Full text of "The Victoria history of the county of Dorset;"

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

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

100

100
100

lOI

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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^.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 </.); the church of Winterborne Clenston to Winterbome Nicholas in 1436,
the issues being insufficient to maintain two priests (ibid, ii, fol. 42 d.) ; the rectory of Chaldon Boys to
Chaldon Herring in 1446, the issues of Chaldon Boys being insufficient to sustain a rector and the church
consequently remaining vacant (ibid. Ayscough, fol. 57) ; the union of the vicarage of Spettisbury to the
rector}' at the request of the rector, Robert Wade, the revenues being insufficient to maintain a vicar,
Oct. 1439 (ibid. fol. 69 </.); the church of Puncknowle to that of Bexington in 1431 (ibid. Beauchamp, ii,
fol. 1 1). The chaplain of the chantry in the church of Whitchurch was in 1454 licensed to accept a cure on
account of the decay in the issues of the chantry (ibid. fol. 43) the churches of Ringstead and Osmington
were united in 1488 (ibid. Langton, fol. 29 a'.); the church of Wraxall was on account of its poverty united
to the church of Chilfrome in 1503 (ibid. BIyth, fol. 11); the churches of Durweston and Knighton were by
the request of the patron, Robert de Fitzhaye, united in 1 38 1 (ibid. Erghum, fol. 44 </.).

'" Wilkins, Concil. iii, 30, 50, 135.

'" Sarum Epis. Reg. Hallam, fol. 52. The clerg)' were denounced by the people for their supposed
greed and rapacity, but it should be remembered that they shared the gener.il agricultural distress, and
were ground down by the increasing demands of the papal curia and the abuse of papal provision and
reservation.

"° In 1409, John Yo%%t\\, prefositus of Oriel College, Oxford, Richard Stabull, vicar of St. Peter in the
East, Oxford, John Luke, bachelor of theology, were licensed to preach throughout the city and diocese of
Salisbury ; the following year the bishop granted a similar licence to Walter Bexhampton of Bridport, chaplain;
Ibid. pt. ii (Inst.), fol. 4, 5, 46.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

The general distress and discontent of the period did much to foster that
form of religious activity which marks the later fourteenth and earlier
fifteenth centuries. But with signs of a loosened hold on the part of the
Church on other rural districts, so far as this county is concerned there is little
evidence of any active sympathy with the movement identified with the name
of John Wycliff. Prevalent as was LoUardy in other parts of the diocese, at
Devizes, Reading, and along the valley of the Thames, it never seems to have
taken strong hold of Dorset, and the instances recorded are very few and
unimportant. The first that occurs is that of William Ramsbury, whose trial
in June, 1389, was presided over by Robert Regenhill, archdeacon of Dorset ;
having been found guilty of heretical views and opinions respecting the sacra-
ments, and confessed that he had openly affirmed and published the same in
different parts of the diocese, Blandford, Sturminster, &c., as well as in secret,
he was condemned to make public recantation of his errors in the cathedral of
Salisbury."^ The fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, so prolific else-
where in religious persecution, only produce two further examples in Dorset.
On 6 May, 1414, the official of the dean of Salisbury certified the bishop that
in obedience to his commission he had cited Thomas Turle, vicar of the pre-
bendal church of Bere, to appear before the bishop on the iith inst., in
the church of Potterne, to answer the charge of holding heretical opinions
requiring correction. ^*^ The register of Bishop Blyth in i 5 1 6, amidst various
trials for heretical opinion in Wiltshire and Berkshire, records the
abjuration of one Michael Gamare, of the parish of Wimborne St. Giles who,
' being easely and lightly suspecte of heresye to you myne ordinarye by the
depositions and sayings of certayn witnesses deposying agenst me,' first that
he had said

it is a lewde thyng and a madde condition or use occupyed in this contree or paryshe that
women will come and sette their candles afore a tree, the image of Saynt Gylys, and that it
were as good and as myche remedy . . . and they myght as well sette their candles in their
pewys setys or upon a chymney and as grete devocion the oon as the other ... for the very
saynte is in hevyn or where it pleasith God and the image of Saynt Gylys is but a stocke or
a stone and if the saide image fell doune it wold breke their hedes

confessed the above saying to be ' blassemose sclanderose and heresie and he
does forsake and abjure ye same.' "'

The suppression of alien houses in England by decree of the Parliament
of Leicester in 141 4 brings again to our notice those alien dependencies whose
erection here was the feature of the monastic revival in the twelfth century.
Their career and the presence of foreign beneficed clergy in Dorset deserves a
passing notice. With the loss of Normandy in the succeeding century the
prospects of these foreign settlements darkened considerably, and John's action
in seizing their possessions among the estates of Norman landowners in
England in retaliation for his loss of the duchy "* was but an earnest of their
fate during the greater part of the remainder of their existence. In truth the
position of these alien communities was but a thankless one ; placed on
the basis of the native clergy and expected to contribute towards royal
subsidies and national expenses in times of peace ; '*^ in war time they were

»> 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.

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.

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 </.

"" Fuller, CAii/ri Hist, iii, 332.

A HISTORY OF DORSET

caused by the unwieldiness of a community whose numbers taxed even its
resources, and demanded powers of organization and government not always
at command.

The absence of visitation reports in the century preceding the Dissolution
makes one hesitate to pronounce with any certainty as to the condition of the
monasteries in the latter part of their career, but, in spite of the fact that the
number of their inmates had undoubtedly fallen, signs are not wanting of
renewed vitality and a restoration of discipline and order. The chantries that
continued to be founded in their conventual churches testify to the hold they
still maintained on the affections of many. As the social and religious ideals
of a succeeding age slowly emerged we find schools established in connexion
with them, whose value even those engineering the changes of the sixteenth
century were forced to recognize.""^ The Valor Eccksiasticus with its record
of organized almsgiving and round of fixed anniversaries exhibits the monks
still faithful to the memory and charitable bequests of their founders and
benefactors.

It is interesting to note the shadow of coming events in the appointment
of superiors on the eve of the Dissolution. Many appear to have been expressly
chosen with a view to their compliance with court schemes, and all were care-
fully imbued with the idea that liberal treatment would attend due submission.
The example of Bindon, the only house in Dorset coming under the earlier Act
for the suppression of monasteries under the yearly value of jTaoo,^"' doubtless
encouraged a delusion that certain houses might be spared for a consideration.
Sir Thomas Arundel wrote to Cromwell on i8 December, 1538 that in spite
of representations the abbess of Shaftesbury refused to follow the ' moo '
(majority) and yield her abbey, and that she and the abbot of Cerne were pre-
pared to offer 'His Majesty' 500 marks and 'your lordship' ^100 to obtain
the continuation of their houses.^"* It was useless, the stroke that in less than
a month should deprive Dorset of her sole remaining links with an historic
past, the outward and visible signs of ancient glory departed, fell the March
following (1539) ; Milton, which surrendered on the iith of that month, was
followed by Abbotsbury on the 12th, Tarrant Kaines on the 13th, Bindon on
the 14th, Sherborne with its dependent cell, the priory of Horton, on the 18th,
Holme, a dependent cell of Montacute (Somerset), on the 20th, Shaftesbury,
greatest and last of all,^°' fell on the 23 rd.

The heavy hand of Henry VIII did not stop with the monasteries, and
to his successor he bequeathed measures for the suppression of colleges, chan-
tries, gilds, and hospitals which were carried out by Acts i and 2 Edward VI.
The commissioners appointed to report on the ' lands, tenements, jewels,
plate, goods and stocke ' belonging to the colleges &c. in this county esti-
mated their value at ^(^631 oj. id., with a deduction in 'rents resolute' of

'"- Besides the well-known school at Sherborne and the free school established in connexion with the
chantry of the countess of Richmond and Derby in Wimborne Minster, there was a free school founded by
William de Middleton, abbot of Milton, which was described as 'of good regard and in former times much
frequented.' Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iv, 396.

"" Bindon, on the payment of ;^30o to the king, was restored by royal letters patent 29 Sept. 1538,
only to fall a few months later with the larger houses. L. and P. Hen. VllI, xiii (2), 177 ; xiv (i),
506.

'»■' Ibid, xiii (2), 1090.

*"" The last with the exception of Cranborne which was surrendered with the abbey of Tewkesbury,
31 Jan. 1540. Ibid, xv, 49.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

^94 Ss. 2J.^°^ Besides a number of small endowments for the maintenance of
lamps, obits, and various services, the foundations surveyed in both certificates
relating to Dorset comprise some 25 or 26 chantries, 14 free chapels,
4 gilds or fraternities,^"^ and 9 hospitals. ^°^ In many cases reference to the
benefits rendered by these foundations gives some idea of what the county was
to be deprived on the plea of abolishing the superstitions with which they
had unfortunately become associated ; the worst to be gathered from the
returns is that in a few cases funds had been diverted from the objects
originally intended, while on the other hand frequent entries testify to the
good work done in connexion with many of the chantries and of the lofs
occasioned by their destruction. Thus, under the chantry in Netherbury
church, the certificate notes a grammar school kept by Martyn Smyth, priest,
who received for his stipend £^ 6s. 8^.^°' Under Wareham the sum of _^8
constituting the endowment of a free school founded by Sir John Loders, priest,
and others in the parish of Milton Tregonwell, was yearly paid to the ' scole-
master for his stipend.'"" A memorandum states that the free chapel of
West Hemsworth was ordained for a schoolmaster to be maintained in Long
Blandford."^ As regards the hospitals the endowment of that of Allington
near Bridport served only to maintain a chaplain, the ' power men ' living by
alms of the town,"^ and in the same way the income of St. John Baptist of
Bridport, amounting to £6 Ss. gld. clear, was assigned to the priest serving
it."'' The inmates, five poor men, of the hospital of St. John Baptist of
Shaftesbury, had to rely for their maintenance on the charity of the inhabit-
ants of the town, the whole of the revenues, consisting of 73J. 6d. yearly,
being handed over to the chaplain."*

The district on which the confiscation of these endowments fell most
heavily was Wimborne ; there are several indications of the important
part played by the college in the social and ecclesiastical life of the
neighbourhood now deprived of the services of four priests and four clerks
which the dean and prebendaries were bound to provide to serve the four
chapels round : St. Peter's in the town, St. Catherine's of Leigh, St. James
at Holt, and St. Stephen's at Kingston. ' Mem"^.' runs the report of the
commissioners

to have 4 priests to serve the cure in the parish of Wimborne because there be t, chapels
wherein there is devyne service which said chapels be distant from the church of Wimborne
3 miles and are for the ease of the people.*''

There was also the ' schole masters chauntry ' of Margaret, countess of Rich-
mond and Derby, in the collegiate church."*

'»" Coll and Chant. Cert, xiv, Nos. 1-35.

