New- foundland. These persons, denominated planters, procured supplies of all the necessaries of life and implements for the fishery from the merchants, engag- ing to pay for the same in fish and oil.*' The quarrel between these two classes arose from their different views as to the government of Newfoundland, and was complicated by trade disputes. The merchants or adventurers wished to treat Newfoundland as a ' great ship moored to England ' ; and pointed out how an industry organized on the original lines was an excellent preparatory school for the Royal Navy, how two or more 'green men' (i.e. men who had not pre- viously sailed to Newfoundland) were trained on every ship, and how the industry fulfilled every condition required by the patriotism and political economy of the eighteenth century, besides incidentally being very profitable to themselves. Every requisite of life and labour was sent from England, and was paid for by fish, &c., or by foreign gold from the Mediterranean. The planters clamoured for peace, justice, and security in the long winter months when the riff- raff on the island did what was right in its own eyes, and the respectable people were powerless, since the fishing admirals were in England and the governors, usually naval officers, were in winter quarters. The adventurers thought good government too expensive a luxury, and were bitterly jealous of any rights acquired by the planters, and of any steps which tended to make colonization of the island normal. Their commercial instinct was right ; the planters were necessarily their most dangerous rivals. Though long delayed by the strenuous opposi- tion of the men of Dorset and Devonshire, a Supreme Court of Justice was established in Newfoundland in 1793, and the first resident governor was appointed in 18 16.'" After England became mistress of the sea the fish-markets of the world were in her hands. But with the end of the French war the Dorset industry flagged. The merchants who petitioned for relief in 1817 explained that most of their fish had been sold in Spain and on the coasts of the Mediterranean, at the close of the war the price of fish had fallen, and both France and the United States paid considerable bounties on the fish caught, which still further lowered the price.'" Despite the merchants' appeal to the precedent of the help given by Mr. Pitt, the government decided to ignore their petition, and England was to a large extent driven from the industry. But the stimulus given by the bounties of France and the United States was not sufficient to keep the fishing out " Rep. Select Com. ^Newfoundland Trade (1 8 1 7), 4, " Harvey, H'ut. of Newfoundland, 49. Ref. Select Com. N eufoundland Trade (1817), 39- 40. of the hands of the planters, whose advantageous position placed them beyond the reach of arti- ficial competition, so that what England lost, her colony gained. The connexion with Dorset is still maintained, and the fish, no longer caught by Dorset men, are still in many cases captured in Dorset nets. There are two oyster fisheries on the Dorset coast; one known as the Fleet Oyster Fishery at Wyke Regis, the operations of the company being almost exclusively concerned with the fattening of ovsters in the waters of the Fleet, quantities of French oysters being laid down for this purpose. '' The fame of Poole oysters, now chiefly culled by the Poole Oyster Fishery Company, Ham- side, Poole,'- was already established by the seventeenth century, when an order was issued by the corporation that the shells, formerly thrown into the sea after the oysters were opened for pickling, should be piled up on the strand.'* So extensive was the bank thus formed that at the present time many warehouses on the har- bour are built upon a foundation of oyster shells.'* In 1720 Poole oysters were 'of great esteem in all places where they could be had,' " whilst Defoe's testimony is to the effect that — this place is famous for the best and biggest oysters in all this part of England which the people of Poole pretend to be famous for pickling, and they are bar- relled up here and sent not only to London, but to the West Indies and to Spain and Italy and to other parts." Poole oysters, moreover, were reputed to contain the largest pearls found in English waters." In 1802 forty sloops and boats were engaged in the oyster industry,'** bringing in an income of from ;^6,ooo to j^7,ooo per annum. '^ According to a long-standing regulation in this fishery the last day's catch was thrown into the channels in the harbour, where the oysters were left to fatten during the winter.^" Owing to the want of proper regulation of the fishery the beds became gradually exhausted,*' although in 1849 Poole oysters were still maintaining their good name.*^ It was not until 1885 that authority was given to the corporation to oversee the fishery, 200 acres being granted in 1887 to a local company in Wareham Channel,*^ the beds once more becoming productive.^'' The cor- " Local Govt. Bd. Ref. 1896, p. 62. " Kelly, Dir. 1903, p. 320. " Hutchins, Hist. Poole, 41. " Kelly, Dir. 1903, p. 140. " Cox, Magna Brit. 557. ' Defoe, Tour through Great Brit, i, 318. " Ibid. '* Hutchins, Hist. Poole, 81. " Brayley and Britton, Beauties of Engl, and Wales, iv, 413. '■"' Ibid. «■ Kelly, Dir. 1903, p. 140. " Handbook Travel Southern Counties, 296. " Kelly, Dir. 1903, p. 140. «* Ibid. 358 INDUSTRIES poration now possess jurisdiction over the greater part of Poole Harbour, save in certain portions of the Wareham Channel, held by the Poole Oyster Fishery Company, and the fishery known as South Deep, which is apparently common ground. The corporation employ a water-bailifF, whose duty it is to control the fishing, especially with regard to infringements of the rule forbidding the taking of oysters under the prescribed dimen- sions. Licences to dredge are issued yearly at fixed sums. In 1 893-4 only seven such licences were applied for, fees and tolls in that year amounting to _|^5 15J., the oysters taken amount- ing to 8,346. In 1894-5 the numbers were 33,702. There are no storage pits in connexion with the company's fishery, the oysters being promptly disposed of in the best and most acces- sible markets. The best grounds for dredging are considered to be near Saltern's Pier, Brown- sea Quay, and Stone Island.^' The operations of the company are largely those of laying down oysters in Wareham Channel brought from East River, Caen Bay, and the Solent, a ' Several ' Oyster and Mussel Order having been obtained from the Board of Trade. There are a few private storage pits at Poole for the growing, fattening, and storage of oysters laid down in spring for the following autumn.^' Oysters are hand - dredged at Wyke from October to March.'' Other shell fisheries"" on the coast are for cockles, which are picked all the year round at Poole, where periwinkles are also gathered from September to April. Swanage has pots for crabs and lobsters from April to October, and for prawns from January to April. The latest re- ports from this station, however, are to the effect that * crabs were scarcer, and are apparently be- coming more so each year.' ''' Crabs, lobsters, and prawns are caught at Chapman's Pool by pots and set nets ; crabs and lobsters at War- barrow in pots all the year ; crabs and lobsters at Lulworth all the year, prawns from September to the end of the year ; crabs, lobsters, and prawns at Weymouth are taken by pots from April to September, escallops being dredged from December to March.'' At Portland the crab and lobster fishing season is from February to October ; at Portland Bill, all the year. Fishing at this station, it may be mentioned in passing, is said to be on the decline, owing, it is thought, to the presence of octopi, and the carrying on of gun practice in the vicinity.™ Burton has a fishery for crabs and lobsters in pots from April to August, Lyme Regis from May to July, and from April to September, whilst prawns are caught all the year round." The quantity and value of fish landed at each fishing station in Dorset in 1905 is as fol- lows : — ''' Quantity Value Wet Fish Wet Fiah Stations w -0 c 2 ■^ « •:: a. ■^ S ■Z 0. to aM S S" ^■S s j« a S--S 1. «•§ 2.-^ i. K-g 3 n=^« K n a'^^ _r '^ "u '^ «r u ^ C ther th; Herring and ther thi Herring and 0 B. 0 0. h South Coast Cwt. Cwt. £ £ £ Poole .... 855 6,956 1,526 1,504 3,464 Swanage . . 8 55 8 19 440 Chapman's Pool . — — — — 224 Warbarrow . . •9 32 24 30 216 Lulworth . . S 4 5 3 331 Weymouth . . 499 207 424 198 «,39o Portland . . . 290 947 3^9 5+1 1,211 Portland Bill . . 30 24 — 228 Wyke .... 144 1,475 144 685 844 Abbotsbury . . 10 2,9°3 4 962 966 Burton — 829 — 296 302 Lyme Regis . 122 639, 63 166 548 The latest reports to hand regarding the Dorset fishery may fitly bring this article to a close : — In the case of most of the fishing stations the industry is a 'declining' one. 'Unsettled weather ' also has had an unfavourable influence upon the fishing, whilst the withdrawal of the herring from these waters continues ; in the case of Lyme Bay, for instance, herrings ' did not seem to enter in any large shoals.' Very few herrings were caught at Poole with drift nets." The modern Dorset fisherman, according to Mr. Aflalo, displays an apathy in fishery matters which can only be attributed to the paucity of fish in these waters, as well perhaps as to the paramount agricultural interest and the desire to cultivate the summer visitor.'* " Loca/ Got't. Bd. Rep. 1896, p. 63. ^ Ibid. " Ibid. "* For information contained in this paragraph and the following table the author is indebted to Mr. Martyr, of the Bd. of Fisheries and Agric. '^ ^nn. Rep. Sea Fisheries, 1905, p. 60. '' Ibid. 59. '» Ibid. 60. " Ibid. " Ibid. " Jnn Rep. Sea Fisheries, 1905, pp. 59-60. " Aflalo, Sea Fisiing Industry, 266-7. 359 A HISTORY OF DORSET CLOTH Dorset of the downs, commercially concerned with agricultural pursuits, and with the manipu- lation of its abundant earth products, its hemp and flax, presents, with regard to its cloth trade, none of those features of industrial romance which characterized the history of the craft in other counties. Easy access, moreover (even in times when the problem of the highways pressed heavily upon the mediaeval commercial traveller), to the neighbouring great clothing centres of Wilts., Devon., and Somerset, rendered the Dorset housewife and husbandman independent of the local loom.^ The wool of Dorset took but a secondary place in the kindred values of the same commodity in other parts of the kingdom, the price in 1343 being only 8 marks, one of the lowest rates, as pointed out elsewhere in this volume,^ in the kingdom.' Twenty years later, Melcombe Regis, which possessed a cocket of wools prior to the reign of Edward I, was made a staple town, a privilege which was taken away by Henry VI, who bestowed it upon Poole.* The price of Dorset wool in the reign of this king was 66s. 8d. per sack.* The early woollen industry of the county is nearly always mentioned in connexion with the kindred industries of Somerset and Wiltshire, as for example in the reign of Richard II, when the clothworkers of the west of England seem to have incurred legislative censure, forasmuch As divers plain cloths that be wrought in the counties of Somerset, Dorset, Bristol and Gloucester be tacked and folded together and set to sale, of which cloths a great part be broken, hroused and not agreeing in the colour neither be according to Breadth nor to no manner to the part of the same cloths shewed outwards, but be falsely wrought with divers wools to the great deceit, loss and damage of the people, in so much that the merchants that buy the same cloths and carry them out of the realm to sell to strangers be many times in danger to be slain, and sometimes imprisoned and put to fine and ransom by the same Estrangers, and their said cloths burnt or forfeit, because of the great deceit and falsehood that is found in the same cloths when they be untacked and opened to the great slander of ' Dorset spinners, it would appear, were employed by the clothiers of other counties, those of Cerne Abbas being thus engaged in 1750 for the Devonshire clothiers. Pococke, Travels through Engl, ii, 143. ' See ' Soc. and Econ. Hist.' for details of the state of the trade in the fourteenth century. ' Rot. Pari. (Rec. Com.), ii, 138^. 'Ibid, i, 317^; ii, 28817, 30413. Edward III appointed Gilbert de Portesham and William the Marshal collectors and receivers of the customs of wool at Melcombe ; Walter de Frampton and lohn Baker being similarly appointed 35 Edw. Ill; Ellis, Hist. IVeymouth. ' Rogers, jigrk. and Prices in Engl, iii, 704. The wool-tax was assessed on Dorset in the reign of Edw. Ill as follows : 480 sacks, 21 stone, 4f lb. the Realm [of England]. It is ordained and assented that no plain cloth tacked nor folded shall be set to sale within the said counties but they be opened upon pain to forfeit them so that the buyers may use them and know them as it is used in the county of Essex.' There were further regulations with regard to the sealing of cloth by the workers, weavers, and fullers, permission being given to buyers to fold or tack their cloth as they chose to ensure easy carriage. The necessity for the statute was obvious when the penalties incurred by merchants abroad were so severe, and the frauds practised by the Dorset men among others so outrageous. The statute shows clearly that cloth was made in this county and exported even in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when the greater part of English trade consisted in raw wool, and not in manufactured goods. The cloth-making towns of Dorset have been Sherborne, Dorchester, Lyme Regis, Wareham, Shaftesbury, Beaminster, Bere, Sturminster, and Gillingham.' Dorchester ' formerly gained much by cloth- ing ' ; * but the industry was almost entirely destroyed by the disturbances caused by the Civil War, and by a great fire.' The material first made here was broadcloth, the manufacture of serges being afterwards substituted for it. The fame of the former fabric, however, still lingered in the town in 1720, when Defoe visited it.^" The fifteenth century saw the rise of Sher- borne to importance as a cloth-making town. Leland considered it ' the best town ' in his time for the woollen manufacture in the county.^^ Both he and Camden attributed its exceptional prosperity to this trade." The cloth made in Sherborne was of the same character as that pro- duced in the other towns in Dorset, namely the fine Spanish medley or mixed cloths, which Defoe explains to be such as are usually worn in England by the better sort of people and also exported in great quantities to Holland, Hamburg, Sweden, Denmark, Spain and Italy. describes the organization of the He also industry : These towns are interspersed with a very great number of villages .... hamlets and scattered houses in which, generally speaking, all this manufacture is per- formed by the poor people ; the Master clothiers who generally live in the greater towns sending out the wool weekly to their houses, by their servants and horses, and at the same time bringing back the yarn that they have spun and finished, which then is fitted for the loom. ' Stat. 13 Ric. II, cap. II. ' Defoe, Tour through Great Brit, i, 334. ' Coker, Surv. of Dors. 69. ' Hutchins, Hist. Dors, i, 373. " Defoe, op. cit. " Leland, Itin. ii, 47. " Camden, Brit, i, 173. 