™' The gilds are that of Corpus Christ! in Wareham, the fraternity of Our Lady in St. Peter's church,
Dorchester, that of St. George in Poole, and St. George in Weymouth.

"' These were at Allington, Bridport, Dorchester, Shaftesbury, Sherborne, Wimborne, and Wareham.

•"'Ibid. No. 59. ""Ibid. No. 81.

"' Ibid. No. 115. '" Ibid. No. 62. '" Ibid. No. 6i.

"* Ibid. No. 100. In the case of Wimborne the alms of the town supplemented the scanty endow-
ment of the hospital which produced only a yearly income of 29/. id., and the return states that the
eight poor men ' not only live by the profits of the said house but by the devotion of the people of
Wimborne' (ibid. No. 112). The hospital of Sherborne, the last religious house to be erected in
Dorset, had by far the richest endowment, out of a clear income of ^^3 1 5/. the chaplain received half-
yearly £\o 6s. id., the remainder being assigned to the finding of eleven poor and impotent men and four
poor women (ibid. No. 91).

"' Ibid. No. 1 10. »'« Ibid. No. 106.

A HISTORY OF DORSET

In addition to the suppression of colleges and chantries, which in effect
deprived the parochial clergy of the services of a body of assistant chaplains
whose services had cost them nothing, the reign of Edward VI was respon-
sible for further changes in the removal of pictures and images from parish
churches, the taking down of roods,'" the setting up of tables in the place of
altars, the whitewashing of the walls of the edifice, the confiscation of vest-
ments and parish plate. That section of the return of the commissioners
appointed to take possession of all superfluous church plate for the king's
use which relates to chalices has been already dealt with for the county
of Dorset.'^' Of the 265 entries therein contained, 254 relate to parish
churches, and eleven to attached chapels. Six of these parishes only had
three chalices : Long and Little Bredy, Corscombe, Cranborne, MarnhuU,
Bradford Abbas and Sturminster Newton ; the number having two in use was
thirty-five, 204 had one. Eight parishes were entered under ' defaults,' seven
of which had sold or otherwise disposed of a chalice, and there was one instance
of a chalice being stolen.-^' As the plague was raging in the county during the
proceedings of the commissioners no return was made for Canford, Wimborne
Minster and Poole, and an entry explaining this absence states ' ther be no
inventories taken by reason of the plague and they have lost ther olde enven-
tories as they have sent us word wher uppon ther ys no newe taken.' Accord-
ing to an earlier inventory specially taken in 1545 Poole made a return of
seven chalices ; in a second return of the commissioners of Edward VI in
1553 it is stated that there were reserved for the use of the church of Poole
one chalice weighing i2oz. and two bells in the town estimated at 6 cwt. ;
the remaining six bells had been sold 'for the makyng of bulworks and dyches
for the defence of the saide towne by direction of My Lord's Grace (the
Protector Somerset) at his being in Poole.' "" Another return of the church
goods of Poole in 1559 before the commissioners of Queen Elizabeth reported
' our images be all defaced and brente.' As for the chalices no parish was
allowed to retain more than one, and the one left for future parish use was
almost invariably the worst or the least.'^^

Under Mary there was an attempt to restore the confiscated church
goods and in the absence of any settlement with regard to the transactions of
Edward VI's commissioners the government issued an order to compel them
to render an exact account of their proceedings. Accordingly Sir Giles
Strangways"^ set off for London, the plate and money being sent after him.
The plate was delivered at the Tower, and ^j^ paid in as part payment of

'" An entry of a payment of zs. for ' takyne downe ye rode ' occurs under the year 1 547 in the church-
wardens' accounts of Wimborne Minster.

"* By Mr. Nightingale in his book. Church Plate of Dorset, from which the following figures are taken.

"' Mr. Nightingale quotes the following as typical of the church possessions of a Dorset village (it relates
to Woolland) in 1552: ' Fyrst, j chalis sylver parcell gylt ; j pyx sylver, j whyte cope of sylke ; j whyt vest""
of dornix, j redd vest"" of dornix, ij table clothes, iij candlesticks of bras, j holy water pot bras, j lyche bell,
ii cruets of leade, j surplis, ij crosses of tyn, j saucer of bras, j chasuble of grene, j vest"" of black velvet. To the
use of the Churche. — Appoynted by the said commissioners j chalis, j white cope of sylk w"" all the table clothes
and surplices. The residue of all the possessions commytted to the custody of these men whose names be
underwrytten, Sir John Whyt, curate, John Hayson, senr., John Hayson, junr., John Carter, Thomas Baker,
alias Galpyn. Ibid. Pref. 7. -"" Ibid. 126.

'"' Mr. Nightingale estimates the number of mediaeval church plate in use before the Reformation and
now remaining in Dorset at only three.

"' The Commissioners appointed in Dorset were Sir Giles Strangways, Sir John Horsey, Sir George
de la Lynde, and Thomas Trenchard. Later on we find them constantly employed as justices of the peace in
trying recusants.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

^^132 5J. z,d. for which the ornaments and other church goods in Dorset had
been sold, the remaining sum being retained for the expense of conveying the
money and plate to London.^^^

Another very material change brought about in the reign of Henry VIII
was the removal of this county out of the see of Salisbury and its transference
to the new diocese of Bristol, erected by letters patent of 4 June, 1542,^"*
under which it remained until the year 1836, when by an order in council
the archdeaconry of Dorset was again united to the Salisbury diocese. During
the whole period of its existence under Bristol, however, those churches and
prebends belonging to the chapter of Salisbury continued to remain under the
peculiar jurisdiction of the dean by whom they were visited, and the records
of whose visitations are preserved among the archives of the cathedral. *^^ The
injunctions circulated by Bishop Shaxton throughout his diocese in 1538 give
some idea of the parochial ministrations of the clergy on the eve of impend-
ing change. They begin with provisions as to non-residents and their
curates, directing that no French or Irish priest that could not perfectly speak
the English tongue should be allowed to serve as curate. The clergy were
charged at high mass to read the Gospel and Epistle in English, and to set out
the Royal Supremacy with the usurpations of the bishop of Rome, they were
also bidden to preach purely, sincerely and according to the true scriptures of
God, and regulations were laid down for the frequent use of sermons in pro-
portion to the value of their livings ; as a general rule four sermons were to
be preached every year, one in each quarter. No friar was to be permitted
to perform any service in the church. The clergy were also required to read
a chapter of the New Testament every day, and every person having a cure
of souls should be able to repeat without book, the gospels of St. Matthew
and St. John, and the epistles to the Romans, Galatians, and Corinthians,
with the Acts of the Apostles and the canonical epistles."'"

Probably the first effect of the transference to another see in the midst
of other changes was to paralyse church effort and organization for a time ;
we find that the services of the chapels attached to Wimborne Minster
were not restored till the reign of Elizabeth, and as late as 1577 Sir John
Horsey and George Trenchard explained to the Council the difficulty of
obtaining information respecting recusants in Dorset, ' as it was uncertain
in whose diocese the shire was.'*'" It is also unfortunate that we have no
means of ascertaining definitely how far the personnel of the Dorset clergy
was affected by the measures introduced on the accession of Mary in 1553: "^^
the queen's great Statute of Repeals abolishing the Edwardian Act of
I 549, and the ' Injunctions ' for the removal of all priests who had availed
themselves of the permission to marry granted in the last reign."^' Nor when
the death of Mary and the accession of Elizabeth set the pendulum of
religious opinion swinging in another direction can we find any evidence of
the number of clergy deprived for refusing to subscribe to the queen's

'^' Nightingale, Church Plate of Dorset, Pref. p. 8. '" Pat. 34. Hen. VIII, pt. 10.

'" Liber Visitationum Decani.

■'^ Burnet, Hist, of the Reformation, iii, 245. "' Cal. S.P. Dam. 1547-80, p. 561.

'-^ Owing to the destruction of the records at Bristol in the fire of 1 831. W. H. Frere, The Marian
Reaction, 32.

"' It was, however, provided that such priests as consented to put away their wives should, after due
penance, be re-admitted to officiate 'so it be not in the s.ime place.' Ibid. 61.

A HISTORY OF DORSET

supremacy, and the Act for the Uniformity of Common Prayer and Adminis-
tration of the Sacraments which formed the basis of the Elizabethan church
settlement.^^"

As regards the state of feeling in the county generally there is no sign
that the violent changes brought about by Henry VIII and Edward VI met
with the strong disapproval they evoked in Lincolnshire and the north. -'^ At
Poole especially, which afterwards distinguished itself as one of the strong-
holds of Puritan feeling and the Parliamentary party, the accession of Mary
was attended by religious feuds between the favourers of the new religion
and the adherents of the old faith which were largely fomented by the
influence of Thomas Hancock, nominated to the living of Poole in 1546,
through whose preaching the inhabitants of the town became strong partisans
of the new party in the Church, and were said to be ' the first that in that
parte of England were called Protestantes.' -^-

But in spite of strong Protestant sympathy, specially marked in the
towns of Poole and Dorchester, there are tokens of deep though latent and
suppressed affection for the old religion, especially on the part of certain
families whose loyalty survived all the changes of the sixteenth century and
later persecutions. Tacit sympathy with recusancy is exhibited as late
as 1 59 1, when an order was sent to Thomas Husseye and Robert Ken-
nele, esqs., to make inquiry into a report that at the last quarter sessions
when the Grand Jury were charged to present recusants and such as refused
to come to church secret warning and intelligence was given them not to
do this, ' according to the revelation of Mr. Coker of Ashe, and Mr. Seymor
of Hanford.' "'' The prevalence of recusancy among the feminine half of the
community provoked a query the following year (1592) as to whether the
recusant wives of conforming husbands might be committed to prison and
whether their husbands should be ' punishable by any pecuniary paine for that
offence of their wives ; ' the commissioners for the apprehension of recusants in
Dorset being directed by the council to forbear committing these ladies
' until Her Majestie has taken the opinion of judges.' "'*

At the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, save for the clergy, the Act of
Uniformity does not appear to have been rigidly enforced, but the promul-
gation of the bull of Pope Pius V in 1570 absolving her subjects from their
allegiance materially altered conditions and placed Catholic Nonconformity in
the light of a dangerous element in the state. In Dorset with the uncertainty
' in whose diocese the shire was,' no convictions were pressed till the year
1582, when an order was sent to Sir John Horsey, knt., and George
Trenchard, esq., ' to apprehend and send up one Slade a verie dangerous
Papist lurking within the countie of Dorset, and all such superstitious
ornaments and tromperie as they can by diligent search find out,' with direc-
tions to make search and apprehend from time to time ' anie Jesuit and
seminarie priest.' ^^° The examination of John Meere of Dorset, student

"" Gee, The Elizabethan Clergy, 31.