360 INDUSTRIES The spinning was usually done by women and children, while the men tended the sheep or tilled the land. The 'especially good turf of the county fed an ' incredible number ' of sheep, as writer after writer reiterates, and the wool produced was ' fine to an extreme,' '' and much coveted by clothiers,'* being in esteem for broadcloths. '° The industry was first attracted to this district by 'the infinite numbers of sheep,' but owing to the agricultural changes, and to the extent of the manufacture, wool had to be ob- tained from all parts of England and occasionally from Ireland, though no reliance could be placed on the supply from the latter source. Wool imported from Spain was, as its name ' Spanish medley ' implied, mixed with the British wool to make the broadcloth. In 1725 the industry was flourishing and in- creasing; and though a check was given to the trade by the war on the continent from 1742-8, by the Seven Years' War, 1756-63, and by the energy of the French, who had succeeded in capturing the trade in the East,'' the ' making and vending fine serge and felling sheep, of which they have great quantities,' " continued to be sources by which the county was much en- riched. The making of serge seems to have been independent of the neighbouring counties, and to have stayed longer in the county. Although it could be described as not very considerable in 1 751,'' and although the 'fine serge ' had become ' linsey woolsey at about 14^. a yard' in 1754,'' it was still flourishing in 1761,''^ and until late in the eighteenth century. This apparent contradiction usually holds good of any Dorset industry. The whole industrial population is inconsiderable, and the number of men and women engaged in any one industry would scarcely be enough to run a big Lancashire factory, but the industries are in a healthy and sound condition, and are far more important than mere numbers would seem to warrant. The most graphic and detailed account of the woollen industry, as it was carried on in North Dorset in 1725, is that given by Defoe,"" and though he has been called the greatest conceiv- able liar, his facts about Dorset are corroborated by all the standard historians, and his descriptions can be vouched for by eye-witnesses in cases where the custom has come down to the present day. The only exception to this is his account of Bridport, as before mentioned. " Defoe, Tour through Great Brit. (1725), 42. '* Description Engl, and Wales (1769), zll. " Tour through IVestem Counties (1807), 16. " Tour through Great Brit. (6th ed. 1761). " Cox, Magna Brit. 554. " Postlethwayt, Diet, of Trade (175 i). '" Pococke, Travels (1754), ii, 146. '" Tour through Great Brit. (6th ed. 1761). "Ibid. (1725). The whole plain, embracing Somerset, Wilt- shire, North Dorset, and Gloucestershire, was at that time busied in weaving wool. One of the effects of the diminution of the demand for woollen goods was that the industry gradually contracted in its area, and was no longer carried on in this county. Dorset sheep in the middle of the eighteenth century were still famed as some of the largest and finest brought ' to Smithfield Market both for flesh and wool,' and 'surprising quantities of wool ' ^1 were still produced, but the wool was carried into Somerset and Devonshire,^^ and less and less was woven in Dorset. In 1769 Sher- borne had altogether given up competing in the weaving of medley cloths,^' but the rest of the county had a ' considerable manufacture ^* of woollen goods, though it is stated to be less than it had been in preceding years." From this date onwards this industry is usually mentioned as one of the vanished glories of Dorset, though cloth is given as one of the products of the county in 1780.2' In 1678 wool kerseys" were one of the chief commodities of this shire."* Dorset cloth in 1689 was priced at 6s. per yard.^' A Dorset woollen manufacture which flourished in the eighteenth century at Shaftesbury and Sturminster was that of swanskin, a coarse white cloth largely utilized for soldiers' clothing, and for that of the Newfoundland fishermen. Stur- minster had 1,200 persons engaged in the industry in 1793, the output from the town being from 4,000 to 5,000 pieces of 35 yds. each per annum.'" The cost of the material was from IS. 6d. to 2s. per yard.'' In 181 2 Stourton Caundle had a manufactory of swanskin made from lambswool.'^ By 1823 the trade of Stur- minster in this commodity, so long specially associated with the town, was ' annihilated.* '' " Description of Engl, and Wales {lyGq), 248. " Postlethwayt, Diet, of Trade (i 75 1). ^ Engl. Displayed {\-j6ci), 65. " Like other western and southern cloth-making centres Sherborne owed the decadence of its woollen manufacture to the development of the trade in the north ; Hutchins, Hist. Dors, ii, 366. "•Engl. Displayed {i-j6()), 65. " ^ Brief Description of Engl, and Wales (i 780). " Kersey, a coarse, narrow, woollen cloth ; Dillon, Fairholt's Costume in Engl, ii, 264. Of this fabric Professor Rogers writes : — ' It was early naturalized in England, and widely manufactured, especially in the west of England ' ; Agric. and Prices in Engl, v, 576. " England'' s Remarques (1678), 40. " Rogers, Agric. and Prices in Engl, v, 573. "Claridge, Agric. of Dors. 39. Macpherson in his Annals of Commerce, iv, App. 4, alludes to the existence at Sturminster in 1805 of 'a manufactory of baize called swanskin.' " Claridge, Agric. of Dors. 39, " Stevenson, Agric. of Dors. 450. "Pigot, Z)/>. (1823), 276. 361 46 A HISTORY OF DORSET In 1793 the textile industry of the county was chiefly concerned with the manufacture of sail-cloth, centering in the town of Beaminster, where Messrs. Cox & Co. alone employed 600 persons, 2,000 people being employed in the locality altogether.'^ The firm had another establishment at Bridport, where 1,800 persons were employed, out of a total of 7,000 engaged in the industry in the town and neighbourhood.^ Women and children earned 8;^. a day, spinning 4 lb. at 2d. per lb., children being paid at the rate of 2d. to 3^/. a day for turning a wheel.'* Sail-cloth was made in pieces of 40 yds., selling at from 1 5^. to I -jd. per yard." Sacks for grain or flour were made at 37;. per dozen, capable of containing 4 bushels or 9 gallons.'* Young girls were largely employed in the manufacture at Loders in 1 8 1 2,'' the woollen manufacture at this date being spoken of as ' almost confined to Sturminster and Lyme Regis,' *" the latter manu- facturing broadcloth and flannels, whilst Stur- minster had four or five clothiers and 300 weavers, chiefly engaged in the production of swanskin, the amount, however, showing a marked decline in the trade.*' Beaminster was producing wool-cloth, Cerne Abbas had a small manufactory of dowlas,*" Fifehead Neville of swanskin, Gillingham of bed-ticking, Oborne of cloth, Silton of ticking and dowlas, Stickland had two serge weavers, Stoke Abbott made sail- cloth, sacking, and narrow cloth.*' In 1823 Gillingham had five manufactories of tick and dowlas ; ** at Lyme Regis, Stanton, England & Glyde were employing more than 200 persons in the manufacture of broad and narrow woollen cloth.*' In 1830 plain and striped cottons were being made at Poole and Abbotsbury ; ** at Beaminster the Birt was propelling three mills for spinning linen yarn for the sail-cloth manu- facture.*' Linsey woolsey was being produced at Shaftesbury.** Some linen was being manu- factured at Sherborne in 1826.*' The main part of the industry had always been situated on the borders of the county, and it is not wonderful that in a time of depression and contraction of trade, it should have been drawn to the larger centres in Devonshire, Somerset, and Wiltshire. It never returned to Dorset, because with the revival and expansion of the trade came the introduction of machinery, and then the bulk of the woollen industry migrated northwards. There seems to have been no dis- tress caused in Dorset by the decay of its clothiers, perhaps because this was gradual, and because several short-lived industries sprang up, while long-standing manufactures such as brew- ing, sail-cloth making, and lace-making received a fresh impetus. SILK The silk industry of Dorset, which has always been chiefly concerned with the throwing rather than with the manufacture of the raw material,' cannot claim a lengthy record. It is chiefly carried on at Sherborne, where the settlement of silk throwsters dates, according to Hutchins, from 1740, when, he states ' they erected mills on Sir Thomas Lombe's plan.' ^ Sir Thomas Lombe introduced into England from Savoy a machine for working organzine, for which he obtained a patent in 1718, and a reward of ^^14,000 in 1732. Stalbridge and Cerne Abbas were also engaged in the industry in the eighteenth century,' 150 women and children findingemploy- ment in spinning silk at the former town in 1 793-* At both places the work consisted chiefly in twisting and making up the raw silk into skeins.' At this date no woven fabrics were actually produced in London. The spun silk which was ^' Claridge, j^^c. of Don. 37. 'Mbid. 38. '"Ibid. ^' Ibid. 39. '» Ibid. '' Stevenson, ^gric. of Don. 447. " Ibid. 448. *' Ibid. " Dowlas, coarse linen cloth ; Dillon, Fairholt's Costume in Engl, ii, 150. " Stevenson, .^grk. of Don. 450. "Pigot,Z)/>. (1823), 268. to form the warp and weft ot such fabrics was prepared in silk-mills, all in country districts.' In 1823 all manufactures, except that of silk, had ceased in Sherborne. John Gouger and Thomas Willmott were then engaged in silk throwing in the town.' From the evidence of tlie last-named manufacturer, given before the Select Committee on the silk trade in 1831, interesting details may be gathered relative to the conduct of the industry at that date. Mr. Willmott was then the sole manufacturer of silk in Sherborne, his mills being three in number, one erected in 1751, and the others in 1 8 13, the power in all three cases being water,* whilst the silk thrown at the mills, on commission, was Italian tram and organzine.' The number " Ibid. 269. "Ibid. 274. " Paterson, RoaJs, 454. ' Green, Rural Industries of Engl. 73. ' Hutchins, Hist. Dors, ii, 366. ' Stevenson, A^ic. of Dors. 448. * Claridge, jigric. of Dors. 39. ' Stevenson, Agric. of Dors. 448. ° Dodd, Days at the Factories, 4. 'Pigot, /)/>.(! 82 3), 274. « Pari. Rep. Silk Trade (183 1), 278. ' Ibid. 282. «Ibid. (1830), 273. '' Ibid. 293. 36: INDUSTRIES of women and children employed had been 800 in 1793,'" but had declined by 1826 to 600, working 8,000 spindles, ^^ whilst by 1 83 1, 150 persons, using only 3,000 spindles, were employed.'^ The workers were divided into mill-hands, whose average wages were 4$. bd. per week,'' and winders, whose industry was a cottage one, carried on in many instances in conjunction with agricultural pursuits.'* In 1829 2s. 7,d. per lb. had been paid for winding fine silks, the payment in 1 83 1 averaging is. per lb.'' The decline in prices was to be attributed, according to the witness, to the introduction of foreign thrown silk, and the severe competition with foreign manufacturers.'* According to the latest census returns, 116 women and 19 men are employed in the silk industry." Silk 'throwing' is still a principal feature of the craft, but silk weaving is now undertaken at Sherborne, where many new looms have been set up by Messrs. J. & R. VVillmott. Further improvements are contemplated, but the industry is handicapped by the sudden changes of fashion and by the variations in the yield of silk crops, these difficulties naturally pressing more heavily on a small than on a large industry. POTTERY AND TILES Dorset is abundantly provided with the raw material for the manufacture of bricks, tiles, and pottery, clay of various qualities being yielded by the different geological formations of the county, more especially by the upper formation of plastic potter's and pipe-clay and sand known as the ' Poole Trough.' ' From the earliest date, the industry has centred around Poole, Wareham, Norden, and Corfe.^ It is not known when the clays of Dorset were first worked ; ' many roughly-made vessels having been found near Wareham, evidently constructed, according to experts, from this raw material, and used for the ashes of the dead before the Roman occupation of Britain. These funeral urns alone have survived the passage of time, no trace remaining of the earthenware vessels which must have been in daily domestic use. The Roman discovery and manipulation of the Dorset clays will be discussed elsewhere in the sec- tion of this volume dealing with the antiquities of the county ; after the Roman withdrawal from their area, the clays continued to be worked, with more or less regularity, according to the stress of economic conditions or the fluctuating demand for earthenware vessels.* '" Claridge, Jgr'ic. of Dors. 40. " Pari. Rep. Silk Trade, 278. " Ibid. " Ibid. 280. '« Ibid. 280. " Ibid. 279. " Ibid. 279. " Pop. Ret. 1 90 1, p. 56. ' Kelly, Dir. (1903), I. De Luc, on his geologi- cal travels through Dorset in 1826, noted 'a yellowish clay, mixed with sand, commonly called loam, and used for bricks,' and ' a pure bluish clay, of which pottery and tiles are made.' Geol. Travels, ii, 29. ' Woodward, Geol. Engl, and Wales, 271. De Luc notes in his geological travels the 'very deep excava- tions at Corfe whence is taken white clay for pipes and earthenware.' De Luc, Geol. Travels, ii, 193. The character of ' pure potter's clay ' is ' soft, white, and unctuous.' Mem. Geol. Surv. 1898, p. 191. ' ' The white and mottled clays of the Bagshot series have been worked for centuries.' Ibid. * From local information. In early days the port of export for the clay was Wareham,^ and around the traffic a long- standing quarrel grew up between this town and Poole, which is still unsettled, though an Order in Council of 1666 directed that 'no dues were to be paid on tobacco pipe-clay.' ° The real commercial importance of the industry seems to date from the eighteenth century, when the clay however, was noted primarily as raw material for export, rather than as forming the nucleus of a local manufacture.' Poole clay, so termed from being shipped at Poole in Dorset, is chiefly raised in the neighbourhood of Wareham, and is extensively employed in the British Potteries ; it is an ex- ample of a tolerably pure clay (that is, one con- taining a large proportion of silicate of alumina, with free silica, but without injurious ingredients) which has been accumulated far from any de- composing crystalline rocks such as granites, por- phyries, and the like. It is known also in the potteries as ' blue clay.' Its geological position is in that portion of the Tertiary or Cainozoic beds which occur above the chalk of Dorset. ' White Pipe clay ' occurs in the Bagshot sands, and is worked round Poole Harbour and in the district further west.^ In the same geological series occurs a bed 20 feet or more in thickness of white or red mottled pipe clay extensively dug for the manufacture of earthenware, and used in the local potteries or shipped from Poole Harbour.' Besides these special clays there are various local brick earths which are found in the Bag- shot, Oxford, Reading and Wealdcn series. ' The pipe-clay of Wareham was ' esteemed the best in England.' Engl. Disfilayed {\j6ci), 69. See also Postlethwayt, Diet. 0/ Trade. ^ Hutchins, Hist. Poole, 38. 