*" It was the fear of being put again under the domination of Rome that was productive of disturbance
in I 5 54, and in 1557 the authorities were ordered to be fully prepared in the event of a rising, j^cts ofP.C.
(New Ser.), 1556-8, p. 87.

*'* Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, i, 52, gives an account of the feuds there.

^ Jets ofP.C. (New Ser.), I 590-1, p. 358. »" Ibid. 1592, p. 182.

"^ Ibid. 1582, p. 446. The Recusancy Roll 37 Eliz. (1594-5) records that John Slade, late of Manston,
gent, was fined £100 for non-attendance at church five months. L.T.R. (Pipe Off. Ser.).

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

in the Temple and prisoner in the Fleet, is recorded 23 June, 1585.^'® In
February, 1586, letters were forwarded to special commissioners in various
counties, including Dorset, to enforce a regular assessment of fines for
recusancy.^" In December, 1591, a commission of inquiry was issued for
Jesuits and seminary priests in Dorset, and the following year it was
renewed for the purpose of adding to the commission.''*^ In spite of the
increasing severity of the penalties inflicted on recusants, it seems evident that
their numbers were largely increasing. The first Recusancy roll under Eliza-
beth, 1 59 1— 2, gives eighty-six names, and indicates pretty clearly the chief
centres of Catholic sentiment : Hampreston, the neighbourhood of Wimborne,
Corfe, Canford, Swanage, and above all Chideock. where the forfeitures of
Charles Sturton of Chideock, gent., Dorothea Arundel, Cecilia Arundel,
Gertrude Arundel, Elizabeth Chernock, and John Chernock are followed by
those of twenty-five retainers, members of the household and tenants.^'*' A
list on I October, 1598, of certain recusants finedjri5 each towards the Irish
Light Horse gives the names of Lady Sturton, Charles Sturton, esq., Mr. Martin
of Athelhampton, Henry Cary of Hamworthy, and Mr. Slade of Mawston
(Mansion), gent."*" The names of most frequent, and in some cases continual,
recurrence in the recusancy rolls of the whole of Elizabeth and early part of
James I are those of William Gerard of Clerkenwell, who forfeited two parts
of the manor of Broadway, William Morecock of Nether Kincombe, Gregory
Durdo of Iwerne Minster, Henry Yunge of Wimborne, Henry Cary of Ham-
worthy, the Stourtons, the Arundels, the Wells, the Lockyers, the Loapes
or Loopes of Hampreston, the Martins of Athelhampton, the Goulds of
Cranborne and Edmondsham.''" The State Papers of James I, under date of
23 December, 1607, record the grant to Lawrence Marbury of the benefit of
the recusancy of Elizabeth Wells of Dorset,"^ on 10 January, 1608, the
grant of the benefit of the recusancy of Mary Gerard, widow ; ^" on
20 July, 1609, came an order to inquire into the goods of Anne Turber-
ville of Dorset the benefit of whose recusancy was granted to Sir John
Cowper.***

The chief source of anxiety to the authorities was the position that
Catholicism was able to take up in Dorset owing to the support it con-
tinued to receive from some of the oldest and most influential families in the
county. The chief centre of Catholic leaning in the sixteenth century was
at Chideock, the residence of the Arundel family,-*^ who like the Webbs of
Canford, and the Welds of Lulworth, remained faithful to the Royalist cause
during the later rebellion."" Most of the Popish priests executed during that

836

239

Cal S.P. Dom. 1581-90, p. 247. '" Jets ofP.C. (New Ser.), 1586-7, pp. 15, 16.

Cal. S.P. Dom. 1 591-4, pp. 137, 212.

Recus. R. 34 Eliz. Exch. L.T.R. (Pipe OfF. Ser.). In 1586 a note of the names of the wives and
widows ' who are most obstinate recusants in the county of Bedford ' records the name of Elizabeth Char-
nock, daughter of Sir John Arundel and wife of John Charnock. Ca/. S.P. Dom. 1581-90, p. 376.

™ Jcti ofP.C. (New Ser.), 1598-9, p. 203. "' Recus. R. Exch. L.T.R. (Pipe Off. Ser), 1-14.

'" Cal. S.P. Dom. 1603-10, p. 395. »" Ibid. "" Ibid. 530.

"' Chideock came into the hands of the Arundel family in the reign of Henry VII by the marriage of
Katherine Chideock, youngest daughter of Sir John Chideock and last of the family, to Sir John Arundel, of
Lanherne (Foley, Rec. of Engl. Province of S.J. iii, 426).

"* Chideock Castle fell alternately into the hands of the Royalist and Parliamentary party during the Civil
War. According to Hutchins {Hist.of Dorset.u, 259) it was at last taken in 1645 by the Parliamentary forces
quartered at Lyme, and in the same year thirteen owners of small tenements, whereof seven were recusants, had
their estates sequestered, doubtless as a punishment for their loyal defence of the house.

A HISTORY OF DORSET

period are said to have officiated as chaplains at Chideock , Castle,"*^ and a
sketch of the fortunes of this family under Elizabeth gives probably the
best picture of the trials and risks of a Catholic household at that time.
In 1 58 1 Sir John Arundel was summoned to London and for a time
committed to close custody by the queen ; following her husband's arrest
Lady Arundel, daughter of Edward earl of Derby and relict of Charles, Lord
Stourton, also suffered a term of imprisonment. On 9 April, 1584, she was
examined as to her speeches against the present government, reception of
Jesuits and seminary priests, hearing mass and receiving letters from Charles
Paget, &c.-" On 9 June she begged Walsingham to use his interest with
the queen to procure her release, protesting that ' her own heart could not
accuse her of any undutiful thought towards Her Majesty ' ; '" fortunately the
lady's plea received favourable consideration, and she was soon after released."**
On the death of Sir John at Isleworth his widow returned to Chideock where
she took up her residence and, save for the fines imposed on the household for
recusancy, appears for a short time to have been left in peace. But the castle
remained a centre of Catholic influence in Dorset, and the resort of semin-
arists, among whom was Father Cornelius, a native of Cornwall, who having
been educated by Sir John Arundel at Oxford and the English college at Rheims,
returned later to England in the capacity of chaplain to his patron and by him
was recommended to the care of his wife on his deathbed. The priest was
a marked man to the government who only required opportunity to lay hands
on him. It came in the usual fashion by treachery ; a member of the house-
hold, William Holmes, enraged at some reproof for his conduct went to the
high sheriff, Sir George Morton, with information whereby a plan was con-
certed for the apprehension of the priest. For this purpose Easter Sunday,
31 March, 1594, was chosen, when there was every prospect of a mass being
celebrated, and for five miles watch and ward was set round the castle.
The trap failed owing to the precautions taken, but a second attempt
a fortnight later resulted in success, and after a prolonged search Father
Cornelius was dragged from his hiding place in one of the priest's holes."'
On 2 1 April the prisoner was examined before the justices. Sir George
Trenchard, Sir Ralph Horsey, and John Williams, and the evidence taken
of the informer, William Holmes, who testified to the presence of Catholic
priests attached to the household of the late Sir John Arundel during the
period he had been in his service ; that the said Cornelius dwelt with Sir John
and his widow for a year ; that another priest, John Sherwood, now deceased,

'" One of these, Thomas Pilchard, was executed at Dorchester on 21 March, 1587, with all the barbarous
rites that attended such executions ; another Catholic recusant, a Mr. Jessop, dying soon after in Dorchester
gaol, was by his own desire buried next to Mr. Pilchard. (Foley, op. cit. iii, 428-9.) Other names given
are Cornelius 1594, Green 1642. Arthur Browne, another seminary priest, purchased his life at the price of
recantation (Oliver, Hist, of CathoFic Re/igiort in Conitc. and Dors. etc. 1857, pp. 35-9). John Mundyn, priest
at Mapperton, was executed at Tyburn 12 Feb. 1589 (Ibid. 39).

"* Cal S.P. Dom. 1581-90, p. 171. "' Ibid. 180. "^ Ibid. 201-260.

"' The account of this famous semin.iry priest (Foley, Rec. of the Engl. Province of S.J. iii, 43 5 , 474) is largely
based on the j^cts of Father Cornelius written by Miss Doroth}- Arundel, the daughter of Sir John, who after
the priest's execution went abroad and entered the convent of the English Benedictine nuns at Brussels, where
she was professed 1600 and died in 1613. She gives a graphic account of Cornelius' apprehension and pre-
liminary examination before the justices. On being summoned together with the rest of the household and
questioned as to her share in harbouring and concealing a public traitor and enemy to Her Majesty the Queen,
this spirited lady broke out '/ gather together traitors and enemies of the Queen, I sustain them, / conceal
them I If you would have men of that kind I know them not. I well know that I know none such.' Ibid.
'". 455-

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

* dwelled likewise with the said Sir John Arundel and his lady for the space
of viii years and upwards before his death, and others ' ; that after Sir John
removed his house from Clerkenwell to Moushill, where he lived for about
three years, the said Cornelius and Sherwood continued with him ; after that
the knight removed to Isleworth where he remained for about six or seven
weeks and then died, and there he was visited by another priest whose name
was William Patinson. The witness further deposed that Cornelius and
Sherwood did daily say mass at Clerkenwell and Moushill and at Isleworth,
but that he was not admitted to hear mass until he came to Isleworth where
he heard the three priests say several masses ; he was also present at many
masses said by the three priests at Chideock, whither his lady had removed
since the death of Sir John, and for a time was appointed to wait on them in
their chamber. On the departure of William Patinson to London, where he
was soon after executed,"" his place was taken by another priest, John Currie,
who remained until after the death of Sherwood twelve months since, the latter,
as the witness understood, being buried in the chapel of Chideock House, and
on Currie's departure to London at Michaelmas, he was succeeded by Green,
alias Lusty Green, who remained in company with Cornelius until Easter day
last ; at which time, about one o'clock in the morning before day, having said
mass and received intelligence of an intended search they each went their ways.
Green going to Cornwall, but Cornelius having his mother in Chideock
House returned there the next day and remained till he was apprehended. The
informer gave the names of the household who daily attended mass; ~" the boys
and hinds in the house were not admitted, nor had he, the witness, been admitted
since a year last Michaelmas, and he stated that Cary and Patrick, now
prisoners in Dorchester gaol, had been in attendance upon the said priests in
their chamber both before and after his discharge from that duty. The
priest, John Cornelius, alias Moone late of Bodmin, Cornwall, on interroga-
tion, stated that he was forty years of age, had been ordained priest in the
seminary at Rome thirteen or fourteen years since, had returned to England
eleven years ago, and had since continued travelling to and fro ' to do good
and to instruct in the Romish religion according to his function ;' he refused
to say where he had lodged for fear of bringing others into danger.^'* That
Chideock was regarded as a hot-bed of Catholicism is evident from the letter
addressed by the justices of the peace who conducted this examination to
Lord Keeper Pickering and Lord Buckhurst, together with their report, lo
June, 1594. Referring to the priest Cornelius they say

his repair with tiiat of others not yet taken to the lady's house has nursed up many ill
imps and given comfort to not a few ill subjects, whereby we are daily encumbered and the
country is drawn back from the faith. In regard thereof we desire that the said lady may

He was hanged at Tyburn Z2 Jan. I 592.