'In 1823 the export from Wareham annually was 10,000 tons to London, Hull, and Liverpool. Pigot, Dir. 277. ' Woodward, Geol. Engl, and Wales, 2 7 1 ; Mem. Geol. Surv. 1899, p. 139. ' Ibid. 363 A HISTORY OF DORSET Brick-making is the less important of the two industries connected with clay in Dorset, but it is simpler to consider it first. The rapid increase in building, especially in the sea-coast towns and in Dorset's near neighbour Bourne- mouth, has led to a considerable demand for bricks. These are made in various places from the different clays. In the district round Wey- mouth almost all the bricks are made of Oxford clay,^" while the mottled clays of the Wealden beds are used near Swanage, and in the area round Dorchester the best bricks are made at Broadmayne, where a bed of clean loam ten or twelve feet thick occurs in the Reading series." This is used for the ' Broadmayne speckled bricks,' which are employed for building in Wey- mouth and Dorchester.^^ In 1728 the clay was worth 30^. a ton at London, this value increased to 50J., but by 1 796 it had fallen to 14J or 1 51. a ton.'^ Hutchins' history gives a detailed account of the extent and importance of the other branches of the clay industry in his time : — Nearly 10,000 tons are annually exported to London, Hull, Liverpool, and Glasgow, etc., but the most considerable part to Liverpool for the supply of the Staffordshire potteries, and to Selby for the use of the Leeds potteries. The principal pits are on the Norden and Wital farms, the former belonging to Wm. Moreton Pitt and the latter to John Calcraft, Esq., and the clay taken from the same is in great repute with the Staffordshire and Yorkshire potteries, from its peculiar excellence, and being the principal ingredient in the ware commonly called Staffordshire ware so universally in use in this kingdom as well as in many other parts of Europe." From this time forward the export of clay has always been considerable. In 1831 it had extended to 34,290 tons, and in 1 85 1 it reached 69,286 tons according to the clearances at the Poole '"Mem. Geo!. Surv. 1899, p. 237. "Ibid. 1898, p. 46. " Geo!. Dorchester {Mem. Geo!. Surz:), 1899, p. 46. The speckled effect is due to the presence of minute nodules of manganese oxide. The method of making Broadmayne bricks is as follows : ' The work begins by the heading of the clay or taking off of the top soil. The clay is dug mostly in the winter months, and cast back loosely or wheeled back into a heap to soak for the coming season of brick-making which begins about March or the beginning of April. The clay is worked (tempered) in a pugmill turned by a horse or donkey, or trodden by men's naked feet. The new-made bricks are wheeled to the drj-ing ground on long barrows and placed in rows (hacks), and when dry enough sent to the kiln. It takes two or three days to bum the bricks, and about as long to cool them.' Barnes, Glossary of tl:e Dors. Dialect, 5 I . " Hutchins, Hist, oj Dors. (1796), i, 172. '• Poole clay, according to Jewitt, was sent to Selby for the Leeds potteries in 1796. Ceramic Jrt, z6c). It was also used in the body of Swansea ware. Ibid. 570. custom house ; of this amount about 52,268 tons were employed in the manufacture of the finer kinds of earthenware, chiefly in the Staffordshire potteries, and 16,018 tons for ordinary stone ware, tobacco pipes, alum making, etc." In 1878 the amount exported from Poole was 73,130 tons, while the total quantity of pottery and other clays produced in Dorset during that year amounted to 79,205 tons of the estimated value of ^19,800.'^ At the present time (1907) Messrs. Doulton & Co. alone raise over 1 8,000 tons of clay per annum from their Dorset pits (though this of course forms only a portion of the supplies necessary for the production of their wares at Lambeth). In the raising and export of this clay they employ on an average fifty men per day.^' Besides this London firm, there are Dorset firms which export raw clay, as well as those which have factories in the county. The clay is now used in almost every part of the world for the manufacture of fine earthen- ware goods,^* e.g. it is used for all kinds of stone- ware pottery, for bottles, jars, chemical appara- tus, sanitary fittings, electrical insulators, and drain pipes." It is also employed in Dorset in the manufacture of tiles and every kind of archi- tectural potter)'. Both Brown Island and Brownsea Island, situated in Poole Harbour, contain clay similar to that found on the mainland ; and both have been the seat of experimental manufactories. Just before 1750, a certain Mr. Brock began making tiles on Brown Island."" This attempt to estab- lish the industry was unsuccessful, as was an attempt about 100 years later to make pottery on Brownsea Island,^^ some specimens of this last are preserved in the Geological Museum in Jermyn Street. The Architectural Pottery Company was established at Poole in 1854 by Messrs. Thomas Sanders Ball, John Ridgeway, Thomas Richard Sanders, & Frederick George Sanders. In 1857 ^■'' Ridgeway retired, and in 1861 Mr. Ball, the firm then continuing as Messrs. T. R. & F. G. Sanders. The output com- prised patent coloured and glazed bricks and mouldings ; semi-perforated and pressed, patent mosaic, tesselated, encaustic, vitreous, and other varieties of glazed wall tiles, embossed and perforated tiles, quarries, and fire-clay goods. " Catalogue of Specimens, Museum Practical Geology. " Hunt, Mineral Statistics (1878), 139. ''" From information kindly supplied by Messrs. Doulton & Co. " From local information. Pipe-clay for local use is obtained in the Dorchester area from Trigon Farm, Sandford (where the beds are 10 ft. thick), and Station Heath. Geo!. Dorchester {Mem. Geol. Surv. 1899), 57. " From information kindly supplied by Messrs. Doulton & Co. *" Pococke, Travels (1754), 87. " Catalogue of Specimens, Museum Practical Geology. 364 INDUSTRIES The clays used in this pottery were the Purbeck, Cornish china, and Wareham clays ; for the plain quarries, clay from the Canford estate was largely utilized.^* The Bourne Valley Pottery, owned by Messrs. Sharp, Jones, & Co., produces glazed stoneware sewage and sanitary pipes, terra-cotta vases, figures, chimney-tops, and garden edgings, &c.2^ The Kinson Pottery, Limited, was established at Kinson, near Poole, in the middle of the last century, with twelve kilns, a boiler, engine- house, drying-sheds, stables, and offices. Closed for a few years, it was acquired by the present company in 1867, and since this date they have manufactured stoneware drain pipes, also various goods in terra-cotta. Twenty-seven acres of clay of three different qualities are at the disposal of the potter at this site, some of the beds being 40 ft. in thickness.^* In i8i2 there were two potteries at Bea- minster producing a coarse ware, which was also manufactured at Cranborne.°° It is hard to discover when tiles were first made in Dorset in modern times ; probably the Romans made them, but after that the mists descend, and the glimpses that can be caught of the industry are vague and unsubstantial. How- ever, between 1770 and 1780, the oldest firm in Dorset took over its present business from its predecessors. This business was even then a ' going concern.' ^' At the present time tile-making is one of the special features of the clay industry in Dorset. These tiles are used all over the world in shops, restaurants, and bathrooms, in stations, hotels, ocean-liners, and government offices. To ensure perfect tiles, attention has necessarily to be paid to the nature of the clay employed and to the processes of manufacture. The clay pits now worked are situated round Wareham, near Corfe Castle, near Poole, near Corfe Mullen, and near Hamworthy. The clay is not used by itself, but is mixed with various other ingredients. It is to a certain extent coloured naturally by oxide of iron ; this gives to the clay, when burnt, tints varying from light bufF to deep red, chocolate, or even black. Clay has a peculiar property which has to be reckoned with in making tiles ; unlike most bodies it shrinks when exposed to heat owing to the loss of moisture, so that a 6-in. tile must measure say 6^ in. before being burnt. Some clays shrink less than others because, among other reasons, they contain a larger proportion of silicate. These points must be noticed in choosing the raw material, or the colour, shape and size of the tile will be uncertain. " Jewitt, Ceramic Art, 236. ^ Ibid. 238. '^ Ibid. 239. ^' Stevenson, Agric. of Dors. 450. '* From information kindly supplied by Messrs. Pyke Eros., Wareham, and others. When the material is chosen, the process of manufacture is most interesting. The clay has first to be changed into a meal-like dust suitable for the tile-maker, and for this different clays, or it may be different ingredients, such as ground flint or china stone with clay, are carefully blended, as experience may suggest, and are then « slipped,' , i.e. placed with water in a machine called a * blunger,' where the mixture is tormented until the solution is thoroughly diffused. It is then passed through a set of sieves of extreme fineness and finally forced through a filter-press of cloths to expel the moisture, which drips from the press into a tank, leaving the solid matter between the cloths. This water is driven back into the blunger, only to go through the round with a fresh mixture. There are also other ways of drying the 'slips' as the mixture is called. When dry the solid matter is ground, and, after a final sifting, becomes dust ready for the tile press. This machine is, in its essentials, a steel box of the shape and size inside of the required tile, and a very powerful screw-press applied by means of a large fly-wheel, worked by hand, as steam- presses are often unsatisfactory. The box is filled with the fine dust slightly damped, and pressure is applied ; after this a compact tile with a firm smooth face is taken out of the press. Of course the dust is not of the same clay, nor of the same ingredients for all tiles. The tiles described are those in which blended clays have been turned into dust, which may also be coloured by a stain. For these tiles the upper die or stamp must have a true, firm face, but if an embossed tile be required the upper die has the pattern in reverse like a seal. The tiles are dried at a temperature of about 80 degrees for some days after being made, and are then placed in open fire-clay boxes called ' seggars ' or often ' saggers.' These, when placed in the kilns, practically close one another. The ' seggars ' are stacked in the kilns to be ' fired,' a process which takes about a week, after which they emerge hard and fit for use as unglazed or biscuit tiles. Buff, red, and salmon tiles are produced by blending naturally colouring clays according to the proportion of iron they contain ; grey, chocolate, and black tiles by using ironstone and manganese as a stain. White tiles cannot be obtained by burning a simple clay, but this has to be mixed with white ball clay which is found in Dorset and Devon, ground flint and china clay, felspar and stone. The whole mixture has to pass through the * slipping ' pro- cess. The ' slip ' is coloured blue with cobalt and green with chromium. Encaustic tiles which have on them patterns of floral or other designs in two or more colours are much more com- plicated to manufacture. They were formerly made of plastic clay, the pattern being stamped on the partially hardened clay, and then filled up with clay of a different colour, after which 365 A HISTORY OF DORSET the whole was generally glazed. This was the monastic method which came in with the Gothic architecture about the end of the twelfth cen- turj'. Until quite recently a somewhat similar method was in use, and indeed some encaustics are still made of the plastic clay. More com- monly, however, the dust process is used and the pattern is produced not by a stamp, but by variously-coloured dusts laid on the body of the tile by means of flat plates of metal having the pattern cut in them. A glazed tile is made in the same way as an unglazed tile up to the biscuit stage, but then it has to be ' dipped ' (i.e. partly immersed in liquid glaze which covers the face and a slight portion of the thickness) and again burnt in a difiFerent kiln, generally at a lower temperature. The ' dipper ' must be very careful, both of the tile and of himself; of the tile, for anything getting into the glaze on the tile would be fixed by the firing ; and of himself because no portion of the glaze must be allowed to enter the mouth by any carelessness in cleansing the hands or otherwise. Lead or borax, Cornwall stone and flint, various oxides for colouring, all enter into the composition of different glazes. The most useful, but also the most dangerous ingredient, is the lead, but so many precautions are now taken both in the handling and preparation of this mineral that the danger of lead-poisoning is reduced to a minimum. Many experiments have been made with leadless glaze, but as far as experience yet goes the results are hardly satis- factory. The tiles, when dipped, are exposed to a less heat than in the biscuit kilns, in order to melt the glaze only, the watery portion of which has been absorbed in the porous biscuit tile. Generally this takes place in a muffle-kiln, in which the process resembles baking in an oven, the tiles being exposed neither to the flames nor to the gases produced by the fires. Glazing requires great knowledge and skill in the mixing of the glazes and in the degree of heat for the firing, the surface of the tile being very liable to ' eraze ' or make little cracks from the unequal expansion of the glaze and the body of the tile. If more than one colour is required the glazes are applied with a brush, and this is termed decorating. Sometimes the pattern is obtained in another way. It is printed in colours either by lithography or copper-plate process, and these colours are fixed by firing. The glazed and unglazed ' tesserae ' for mosaic patterns are made in the same way as the glazed and unglazed tiles, and are then carefully gummed face downwards on paper which has the pattern marked on it and are finally laid in a prepared bed of cement. Besides tiles and tesserae, hand-painted panels and faience pilasters, fitted for the decoration of shops, tube stations, and house fronts, are prepared in Dorset. They are especially suitable for out-door use as the glaze on their surface renders them impervious to frost and to the action of all but extremely powerful acids.