"' The Lord Stourton ; Mr. Charles Stourton ; Mr. John Easton and Margaret his wife ; Mrs. Dorothy
Arundel ; Mrs. Gertrude Arundel ; Mr. Thomas Bosgrave, Thomas Stone, committed to gaol ; Henry Barbye,.
John Cooke ; Jeffrey Cardew; — Holcombe ; Ann Tremayne ; Margaret Tremayne ; Jane Tremayne; Dorothy
PriJeaux ; Jane Woodcocks ; Julyan Morgan, widow ; Christian Storche; Mother Mawde, mother to Cornelius;:
Faith Victor, attendant upon her ; Ellz. Diggenson, an old woman.

"* Ca/. S.P. Dom. 1591-4, pp. 488-9. The prisoner, after confinement for a fortnight at the house of
the justice Trenchard, was ordered by the Council to be removed to London unless he could be persuaded to
renounce his religion. He spent two months in the Marshalsea and was then transferred to Dorchester, where-
having been put upon trial he was convicted of the crime of high treason and rebellion against the queen andl
executed 4 July, 1594, together with three companions from Chideock, Mr. Bosgrave, and the men-servants,
John Cary and Patrick. Foley, op. cit. iii, 465-72.

2 33 5

A HISTORY OF DORSET

be removed to some other house and friends or placed with the sheriff of the county for the
time being, for that if she should continue in the place where she is now resident we doubt
would breed further mischief. For under cover of great hospitality and her bounty to the
poor many are drawn to her faction and repair thither as to their only supporter.'"

Subsequently the lady was imprisoned together with nearly all her household
and heavily fined. "^

During the seventeenth century. Catholic sentiment was kept alive in
Dorset by the Webbs at Canford, and the Welds who came into possession
of Lulworth Castle in 1641. Their sons swelled the ranks of the seminary
priests, their daughters joined those communities established abroad for English
nuns on their dispersal in whose establishment and maintenance they were
largely instrumental."" Together with the owners of Chideock they remained
faithful to the Royalist cause on the outbreak of civil war. Sir John Webb
was ordered to be arrested by the Parliamentarians in 1641, but managed
to escape, and rendered such services to Charles I, that in reward of them he
was created a baronet."* Later on, about the time of Oates' plot, suspicion
fell upon Mr. Humphrey Weld, and in 1679, by the advice of the Lords'
Committee for investigating matters relating to the late ' horrid conspiracy,'
he was deprived of the governorship of Portland Castle and his commission of
the peace, the Privy Council directing that the castle of Lulworth, his
dwelling in Portland Castle and 'Weld House,' London, should be searched
for arms."' Since that time the Catholic owners of Lulworth have been
visited by various sovereigns and members of the royal family, including
George III and George IV when prince of Wales ;-^° The first Roman
Catholic church erected in England since the Reformation was built here in
1794 by express permission of George III.-"

As regards the state generally of church activity in the archdeaconry
during the earlier half of the seventeenth century, we may note that an Act
was passed at the beginning of the reign of James I, for the transference of
the rectory from Radipole to Melcombe, and the erection of a new parish
church at the latter place, which was consecrated in 1606 by Dr. Zouch,
suffragan to the bishop of Bristol."" Reports of the primary visitations
carried out every three years by the dean of Salisbury in the prebends of the
cathedral give a few entries of interest. A note in the year 1628 states that
after the visitation of Sherborne, 14 July, it was ordained

upon entreaty of the minister and parishioners of Sherborne that for the convenience of the
minister in going to the pulpitt and the people in hearing that the pulpitt shall be removed
unto the next pillar of the church westward on that side where now he standith and
so to be made that the minister may goe out of his seate where he readith prayers into
the pulpitt, and the seates in the gallery which are so arranged that the faces of the
people turn from the minister are to be altered so that they may face the minister for the
better hearing.^^'

'" Cal. S.P. Dom. 1591-4, p. 521. '^ Foley, op. cit. iii, 472.

"' Ibid. 540. A member of the Webb family, Agatha, was one of several ladies of birth and 'singular
virtue ' who accompanied Mary Caryll, of a well-known Catholic family of West Grinstead, as assistant in the
establishment of a Benedictine monastery at Dunkirk, in 1662.

^» Ibid. 540, n. 9 ; v, 812. "' Lds. Jourv.

'™ The celebrated Mrs. Fitzherbert was by her first marriage a Mrs. Weld of Lulworth.

'*' It is said that George III gave permission for a mausoleum, which would include a church or chapel, but
the idea of which was less calculated to upset lingering prejudice.

*«' Handbook for Church Congress at Weymouth, 1905 ; Rev. S. Lambert, T>!otes on Ch. 0/ Weymouth.

*" Liber Fisit. Decani, 1628.

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.

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<i,\\, 318. Other
intruded ministers who appeared unwilling to pay were John Galping at Durweston, who was admonished in
1647 and again in 1648, 'on the sad complaint of Mr. Richard Hooke, last incumbent of Durweston in this
countie on the behalfe of himself his wife and children' {Jilin. Bks. 282, 432) ; James Rawson, of Haselbury
Bryan (ibid. 304, 438) ; John Salway, of Whitchurch Canonicorum (ibid. 347, 403), who, according to
Walker {Sufferings of the Clergy, ii, 293), protested ' that hee will rather leave the place than paie any fifths' ;
John Moulas, at Tarrant G\m\\\\s. {Min. Bks. 374) ; William Hardy at Sturminster Marshall (ibid. 464, 538) ;
Henry Lamb, at Burton Bradstock (ibid. 522).

-*» Ibid. 152, 176, 341, 540. '-' Ibid. loi. =" Ibid. 159-60.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

irevenues of the dean and chapter.^^'' The following benefices, or portions of
benefices, were ordered to be united : — Knighton to Lillington, Beer Hackett
to Yetminster, Stockwood to Melbury Bubb, Knowlton to Horton, Chilcombe
to Askerswell, Wraxall to Rampisham, East Holme to East Stoke and the
three Wareham churches; the inhabitants of the annexed churches were
admonished to attend the other. Motcombe was ordered to be separated from
■Gillingham.^"* On 25 December, 1646, we read an order was issued for the
rebuilding of the town of Beaminster after the fire, to be paid for out of the
■sequestered estate (amounting to ^^2,000) of Mr. George Penny of Toller, a
recusant.**"

As regards the actual number of sequestrations that took place during
the Commonwealth and the new regime introduced by the Parliament, they
•cannot be much under seventy. From the minute books of the committee
as many as fifty-nine have been extracted, the greater number of which, it has
been noted, had already occurred when the minute books, commencing in
August, 1645, began.^"" The names of six more sequestered clergy are also
given from another source,^" and Walker's list, containing only seventeen
names, includes three that are not given in either of the other two lists. ^*'*' In
October, 1646, William Gollop, rector of Stoke Abbott, was declared 'not
only a delinquent and within the ordinance of sequestration, but allso a
malignant and a scandalous minister and an enemy ag' the pliam'.'*"^ Another
entry states: 'the inhabitants of Wareham desire the removall of Thos.
Whiteroe clerke who now doth officiate in that towne in respect of his
insufficiency and scandalous lyfe.' ''° On 6 January, i 646-7, an unordained
person, one Mr. Stapleton, who had been admitted to preach in the church
of Radipole ' to the great disturbance and hazard of the garrison of Wey-
mouth and Melcombe Regis,' was inhibited. ^^^ The changes introduced by
the committee did not, however, meet with universal approval in the county,
and in sundry places parishioners refused to pay tithes to the newly-appointed
ministers. At Charlton Marshall such a dispute arose between Mr. John
Trottle and his flock that three members of the committee, Mr. Chettle,
Mr. Elias Bond, and Mr. John Squibb, were desired to make inquiry into its
cause.^^- At Silton the dissatisfaction of the parishioners with the minister for
whom they had petitioned became so great that the Committee ' finde the
discontent between them to bee growne soe high as that we conceive the
sayd Mr. Boles will not be able to doe any good in the way of his ministry
in that place,' and he was forthwith discharged from officiating there.
Among the archives of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis a minute book of
the Corporation, 1644—9, during the period when the town was occupied by
the Parliamentarians, records, 10 April, 1646, that Robert Saunders, mariner,
was heard to say ' that Mr. Ince and Mr. Way, the two ministers, were knaves
both in their preaching, and that the said Mr. Way did preach plaine Popery;
and that he would justifie to Mr. Ince his face, that he was a knave in his
preaching, and that he would soundly heare of it, or used words to the like
effect.' -^* A later entry the same year, however, states that the said Mr. Ince

'«' Miti. Bb. of Dorset Stand. Com. 1 59-60. "' Ibid. 60, 61, 106, 112, 125, 138, 148, 206.

■ »»' Ibid. 139-14-0. '"^ Ibid.Introd.pp. xxxvi-xxxviii. =>«' 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.

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.

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.'

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.

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.

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.

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.

UJ 3

O O

Z. I
UJ

CE 0}

UJ 3

_l
UJ

£ < A?

z ^
— <
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

-J

-1
<

-J

4) I

O
-J

z
<

y
in

-1
(J

Q
-J
<

a:
1

u
•0

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 </. ;
Par/. flYtts (Rec. Com.), iii, div. ii, 430.
-* Close, 10 Edw. II, m. 15 (j*.
"Ibid. 5 Edw. Ill, pt. i,m.6d.
'» Ibid. 1 1 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. zj d.

Berwick-on-Tweed to be sent to them from the
abbey of Glastonbury,'^ and on 6 October of the
same year they were ordered to transfer them to the
abbey of Tavistock.'" The monks of Tavistock
appear to have flatly declined to receive the hos-
tages,'' who consequently remained at Abbotsbury.
On 3 December orders were issued for their re-
moval to the priory of Bruton ; '* on 16 Jan-
uary next, 1340, to the abbey of St. Augus-
tine, Bristol ; '° on 15 February the abbot and
convent of Chertsey were ordered to receive these
unwelcome guests ; '° the abbot and convent
of Shrewsbury received a similar order the fol-
lowing day."