*' Tiles and faience are at one extremity of the handicraft in Dorset ; at the other are the pitchers and bread-pans of partly porous, partly glazed, red and yellow clay which are carted round the country by their makers, or exposed for sale in small local shops. Their weight and the ease with which they break are obvious disadvantages, but their old-fashioned shapes appeal to some people as much as their cheapness does to others. The greater number of them come from Gillingham, where, according to the county gazetteer, every second man is a potter. BREWING In the Middle Ages brewing was a general and necessary industry, and hardly a manor or township court roll but contains some reference to it. Entries in enrolments of proceedings in the courts of Melcombe Regis, 1396-8, contain frequent notices of transgressors, both men and women, repeatedly fined for brewing contrary to the assize, for selling ale in cups [in ciphis), or in vessels without seal {signo), or for tapping [tappare), without due supervision. In 1397 John Shudde, who, it may be mentioned in passing, appears from these records to have been the incorrigible rogue of the community, was presented for breaking the arrest of a cask of ale which had been arrested by the under-bailifR ; for they had tasted it {tastavere), supposing (rightly) that the said ale was bad, not good and sound for the body of man.' " Information kindly supplied by Messrs. Carter & Co., Poole. ' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. v, App. 576. At the Law Court of ' Hokke ' Term, holden 15 May, 1397, Edith Ketys with five others was amerced in the sum of 3^/. for breaking the assize, also for using cups and other false measures.' In 1456 the ale-tasters presented that Geoffrey Sammyse had brewed twice and Alianor Houpere once, and sold ale against the assize. He was amerced 2d. and she id.^ At a Law Court held 15 April, 1583, at Weymouth, it was ordered that the beer and all brewers and sellers within this liberty shall sell their drink under the range at jd. the gallon, and being stale at ^d., and to use just measures upon pain for every that make default to forfeit 21. 6d.* On I May, 1627, Avice Locke, widow, offended ' against the form of the Statute ' by ' Ibid. 577. ' Ibid. 578 Mbid. 586. 366 INDUSTRIES selling smaller beer (mlnorem cervisiam) than at the rate of one ale-quart {unum le alequarte) for li.' The brewing industry was of early import- ance at Lyme Regis, where the abbot of Sher- borne claimed the assize of beer in 1280.° In 35 Henry VIII Isabella Stansby and another, common brewers, were presented for brewing ale ' not mighty of the corn,' that is, too thin and unwholesome, and also for selling the same in unlawful measures, and were fined bd. In 1572 brewers were ordered to brew with fuel, not with hard or faggot wood, on pain of 51. In 1578 six common brewers only, including re- tailers of ale and beer, were licensed in the town, besides the brewer ' who doth and shall keep the Beer House.' ' None were to sell beer in 1582 except in hooped pots, jugs and cups being expressly forbidden.* Municipal regulations were many with regard to the conduct of the industry. Tipplers or retailers were forbidden to sell to any craftsman or servant except in company with a stranger.' In 1 61 2 none were to tipple more than one hour in one house. By a decree dating from 1599 beer was forbidden to be sold during Divine service. Mr. Hooker of Lyme at a later date was fined 2J. td. for brewing on a fast-day.^" The alewife here, as elsewhere in mediaeval times, an important member of the community, gave frequent trouble to the authorities, who, at Weymouth, in the reign of Charles I, forbade brewing to be carried on by women ; they were, instead, to buy of the common brewers at the following rates : — Weymouth Lyme The better sort under the range ... 3./. . . . 31?'. Middle id. ... id. Small \d. . . . Id.'' At Lyme in 1653 *^^ Widow Brooks was dismissed from brewing and selling ale ' for divers disorders.' ^^ Bodily punishment was fre- quently inflicted on offending alewives, as in the case of Mary Somers, who was whipped at Lyme in 1653 for selling ale without a licence.'^ It is desirable ^* to note here the earliest indi- cations of the change of taste by which the old English ale {cervisia) was gradually supplanted by beer in the strict sense, that is, the hopped liquor. It is probable from notices of a con- siderable import trade in hops which we find elsewhere," that beer was brewed in Dorset ' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. v, App. 586. ' Roberts, Hist, of Lyme Regis, 1 1 . ' Ibid. 453. Mbid. 454. 'Ibid. 453. "Ibid. 254. " Roberts, Soc. Hist. Southern Counties, 456. " Ibid. 454. " Ibid. '* For this paragraph Mr. C. H. Vellacott is responsible. " V.C.H. Suss, ii, 261. before the middle of the fifteenth century, but however this may be, it is certain that by the reign of Edward IV regular supplies of hops were arriving in the port of Poole from the Nether- lands. In the sixth year of his reign, '^ the Mary Knyght, of ' Tergose ' in Zeeland, master Adryan Cornelis, brought in 6 ' pokis ' of hoppes valued at ;^i, which paid is. in subsidy and 2,d. in customs duty. On the 16 September, a ' scowte ' called the Katherine '' of Bergen op Zoom {Barowe), William Van Aeon, master, entered with 2 sacks of hops on board worth 30J. The alien master paid on these is. 6d. subsidy and ^.^d. customs duty. In the following year the same vessel brought in again 2 sacks of hops as well as a great quantity of Flemish tiles. This time appar- ently the hops were valued at loj. 10^., and the 2 ' pokes ' of hops brought in by the James,^^ another Dutch 'scowte,' of ' Tergoos,' on 24 February, 1468, were entered at loj. only. But such fluctuations in price will be understood by any person conversant with the history of the hop market. The export trade in ale from Poole to the Channel Islands was very considerable in the fifteenth century, and early in the reign " of Henry VII we hear not only of ordinary ale, but of an export of no less than 22 casks {dolia) of 'byre' worth ;{^22. Malt also had long before this been exported from Dorset, since, on 30 September, 1467, the Mary, of Poole, took out, amongst a miscellaneous cargo, 12 quarters of malt valued at 45. the quarter. As regards the Irish trade,'" it may be well worth notice that a Youghal vessel which entered Poole late in the reign of Henry VII with fish, as well as mantles and 98 yds. of frieze, took back a store of food stuffs, bacon, corn, and oat- meal, and also canvas and malt. Malt mills were forbidden to be built within the town or manor of Sherborne in mediaeval times, ' whereby the corn mills,' the property of the bishop, ' should be hindered.'^' The thriving export trade in beer which Poole carried on with the Channel Islands during the reigns of Elizabeth and James I involved the brewers in litigation with the corporation, who levied an impost of 41. per brewlock of 3 tuns, or id. per kilderkin, on all beer thus exported. ^- The brewing industry was turned to account for the employment of — Idle persons committed to the House of Correction at Sherborne in 1623, vifhen it vi'as ordered that they should be set to the grinding of malt, which was to be '• K.R. Cust. Accts. bdle. 119, No. 8 (6 Edw. IV). " Ibid. " Ibid. No. 9 (7-8 Edw. IV). " Ibid. bdle. 120, No. 3 (3-4 Hen. VII). »» Ibid. No. 10 (19-20 Hen. VII). " Wildman, Hist. Sherborne, 54. See ' Soc. and Econ. Hist.' »' Roberts, Soc. Hist. Southern Counties, 455. 367 A HISTORY OF DORSET supplied by all alehouse-keepers brewing in their own houses, the master of the House of Correction being authorised to take not above id. for a bushel ground in the said House." In 1630 'there were great fears ot a scarcity' in the malt supply ; it was therefore ordered that no person in the county of Dorset should presume to convert any grain into malt, except farmers on their own land, until the licence should be renewed.** Strong beer was to be sold at this date at 1 2s. the hogshead, the small beer being priced at gs. the hogshead.'' At the General Sessions at Blandfordin 1639, every innkeeper selling one quart of best beer and two of ordinary beer for more than id. was fined j^l, a similar fine being inflicted on unlicensed innkeepers."^ In 1650 complaints were lodged by the brewers of Weymouth against the importation of ' foreign beer,' that is, beer brewed out of the borough, the said beer being bought by the innkeepers to the prejudice of the brewers. A tax of i2d. was levied on every hogshead, * to go to the poor.' *' Welsh coal was being largely employed in drying the malt made in Dorset in 1793, when the demand for that commodity in the county reached a total of from 10,000 to 12,000 bushels, 10 to 14 bushels going to a hogshead of 63 gallons of strong beer.