Nor did this exhaust the calls made upon the
house ; the community who enjoyed the royal
patronage were required on the creation of an
abbot to grant a pension to a clerk of the king's
appointment, and in December, 132 1, following
the election of Peter de Sherborne, we read that
the pension was claimed by John Bellymont,
king's clerk ; '^ in 1324, on the election of
William Fauconer, Peter de Mount Toure ob-
tained letters entitling him to the same ; '^ and
in 1344, on the election of Walter de Saunford,
the abbot was ordered to grant the customary
pension to Jordan de Cantuaria.^" These vari-
ous grants and liveries were still claimed in
the succeeding century. Thomas Ryngwode
in 1400 was sent to the convent to receive
such sustenance as Thomas Stanes deceased,
had had,''^ and a corrody in the monastery
was granted in 15 1 7 to Robert Penne, gentle-
man of the Chapel Royal vice Edward Jones
deceased.''"

The abbey was frequently chosen as a place of
burial, and for the foundation of chantries. A
licence was granted in 1323 to Robert le Bret
for the alienation of certain lands in Holwell to
the abbot and convent for the provision of a
chaplain to celebrate daily in the abbey church
for the soul of Richard le Bret, the father of the
founder, for the souls of his ancestors, and all the
faithful departed ; '" and in 1392, on payment
of j^20 by the monks, Robert, vicar of Portis-
ham, and others were licensed to alienate two
messuages in Dorchester, &:c., for the provision
of a monk chaplain who should celebrate daily at
the altar of St. Andrew in the abbey for the good
estate of Elizabeth, late the wife of John Mau-

" Ibid. 13 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 12.

'•' Ihid. pt. 2, m. 9 d.

'' Ibid. pt. 3, m. 26.2'.

" Ibid. m. i6</.

" Ibid. m. 9.

'° Ibid. 14 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 43.

"Ibid. 35.

'' Ibid. 15 Edw. II, m. zi d.

'' Ibid. 17 Edw. II, m. 19^.

*" Ibid. 18 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 29^.

*' Cal. of Pat. 1399-1401, p. 359.

"Z,. and P. Hen. VI H, i, 3101.

" Pat. 16 Edw. II, pt. i,m. 1.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

travers, knt., for her soul after death, and that of
her husband, for the maintenance of their anni-
versary, and for certain other charges and works
of piety .''■' The Clopton chantry, founded by
Sir Walter Clopton, was valued at the time of
its suppression at io8s. 4*/." The Strangeways
chantry was founded in 1 505 in the chapel of
St. Mary within the abbey, the abbot by a tri-
partite deed between himself and the convent of
the one part, William abbot of Milton of the
other part, and Thomas Strangeways, executor
of Alianor, late the wife of Thomas Strangeways,
senior, of the third part, engaging in return for
certain benefactions to provide a chaplain to cele-
brate daily for the good estate of Henry VII and
Edmund, bishop of Salisbury, &c., and for the
souls of the said Alianor and Thomas Strange-
ways and their friends and ancestors.^^ This
does not exhaust the number of those who made
considerable bequests to the community in order
to receive the benefit of their prayers.

The poverty which befel Abbotsbury in the
fourteenth century, though largely due to its
situation — exposed on the one hand to the
attack of invaders, and eaten up on the other
by the forces sent to defend the coast — was at
the same time greatly fostered by the bad govern-
ment of one of the abbots, Walter de Stokes
(1348-54).*' The attention of the bishop was
drawn to the house during his rule, and on 29
October, 1353, he wrote to the abbot and
convent that since visiting their monastery
' for various causes ' and being at considerable
pains to reform what he had found amiss, it had
come to his ears that against ' good obedience '
the community had deliberately spurned his
orders to the danger of souls and the scandal of
the neighbourhood ; he therefore summoned
them to appear before him or his official in the
chapter-house of their abbey on Monday, after the
feast of St. Martin the Bishop (11 November) to
answer for their conduct.^* A letter from
Edward III to the bishop soon followed, stating
that he had committed the custody of the goods
of the house, which, owing to the defective rule
of the abbot, were insufficient to maintain the

" Pat. 16 Ric. II, pt. I, m. 79.

" Chant. Cert. 16 (Dorset), Nos. 45-64. Thomas
Jenkyns is here given as the last incumbent.

" Dugdale, Mon. iii, 58, No. 12. A copy of this
deed may be seen in Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii,
720.

" He succeeded to Walter de Saunford, who pro-
probably fell a victim to the plague in 1348. The
episcopal registers record that in December of that
year the abbot and vicar of Abbotsbury were both dead.
Sarum Epis. Reg. Wyville, pt. 2, fol. 192.

" Ibid. pt. I, fol. 167. In his inability to attend
personally to the matter, the bishop wrote to two
canons of Salisbury and commissioned them, with
John de Wyley, rector of S., to correct the mis-
deeds of the brethren, and see his decrees carried out ;
ibid. fol. 166 d.

community or to meet its debts, to Robert de
Faryngdon, prior, and Henry de Tolre, monk,
Walter Waleys, clerk, Thomas Carey, and John
de Mautravers.*^ This arrangement was not
destined to run as smoothly as might have been
desired. Among the collection of Ancient
Petitions is a letter addressed by the abbot, whose
bad rule had caused him to be set aside, to the
archbishop of York, in which, complaining bit-
terly of his treatment at the hands of the above
custodians, he states that they had withdrawn
from him all the privileges to which he was
entitled — his accustomed chamber, competent
board and clothing, the services of a squire, two
chamberlains and two grooms to attend to his
horses — so that, 'insufficiently clad' {indecenterves-
W«j) and with his shoes ' enormously in holes'
{enorrniter infracth) he had been compelled to
proceed more than 18 miles on foot in order to
execute his business.'" The prior and other
custodians had also their tale of complaints.
According to them, the abbot had declined to
fall in with the arrangements made for the whole
community to lodge in one convenient house
until the debt on the abbey, amounting to ;^534,
had been wiped off ; he omitted to attend the
offices, would not come to the refectory, required
all his meals to be served at his own convenience
in his own chamber, and was spending money in
divers parts of the county, heaping up debts and
obligations which the house was wholly unable
to meet ; at the same time the seal of the abbey
had been stolen by his adherents, and affixed to
various deeds and grants prejudicial to the monas-
tery." These complaints were not groundless,
as was found by an inquisition held on 25
March, 1354, to inquire as to the lands and
rents illegally alienated ; the jury reported that
among various grants by the abbot before the
custody had been taken out of his hands was one
for a corrody and a robe for which he had received
^^20 ; he was also said to keep hunting dogs, to
have retained an excessive number of servants,
and retainers, and to be in the habit of giving
unnecessary presents ; the injury he had thus done
to the house being estimated at ^£85 5 lOJ. id}''
Fortunately for the community the abbot's career
was cut short by death the same year. The follow-
ing year the church of Winterborne St. Martin
was appropriated to the monastery ; '^ in 1 36 1 the
church of Toller Porcorum was annexed on
account of poverty, and the charges incurred
by the reception of numerous guests.'* In
1386 Pope Urban VI, in reply to a petition
from the abbot and convent representing their
house, which was situated on the coast, as

" Ibid.

'° Anct. Petitions, 10470.

" Ibid. 1047 1-2-3-4.

" Ibid. 10475.

" Sarum Epis. Reg. Wyville, pt. I, fol. 241.

" Ibid. fol. 242.

A HISTORY OF DORSET

frequently invaded by Spaniards, Normans, and
Bretons, and eaten up by the defenders of the
kingdom, so that unless help could be afforded it
must be destroyed and divine services cease, re-
quested the bishop of Salisbury to appropriate the
church of Tolpuddle to the uses of the breth-
ren.'* The convent in 1390 obtained from
Boniface IX a grant appropriating anew the
parish churches of Abbotsbury, Portisham, Win-
terborne St. Martin, Toller Porcorum, and Tol-
puddle, ' of which the first two were of old and
the next 3 over 40 years ago incorporated by au-
thority of the ordinary, and the last 2 by papal
authority.' Their revenues, after deducting
vicars' portions, came to 400 marks, the revenues
of the monastery being 500, and 14 marks were
to be assigned to each vicar. ^^

With the exception of the appointment of
abbots, references to Abbotsbury in the fifteenth
century are rare." VVe have the decrees pub-
lished by Bishop Chandler after visiting the
abbey in 1436. The community were warned
generally against making grants rashly, and
greater formality in their drawing up was en-
joined. The abbot was directed, 'as wine and
women cause men to err,' not to buy more wine
than was absolutely necessary for the use of the
monastery ; he was to be permitted to have
sweet wine for his table and the entertainment
of his guests ' in small and minute vessels ' (vasis) ;
the entrance of women was prohibited, the
abbot, if convicted on the evidence of two
witnesses, should be suspended for a month ;
the brethren were forbidden to resort to a cer-
tain chamber for the purpose of 'confabula-
tion.""

The notorious Dr. Legh appears to have
visited this house on the eve of the Dissolution,
for in a letter headed ' Thos. Legh, visitor of
Abbotsbury,' he appoints a certain Vincent to be
prior in the house, and desires tiie inmates to be
attentive and obedient to him.^^ Thomas Brad-
ford occurs, however, as prior in the surrender
deed of the house.

In the Fa/or of 1535 the spiritualities of the
abbey were returned at £i\.^ gs. ^d- from the
churches of Tolpuddle, Portisham, Abbotsbury,
Winterborne St. Martin, and Toller Porcorum*'";

" Sarum Epis. Reg. Erghum,fol. 81,82. Richard II
licensed the appropriation on account of expenses
connected with the defence of the coast ; Pat. 9
Ric. II, pt. I, m. 19.

'° Cal. Pap. Letters, iv, 342 ; v, 77.

'" With the exception also of bequests and references
in wills.

" Sarum Epis. Reg. Chandler, fol. 6j d. Unfor-
tunately no report can be found of the visitations
ordered in 1488 and I 503.

''■' Cott. MS. Cleop. iv, 57. The letter is inscribed
on the back. 'To the abbot of Abbotsbury, or in his
absence to Dom Vincent.'

«° Valor EccL (Rec. Com.), i, 277-8.

the temporalities were valued at ;^356 6j. "jd.^^
making a total income of £^\o\ 15J. \od. It
would seem, from the list of anniversaries kept
by the monks, that the community were faithful
in the observance of one of their main duties, the
obligation to commemorate for the souls of their
founders and benefactors.^^

A curious document, cited by Hutchins in
full,*' brings certain charges against the last abbot
of Abbotsbury, Roger Roddon, elected in 1534."
Headed 'of the monasterye of Abbotsburye and
of the saide Abbate thereof, of the mysse-usynge
of hymselfe,' it runs, ' whereas he doth breke the
kyng's foundacons and the injuncyonsof the same,'
and proceeds to denounce the superior for non-
observance of the conditions on which the
monastery had received land from benefactors ;
for wasting and wrongfully selling woods ; for
making away with jewels and plate out of the
treasur)' of the value of which no record has been
kept ;

also that he hath an abhomynable rule wyth kepyng
of wymen nott wyth i, ii or iii but wyth manie more
. . . and no relegon he kepyth nor bye day nether
bye nyghte.

Unfortunately we have no information as to the
veracity of the writer *^ who signs himself ' Dan.
Will. Grey, Muncke of Abbatsburie.' He is
included in the list of those who received pen-
sions on the surrender of the abbey, 12 March,
1539 ; the abbot who surrendered with the prior
and eight brethren receiving a pension of ;^8o ;
the prior, Thomas Bradford, ^^9 ; Thomas Tol-
puddle, j^7 ; six other brethren, among whose
names are entered William Grey and John
Vynsant, j^6 to ^^5 each ; Thomas Holnest,
405.'^'^

The site of the abbey was afterwards granted
to Sir Giles Strangewa}S, knt., by Henry VIII.*"

*' Ibid. 228-30.

''" On 2 April, 22/. \d. was distributed to the poor of
Abbotsbury for the souls of Thomas Strangeways and
Alianor or Eleanor his wife (ibid. 227) ; on 6 July
and 7 Sept. 2 \s. ^J. for the souls of Henry Russell and
Alice his wife (ibid. 223) ; 6/. 8t/. on the feast of the
Eleven Thousand Virgins for the souls of Walter
Clopton and Joan his wife (ibid. 229) ; on 16 June,
9/. id. for the soul of John Mautravers ; on 26 May,
7/. zd. for the soul of John Cary (ibid. 229-30) ; on
1 2 March, Ss. Sd. for the soul of Robert Bylsay ; a
pension in the abbey and certain doles were assigned
in commemoration for the souls of ' Orke and Thole
his wife,' the original founders.

'^ Ibid. Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 720.

" L. and P. Hen. Fill, vii, 1607 (21).

" In many cases of this kind close examination
has tended to destroy much of the value of ac-
cusations levelled against superiors by discontented
monks. See ' Religious Houses,' V.C.H. Worcs. ii,
135-

"'' L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiv (l), 506.

" Dugdale, Man. iii, 60.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Abbots of Abbotsbury

William tempo Henry ii ^*

Geoffrey occurs about 1 166 *'

Roger occurs 1201 ™

Hugh occurs 1204-5"

Hugh occurs 1238'"

Roger de Brideton elected 1246''

John de Hilton elected 1257 "■• died 1284

Philip de Sherborne elected 1284 " died

1296
William de Kingston elected 1297 '^ but his

election quashed by the bishop
Benedict de Loders appointed 1297'' died

1320
Ralph de Sherborne elected 1320'^ died 132 1
Peter de Sherborne elected 1321 '^ died 1324
William de Faukener or Fauconer elected

1324^ died 1343
Walter de Saunford or Samford elected 1343*'

died 1348 probably of the plague
Walter de Stokes elected 1348*'- died 1354
Henry Tolre elected 1354"'
Henry de Thorpe died 1376**
William Cerne elected 1376*^ died 1401
Robert Bylsay elected 1401 ^^ died 1426
Richard Percy elected 1426^' resigned 1442
Edward Watton elected 1442 ** died 1452
William Wuller elected 1452'' died 1468
Hugh Dorchester elected 1468^" died 1496
John Abbotsbury elected 1496 ^'
John Portesham elected 1505'"
Roger Roddon elected 1534 surrendered

1539"

'' Geoffrey who succeeded him speaks of William, his
predecessor, in a charter. Red Bk. of the Exch. (Rolls
Sen), i, 211.

" Ibid. " Pedes Fin. (Hunter), ii, 78-81.

" Inapatent roll of Edward II, Hugh is given as abbot
in the sixth year of King John. Pat. 8 Edw. II, pt. 2,
m. 6 d. The abbey was vacant in 1212 and 1213.
Ibid. 13 John, m. 3 ; 14 John, m. 3.

" As witness to an agreement between the bishop of
Salisbury and abbot of Sherborne. Reg. Rubrum, fol.
158. " Pat. 30 Hen. Ill, m. 7.

'* Ibid. 42 Hen. Ill, m. I.

" Ibid. 12 Edw. I, m. 11.

'' Ibid. 25 Edw. I, m. 20.

" Close 25 Edw. I, m. 12.

'' Pat. 1 3 Edw. II, m. 7 ; Sarum Epis. Reg.
:Simon of Ghent, pt. 2, fol. 182.

"Pat. 14 Edw. II, pt. 2, m. 21.

'"Ibid. 17 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 2.

«' Ibid. 17 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 6.

*' Ibid. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. 14.

«' Ibid. 28 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 13.

^* Ibid. 50 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 5.

*' Sarum Epis. Reg. Erghum, fol. 8.

^ Pat. 3 Hen. IV, pt. I, m. 23.

«' Ibid. 5 Hen. VI, pt. 1, m. 19.

** Sarum Epis. Reg. Aiscough, fol. 12.

'^ Ibid. Beauchamp. pt. 2, fol. 22.

*'Ibid. pt. 2 (Inst.), fol. 116.

'' Ibid. Blyth, fol. 91. ■'■' Ibid. fol. Hi d.

^ L. and P. Hen. Vlll, vii, 1607 (21) ; xiv, 506.

A round eleventh-century seal attached to the
surrender deed of the abbey, the impression of
which is fragmentary, represents one of the
fronts of the abbey church with porch and side
towers. At base is an arcade of round-headed
arches. The legend is destroyed. ^^

The seal of Abbot Walter [1353] represents
in a quatrefoiled panel St. Catherine with a
wheel, the abbot kneeling before her.'* The
legend is very defective.

2. THE ABBEY OF CERNE

The Benedictine abbey of Cerne was, tradi-
tionally, founded by the first apostle of the
English, St. Augustine, who, according to
William of Malmesbury, having converted Kent
to the faith of Christ proceeded to penetrate into
the rest of the English provinces over which the
rule of King Ethelbert extended, that is to say
over the whole of England with the exception of
Northumbria, and coming to these parts met
with great rudeness from the inhabitants of the
country who fastening derisively the tails of cows'
to the garments of the evangelist and his
companions drove them away. Whereupon the
holy man perceiving the change that should
rapidly take place in the minds of the people and
' patiently and modestly rejoicing to bear reproach
for the name of Christ' cried to his companions
' Cerno Deum qui et nobis retribuet gratiam et
furentibus illis emendationem infundet animam '
(I see God who shall give us grace and impart
to these deluded people a change of heart). The
prophecy was not long of fulfilment, the people
repenting of what they had done approached St.
Augustine desiring to be reconciled, and he, attri-
buting this change to God, gave to the place
the name of Cernel, compounded from the
Hebrew word Hel or El God and the Latin
Cerno. Soon after the inhabitants became con-
verted to the new faith and water being required
to baptize them a fountain sprang out of the
ground at the word of Augustine.-

In succeeding times, continues the chronicler,
Edwold, brother to Edmund, king of the East

" Deeds of Surrender, No. I.

'^ B.M. Seals, Ixii, 22.

' This is the translation of caudas racharum given
by Hutchins {Hist, of Dorset, iv, 18), Fuller, who
repeats the story, calls them fishes' tails, Church Hist, i,
166.

' This obviously mythical account of the origin of
Cerne by William of Malmesbury [Gesta Pontif (Rolls
Ser.), 184-5) '^ subsequently repeated by Capgravein
his life of St. Augustine, by Reyner, and again
by Camden. See Coker, Particular Survey of Dorset
(1732) 65, 66. From the account given by the
thirteenth-century chronicler, Walter of Coventry, it
would seem that Helith was the name of the primi-
tive deity of these parts whose worship was destroyed
by St. Augustine. Op. (Rolls Ser.) i, 60 ; Leland,
Collect, i, 285 ; ii, 252.

A HISTORY OF DORSET

Anglians, retiring from the world on the death
of his brother at the hands of the Danes, lived the
life of a hermit at St. Augustine's well ' called
the silver well' at Cerne, where he died.' So
great was the respect felt for his memory that
in later times the abbey appears under his pat-
ronage as well as that of the Blessed Virgin and
St. Peter.^ After his death Ailmer or ^Ethelmar,
generally styled earl or duke of Cornwall, trans-
lated the relics of Edwold with the assistance of
Dunstan to the old church of Cerne ' where now
the parish church is ' and built or rebuilt the
monastery which he dedicated to the honour
of St. Peter.* The foundation was begun in
the reign of Edgar according to Leland and
completed in the year 987.

In his foundation charter of that year
.^thelmar (or Ailmer) son of jElward, nobleman
of king iEthelred, notifies to Archbishop Dunstan
and Bishop iElfheah of Winchester that he has
given to God and the monks there the place
which is called Cernel in honour of the Blessed
Virgin, St. Peter and St. Benedict, for his dear
master king jEthelred, for himself and the
redemption of his ancestors ; he has granted
to them also 6 cassates of land in Minterne, 10
manses at Winterborne, 6 at Bredy, 12 in the
further Bredy, 3 in Rentscombe ; Leofric, clerk of
Poxwell, has added to the donation the vill of
Poxwell which was confirmed by grant of king
jEthelred ; jElfrith a relative of iEthelmar at
Bincombe has given 4cassates of land at Aflfpuddle,
Alfwold gave 5 manses at Bloxworth ; after the
death of his wife the founder further bestowed
on the monaster)' tithes of his yearly rent in
Cerne and Cheselbourne together with tithes of
honey, cheese and fat hogs in his other lands and
desired that the monks should observe the rule of
St. Benedict and should choose whatever secular
patron they pleased.^

Canute is said to have plundered this monastery
when he wasted the town but afterwards he
became a considerable benefactor to it.' The
abbey had added largely to its endowment at
the time the Domesday Survey was taken ; the
church of St. Peter was then returned as holding
land in the following places : Cerne, Little
Puddle, Radipole, Bloxworth, AflFpuddle, Poxwell,
East Woodsford, HeiHeton, 'Vergroth,' Little
Bredy, Winterborne, Long Bredy, Nettlecombe,
Milton, Kimmeridge, Rentscombe and Symonds-

' Will, of Malmesbury, op. cit. ; Leland, Collect.
iii, 67.

* R}mer, Foedera, xiv, 637.

' Leland, CoUect. iii, 67. The founder's name
appears under various forms, Leland calls him Ailmer,
Egelward (ibid, i, 26), and ^"Ehvard (i, 285). Previous
to his foundation there is said to have been a sm.iU
monastery here of three monks. Ibid, iii, 67 ; Tanner,
Notitia, Dorset, viii.

'Cart. Antiq. W. 16.

" Leland, Collect, i, 66 ; iii, 67. Coker, Particular
Sun', of Dorset, 65.

bury ; * the total, amounting to 113 hides and
3 virgates, was valued at ^^115, leaving
out AiFpuddle, the assessment of which was
omitted. The widow of Hugh Fitz Grip, the
Norman sheriff", held, we are told, I carucate in
Poxwell formerly belonging to the demesne of
the monks.