-* Cerne Abbas had a good trade in malting and brewing in 1823.^' Dorchester ale has been enthusiastically praised for two centuries^'* by county historian, novelist, and poet. It is still well-known in the south and west of England, though its export to London is no longer so important as formerly. The industry has suffered various vicissitudes, but is at present in a flourishing condition and is rapidly increasing. References in the Minute Books of the corporation of Dorchester show that the brewers were very busy in the seventeenth century. The traffic of their wagons was so great and the pavement of the town so damaged by the ' brewers' cart-wheels by reason of their iron bonds' that on 13 June, 1631, they were for- bidden to ' carry any beer abroad in the town with iron bonds.' But it was not until early in " Somen, and Dors. N. and Q. i, 212. " Roberts, Soc. Hist. Southern Counties, 456. " Ibid. 457. " Ibid. 178. " Ibid. 458. *' Claridge, Jgric. of Dors. 19, 20. " Pigot, Dir. 1823, p. 266. "^ It is of interest to note that as early as 1 3 40 the 'consuetudo cervisie ' at Fordington was esti- mated at 20/., so that even then a considerable quantity of ale was brewed in the neighbourhood of Dor- chester. Inq. Non. 49^. the eighteenth century '" that their beer became famous, then as Mr. Cox explained, since by the French wars [The war of the Spanish Succession] the coming of French wine is prohibited, the people here [i.e. Dorchester] have learned to brew the finest malt liquors in the kingdom, so delicately clean and well tasted that the best judges not only prefer it to the ales most in vogue as Hull, Derby Burton &c., because 'tis not so heady, but look upon it to be little inferior to common wine, and better than the sophisticated which is usually sold." Here the ale is praised because it was not heady, but this quality became one of its especial char- acteristics less than a hundred years later. In 1754 Pococke found Cerne Abbas was 'more famous for beer than in any other place in this county.' '' This town, together with Shaftesbury, Blandford, and Dorchester, traded in malt ; and the ' incomparable ' '' beer of Dorchester, great ' quantities of which are sold in London,' ^ is mentioned again and again by the eighteenth- century writers. Hutchins agrees with Cox in giving the French War as the reason for the extension of malting and brewing, and further states that the towns- people sent ' great quantities of excellent beer to London and to foreign parts, but since 1725 this trade is decayed.' '' However, beer still continued one of the best-known products of Dorchester ; in 1788 it was described as having ' ever been esteemed excellent and sent to various parts of the world.' " In the early nineteenth century the beer and ale were as highly praised as in the eighteenth, but their characteristics seem to have somewhat altered. In 1802 the strong beer of Dorset was ' famous,' the ale was ' also particularly celebrated and in some respects unequalled.' '^ Some blight seems to fall later upon the industry, and less is heard about the Dorset ale. The only explanation suggested is the excessive cost of transit ; the ale and beer being usually conveyed in wagons, as there were no navigable rivers and no canals near Dorchester. The largest brewery now existing was estab- lished early in the nineteenth century and is famous for the excellence of its water for brewing *' William Gawler praises the beer of Dorchester in the following terms in 1743 : — ' What town such British nectar can produce ? 'Boston and Nottingham in vain compare, * Whilst foreign kings delight in Dorset Beer ! ' Somers. and Dors. N. and Q. x, 87. " Cox, Magna Brit. 1 720, p. 67. " Pococke, Travels (1754). " Engl. Displayed (1769), 67. " Description of Engl, and Wales (1769), 229. ^' Hutchins, Hist of Dors, ii, 338. '« Shaw, ^our to the West of Engl. (1788), 469. " Britton, Beauties of Engl, and Wales (1802), 324. 368 INDUSTRIES purposes. This water has been obtained by sinking an artesian well through some 600 ft. of solid chalk to the lower greensand. Most of the barley for the malt is grown and purchased in the neighbourhood, which is a great advantage to the farmers attending the Dorchester markets. The Dorchester beer is brewed as follows : — The barley is taken to one of the various making- houses and is there malted, screened, cleaned, and bushelled ; after that at the brewery the malt is crushed and conveyed to a twin grist hopper by a Jacob's ladder. When required for mashing, the ground malt and water is passed through a Steel's masher, whereby the malt is saturated at a mixing heat of 150 deg. or there- abouts according to the lightness or heaviness of the beer required to be brewed. The general proportions are about one and a half to two barrels of water to a quarter of malt, finishing with a little more water of a higher temperature. From the Steel's mashing machine the mixture, in its saturated condition, falls into the mash tun, when the revolving rakes are set going until the 'goods' rise to the proper heats, the object of the operator being to prevent coagulation or setting of the ' goods ' ; hence the rakes are kept going until the goods are seen to touch the line of saccharification. The operation lasts from five to six hours, and about two hours after the mashing process is completed the draining of the wort from the goods (or grain) takes place. The draining is accomplished, slowly at first, by several cocks placed in the bottom of the mash tun, and the wort is carried to the coppers through main pipes constructed of copper and lined with tin. The object of boiling the wort is not only to break it up, but to eliminate a large quantity of albumen, which from its changeable nature is best out of the beer. It is at this stage that the hops are added, which not only give flavour to the beer but impart to it a keeping quality. It is then cooled in open coolers and refrigerators ; after this follows fermentation. The skimming system as prac- tised in London and elsewhere is the method of fermentation which has been in use since the Dorchester brewery was founded. Finally the liquor is conveyed to slate racking or settling tanks, from which it is racked into the casks. '* According to the census of 1901, 293 malt- sters and brewers carry on their trade in Dorset, and besides these there is a large staff of clerks, travellers, and managers who are employed by the different brewers. Tiiere are various other breweries in the county besides that at Dorches- ter, one being at Bridport ; Dorset ale indeed seems to have regained the proud position it occupied in the eighteenth century, whilst Dor- chester is still famous for ' health and beer.' ^' CIDER There is no doubt that even in the Middle Ages cider was made in Dorset as in Sussex, to meet local requirements, but unfortunately specific notices are hard to come by. However, as early as 1291 cider [cisera) is referred to in an enrolled account of the abbey of Shaftesbury.' In the Inquisitlones Nonarum of 1340 the tithes of cider are probably included under the stereo- typed form ' other small tithes,' and only excep- tionally, as in the case of the parish of Bea- minster,^ is cider mentioned by name. By the reign of Edward IV we also hear of cider being brought into Poole from abroad. A vessel (batalla) named the Mavye of ' Reyle,' Wrenche Herbert master, brought in amongst its cargo I pipe of 'sidre,' valued at 35. 4