In 1 1 56 the abbot of Cerne was returned as-
holding by the service of three knights.' Robert
the abbot in 1 1 66 notified the king the knights'
fees of his church and the knights who held them.
Amongst these may be noted Robert Russell
who held a knight's fee, less one virgate, unjustly
and against the will of the convent because neither
his grandfather nor his father held it of the
church nor should hold it. In the demesne of
the church were three and a half knights' fees in
the vill of Cerne with freehold tenure {cum
tenura Francolemium). Each one of these ought
to keep ward at the king's command at Corfe
Castle one month in the year, or, if it should
please the king to have them in the army^
two knights should be found for his service
in the absence of ward {interim dismissa vjardia.y^
The abbot of Cerne as a knight of the shire
was summoned to Parliament in 13 15 and
to attend the Great Council at Westminster
in 1324."

The income of the abbey in the Taxatio of
1291 was assessed zt £ij'j 8s., including spirit-
ualities amounting to ^^13 ijs. j^d. from the
churches of Radipole, Poxwell, Hawkchurch,
Symondsbury, Long Bredy with the chapel of
Little Bredy, and Powerstock,'- and temporalities
valued at 1^164 ox. id, within the deaneries of
Bridport, Dorchester and Whitchurch.^' The
clear annual income of the monks in the
Falor Ecclesiasticus of 1535 was declared at
;C575 ^V- ioJ(^.," when they held the par-
sonages of Cerne, Kimmeridge, Affpuddle, and
Hermitage,'* the manors of Cerne, Hawkchurch,
Milton, Symondsbury, Maiden Newton, Mapper-
combe with Nettlecombe, Little Bredy, Long
Bredy, Winterborne, Nether Cerne, Minterne^
Middlemarsh, Bloxworth, Poxwell, AfFpuddle,
and Milborne St. Andrew, with parcels of land
in various other manors and parishes.'^

The history of the abbey is perhaps the least
eventful of any of the Dorset houses with the
exception of that of the sisters at Tarrant Kaines j

» Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), 77 J. 78.

' Red Bk. of the E.xch. (Rolls Ser.), i, 15.

'"Ibid, i, 212.

" Pari. M'rits (Rec. Com.), ii, div. iii, 653.

" Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 179, 180, 182.

" Ibid. 183, 1S4.

" Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 257.

"Ibid. 253.

'* Ibid. 253-6. These manors are returned as
being in the poisession of the monks at the date the
Valor ws.'i taken. The Monasticon (ii, 622) gives a list
of lands and manors held by them at different times
extracted from Hutchins' Hist, of Dorset.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

the period between the two great assessments of
church property is almost entirely filled in with
the record of fresh grants and privileges added to
those the house already enjoyed, varied with the
usual charges and demands made on houses of
the royal patronage. Henry II by a charter
undated granted to the monks wreck in all their
lands by the sea, and rights of ' helium ' ' polam '
and ' forum ' (market) in the vill of Cerne, with
all their liberties to their knights and free-tenants,
and their services, doing service of two knights
for scutage and of one knight on an expedition.^'
John in 1 2 13 ordered Hugh de Neville to grant
the abbot seisin of his wood pertaining to the
manor of Bloxworth of which he had previously
been disseised by the king.'* Henry III, who
was at the abbey 11 January 1223,'' signified his
assent on 12 February, 1230, to the election of
Richard prior of Abbotsbury as abbot ; the
appointment of a superior being relegated to
the election of the said prior, the sub-prior and
sacrist or any two of them."° An inquiry was
instituted in 1275 into the complaint of the abbot
that whereas the charters of Henry II and
Henry III, inspected and confirmed by the present
king, entitled him to wreck of the sea on the
coast of his lands in Brownsea and Rentscombe
as enjoyed by his predecessors, two tuns of wine
cast upon his lands had been seized by the con-
stable of Corfe Castle and conveyed to the castle; -'
as a result of the inquisition Edward I the fol-
lowing year confirmed the abbot's claim and
ordered the constable to return the tuns in ques-
tion or make due reparation."- In October of
the same year the convent received a grant of
protection to last a year." Edward II in 1 3 18
granted a licence for the monks to acquire lands
and rents to the yearly value of jT^ 1 0, in part satis-
faction of which they obtained 5 messuages, 30
acres of land and a moiety of an acre of meadow
in Cerne, and added to that another five messu-
ages and land in Cerne and Middlemarsh and ten
acres of land in Wootton by Bridport.^* In the
same year they obtained a charter of free warren
over their lands in Cerne, Minterne, Middlemarsh,
Winterborne, Little Bredy, Poxwell, Bloxworth,
Symondsbury, Wootton, Hawkchurch, Brownsea,
Mappercombe, Nettlecombe, Milton, and Long
Bredy &c."' From Edward III the brethren
secured a licence enabling them to acquire further
lands in Estyep by Symondsbury, Wootton and

" Harl. MS. 6748, fol. 7.

" Close, 1 5 John, m. 9.

" Close, 7 Hen. Ill, m. 22.

'° Close, 4 Hen. Ill, m. 15.

" Pat. 3 Edw. I, m. 24 d.

" Close, 4 Edw. I, m. 3 ; 5 Edw. I, m. 7.

" Pat. 4 Edw. I, m. 9.

" Pat. II Edw. II, pt. I, m. 6 ; pt. 2, m. 6.

'* Chart. R. 11 Edw. II, No. 34. A few years
later another charter with right of free warren in their
manor of Symondsbury was accorded. Ibid. 19
Edw. II, No. 13.

Bloxworth.-^ On the death of Abbot John de
Hayle, who died at the close of 1382 after holding
office for only six months, the king made over to
the prior and convent the custody of the tempor-
alities of the house, retaining only the knights'
fees and advowsons, for the payment of ^zo at
the exchequer for the first five weeks or part of
the same, and afterwards at the rate of ^4 a
week.-' Richard II on payment of a fine in 1392
gave a licence for the alienation in mortmain by
William Batecombe and Edward Stykelane of
one messuage, &c., and 55. rent in Frome St. Quin-
tin and Milborne St. Andrew to the abbot and
convent in aid of their maintenance and for the
support of certain charges.-''' Two years later
by another licence Richard Chideock and Joan
his wife were permitted to make over certain
lands in Symondsbury, not held in chief, to the
brethren to support the charges of the fabric of
their church.-'' The monks took the precaution
of obtaining from Henry IV, Henry VI and
Edward IV inspection and confirmation of the
letters patent of Richard II confirming their pre-
vious charters.^^' On 10 August, 147 1, Edward IV
issued a general pardon to the abbot for all offences
committed by him previous to 6 August and for
all alienations and acquisitions of land made
without the king's licence.'' Henry VIII in
1 5 13 made over to the abbey the free chapel
called ' le Hermytage ' of Blackmoor, Dorset. '-

The charges on the abbey included the usual
requests for aid in the Scotch war,^' and later on
for loans in the war with France.^^ In the
general distribution of pensioners among the
religious houses during the wars Hugh Cade was
allotted to Cerne Abbey in 1315 ; ''^ the follow-
ing year John de Kent was sent to receive the
allowance which John Hawayt had had.'" Peter
Polter, or Pulter, was sent by Edward III to
the abbey in 1338 in the place of Thomas de

'° Pat. 4 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 35.

" Ibid. 6 Ric. II, pt. 2, m. 29. The grant was
confirmed later by Henry IV. Ibid. 2 Hen. IV, pt. 3,
m. 32.

" Ibid. 16 Ric. II, pt. I, m. 26.

^' Ibid. 18 Ric. II, pt. I, m. 3.

'" Ibid. 2 Hen. IV, pt. 3, m. 32 ; 5 Hen. VI, pt.
2, m. 12, 13, 21 ; Edw. IV, pt. i,m. 7.

" Ibid. II Edw. IV, pt. I, m. 12. His offence
may have consisted in acquiring the temporalities of
the house on his election by licence of the late king,
Henry VI (Ibid. m. 6), but there is also a tradition
which this pardon rather confirms that Margaret of
Anjou was entertained at the abbey and held a coun-
cil there before the battle of Tewkesbury. She cer-
tainly landed in this county. Hutchins, Hht. of
Dorset, iv, 29.

"L. and P. Hen. V1U,\, 3853.

^' Close, 3 Edw. II, m. 5 d, ced. ; 8 Edw. Ill,
m. 5 d.

^* Pat. 2 Ric. II, pt. 2, m. 27-8.

" Close, 9 Edw. II, m. zy d.

=" Ibid. 10 Edw. II, m. 24.

A HISTORY OF DORSET

la Garderobe, deceased,^' and in his turn was
succeeded by John Serle in 1347.'* In accord-
ance with the usual custom in connexion with
• houses of the royal patronage the Close Rolls
record the appointment of a clerk to receive
a pension in 1312 on the election of a new
abbot/' and again in the year 1324.'"' In the
reign of Henry VIII William Bonde, yeo-
man of the guard, in 1337 received a grant of
a corrody in the monastery void by the death
of Richard March.*^ The contribution by the
abbey to the grant raised by the spirituality in
aid of the expenses incurred by Henry VIII ' in
recovering the crown of France ' is set down at
^200.^^

Many of the grants to the abbey were made
with the object of founding chantries and estab-
lishing anniversaries for the benefit of the
grantors. In 1335 William de Whitefield gave
his manor of Milborne Michelstone to the abbot
and convent for the provision of two chaplains
to celebrate daily in the abbey church for
his soul and the souls of his ancestors and
heirs/'

Roger Manyngford and John his son in
1382 obtained from Richard II a licence per-
mitting them to grant the convent the advowson
of the church and, on the death of the chaplain,
the reversion of the manor of Stoke by Bindon
for daily celebration for the good estate of the
said Roger while living, and for his soul after
death, and the souls of his wives, children and
ancestors, and for the performance of other
works of charity.** Edward IV in 1482 per-
mitted the appropriation of a third part of the
manor of Maiden Newton to the monastery for
the sustenance of a chaplain to celebrate daily at
the altar of St. John Baptist for the good estate
of the king and Elizabeth his consort.*" Among
the few references to this abbey in the episcopal
registers may be found the record of the estab-
lishment of the Stafford chantry by an indenture
dated Trinity Sunday, 1403, between the abbot
and Humphrey Stafford, knt., whereby, in return
for the grant of the manor of Milborne St.
Andrew, the convent agreed to provide a chap-
lain to celebrate a daily mass to be called ' the
Stafford masse ' at the altar of Holy Cross in

" Close, 12 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 32 a'.

'* Ibid. 21 Edw. Ill, pt. I, in. 231/.

'Mbid. 6 Edw. II, m. 26^.

" Ibid. 17 Edw. II, m. ii</.

" L. and P. Hen. Fill, xii (2), 1008 (24). The
Falor of 1535 estimates this corrody or pension in
the gift of the crown ' in the name of the janitor or
warden of the gate of the monastery ' at 66a ^d.
There was another corrody or pension also at the
king's disposal valued at 66/. 8^. Falor Eccl. (Rec.
Com.), i, 256.

« L. and P. Hen. Fill, ili, 2483.

" Pat. 9 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. lb.

*' Pat. 5 Ric. II, pt. 2, m. 16.

" Ibid. 21 Edw. I\', pt. I, m. 8.

the nave of the church or of St. Michael near,**
for the good estate of the said Humphrey and
Elizabeth his wife, and for their souls after death,
together with the soul of the abbot, and of
various other members of the Stafford family,
who, it was stipulated, should be admitted as
participants in all the spiritual benefits of the
house, vigils, sacraments, almsgiving, and in the
masses of the monks. An anniversary was to
be fixed on which certain doles and distributions
should be made, and a poor man or bedemarj
yearly appointed whose special duty it was to be
present at the founders' mass, and to pray con-
tinually for their souls, in return for which he
should receive the sum of 1 71. ^d. yearly, and
five yards of cloth for a gown." In the Falor
of 1535 the charges on the monastery in-
clude the sum of 46?. id. in a yearly distri-
bution to the poor on 14 December for the
soul of Ailmer, ' sometime duke of Cornwall,
founder of the monastery ; ' 66s. 2id. assigned
for the provision of food, clothing, beds and
other necessaries in the abbey for two poor
men for the soul of the said founder, and a
weekly distribution of bread and ale to thirteen
poor men ' called freers ' at a yearly cost of
£1 1 5/. 4^.*^ The total annual expenditure of
the house under the head of almsgiving and in
commemoration of the souls of founders and
benefactors came to ;^34 6x. 3^.*'

Articles containing charges of a serious
character were brought up on the eve of the
dissolution against the last abbot, Thomas Cotton,
wherein he was denounced (i) for gross immo-
rality, (2) for letting the church and abbey lands
go to ruin, (3) for wasting the goods of the house
on his mistresses and natural children, and
bestowing gifts out of the conventual funds or»
the former on their marriage." William Christ-
church, monk of the house, came forward also
with complaints that the abbot did not maintain
constituted obits and doles, and permitted some
of his monks to be proprietors, that he allowed
two of them ' who daily haunt queans ' to cele-
brate mass without confession, to play at dice
and cards all night and celebrate in the morn-

" Hutchins cites an MS. 'in the public library at
Cambridge,' which gives the dedication of various
altars in the abbey church. In 1311 an altar in the
abbot's chapel was dedicated in honour of St. Stephen
and St. Katharine by an Irish bishop of Annadown
{Enachdunensis), who granted an indulgence of 20
d.iys to those who should visit it. The same bishop
dedicated the chapel of the infirmary in honour of
the Virgin, St. Margaret, andSt. Apollonia, and granted
an indulgence of 30 days. In 1318 the bishop of
Salisbury dedicated the high altar in honour of the
Virgin and St. Peter with a similar grant of 40 days'
indulgence. Hist, of Dorset, iv, 20.

" Sarum Epis. Reg. Campegio, fol. ult.

*" Falor EccL (Rec. Com.), i, 256.

''Ibid. 257.

"" L. and P. Hen. Fill, viii, 148.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

ing ; women, it was alleged, were allowed freely
into the abbey. In addition * Dan Will Christ-
church' had his tale of personal injuries torecount;
he had been imprisoned by the abbot for his ill-
speaking, dismissed from the monastery, and the
prior of Monmouth had been given twenty nobles
to receive him in his priory where he had been
very ill-handled.*^ It would be rash to accept
these statements without more reliable evidence,
but they were sufficient to draw down on the
abbey the officials of the High Commissioner,
and abbot and monks were forbidden to go out-
side the bounds of the monastery. Great incon-
venience naturally resulted, and on 2 September,
1535, a letter was written to Cromwell request-
ing in the interests of the house that the abbot
might hsve liberty to ride abroad to attend to
the affairs of his monastery 'as you have allowed
the abbot of Sherborne,' adding, ' the abbot
sends you his fee of 5 marks sterling.' *^

The King's Commissioners were instructed
to induce superiors to surrender their houses
promptly and willingly in the hope of securing
liberal treatment for themselves. In December,
1538, Sir Thomas Arundel wrote to Cromwell
that the abbot of Cerne, in spite of persuasion,
was making efforts to obtain the continuance
of his house, and with that object in view was
prepared to offer ' His Majesty' 500 marks and
'your lordship ' ^100.*' The doom of the house
could not be averted, however, and on 15 March
following (1539) the abbot, with the prior and
fifteen of his brethren surrendered the abbey to
the king in the person of John Tregonwell, the
commissioner,'* the abbot subsequently receiving
a pension of ^Tioo, the prior ;^io, one brother
j^8, another ^7, the sub-prior and nine of the
inmates sums ranging from ^b 131. ^d. to
^^5 65. 8i^., and three remaining brethren 40J.
each."

Abbots of Cerne

^Ifric, appointed about 987, on the re-
foundation of Cerne as a Benedictine
monastery '^

Alfric Puttoc, occurs 1023"

Withelmus, occurs 1085 ''

Haimo, deposed ii02 for simony*'

" L. and P. Hen. VIU, viii, 148.

" Ibid, ix, 256. '' Ibid, xiii (2), 1090.

*' Among the fifteen two are entered as students.
Ibid, xiv (1), 523.

■'' Ibid.

'•^ This was the author of the Homilies, who began
as a monk of Abingdon, was successively abbot of
Cerne and St. Albans, and fin.illy archbishop of Can-
terbury.

" Dugdale and Hutchins give this without
reference.

" Hutchins cites this from the Annals of Lanercost,
Hist, (if Dorset, iv, 22.

"^ W.ilter of Coventry, Op. (Rolls Ser.), i, 121.

William, occurs 1 1 2 1 ^

Bernard, became abbot of Burton in 1 160 "

Robert, occurs 1166*-

Dionysius, occurs 1206,^' resigned 1220

R., elected 1220 "

William de Hungerford, elected 1232 **

Richard de Suwell or Sawel, elected 1244,**

died 1260
Philip, elected 1260''
Thomas de Ebblesbury, elected 1274 ^*
Gilbert de Minterne, elected 1296,^' died

1312
Ralph de Cerne, elected 1312,'" died

1324
Richard de Osmington, elected 1324'^
Stephen Sherrard, elected 1356 '^
Thomas Sewale, elected 1361,'^ died 1382
John de Hayle, elected 1382,^* died in same

year
Robert Symondsbury, elected 1382'*
John Wede, elected 1411,'^ died 1427
John Winterborne, elected 1427,'' died 1436
John Godmanston, elected 1436,"* died 145 I
William Cattistoke, elected 145 1,'' died

1454
John Helyer, elected 1454,*" resigned 1458
John Vanne, elected 1458,'^ died 1471
Roger Bemyster, elected 1471,*^ died 1497
Thomas Sam, elected 1497,^^ '^'^'^ 1509
Robert Westbury, elected 1510,"^ died

1524
Thomas Corton, elected 1524,*' surrendered

his abbey 1539

'" He was a witness to the foundation charter of
Plympton Priory (Devon). Dugdale, Mon. vi, 21.

" He is said to have then been a monk at Glouces-
ter, and to have previously quitted Cerne on account
of the great disorders of the house. Ann. Mon. (Rolls
Ser.), i, 187.

" Red Bk. of the Exch. (Rolls Ser.), i, 2 1 2.

^' Pat. 7 John, m. 5.

" Ibid. 4 Hen. Ill, m. 6.

" Ibid. 16 Hen. Ill, m. 7.

"^ Ibid. 28 Hen. Ill, m. 7.

" Ibid. 44 Hen. II, m. i.

'' Ibid. 3 Edw. I, m. 36.

" Ibid. 25 Edw. I, pt. I, m. 15^.

'" Ibid. 6 Edw. II, pt. 2, m. 8 ; Sarum Epis. Reg.
Simon of Ghent, pt. 2, fol. 1 21.

" Pat. 17 Edw. II, pt. 2, m. 19.

" Sarum Epis. Reg. Mortival, fol. 103<j'; Pat. 30.
Edw. Ill, pt. 3.

" Sarum Epis. Reg. Wyville, ii (Inst.), fol. 294.

'* Pat. 6 Ric. II, pt. I, m. 35.

' Ibid. pt. 2, m. 22.

"Ibid. 12 Hen. IV, pt. I.

" Ibid. 5 Hen. VI, pt. I, m. 16.

" Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iv, 23. " Ibid..

'" Sarum Epis. Reg. Beauchamp, ii, fol. 23.

" Pat. 37 Hen. VI, pt. i, m. 12.

«= Pat. 49 Hen. VI.

'^ Sarum Epis. Reg. Langton, fol. 99.

^ L. and P. Hen. Fill, i, 822.

«= Ibid, iv, 436.

A HISTORY OF DORSET

A thirteenth-century round seal with very
fine but imperfect impression represents the
west front of the church, with elaborate details
of early English architecture. On the foliated
crockets of the roof on the left side there is a
small bird, on the right the corresponding bird
has been broken off. In base under two round-
headed arches of masonry are two half-length
figures of the founders, St. Augustine and
iEthelmar, with their hands uplifted to support
the church above therh. On each side behind
them a cinquefoil, that on the right broken
away. The legend is wanting.*""

An example of the above seal with very im-
perfect impression is to be found attached to the
surrender deed of the abbey.*'

The abbot's seal of the fifteenth century,
pointed oval, with fine but imperfect impression,
shows in three canopied niches full-length
figures of the Virgin crowned, with the Child in
her right hand, and a sceptre fleur-de-lis in her
left hand, St. Catherine with crown, nimbus and
wheel on the left, and St. Margaret with crown
on the right standing on a dragon and piercing
his head. In base under a round-headed arch
the abbot, half-length, with mitre and staff,
praying. On the masonry at the sides two
shields of arms ; on the left a lion rampant
within a border bezanty ; the right a cross
engrailed between four lily-flowers slipped,
Cerne Abbey.'''* Legend defective : —

SIGILL

DE CERNE

The signet of Abbot Roger Bemyster is at-
tached to a deed dated 1475, of which only an
indistinct fragment remains representing a ram
or goat with the legend [r]oger[us].*'

3. THE ABBEY OF MILTON

The Benedictine abbey of Milton or Middle-
ton was built in the year 933 ^ by King jEthelstan
for the soul of his brother Edwin, or, as some his-
torians aver, to expiate the crime of a brother's
murder," the king, in his foundation charter,

« B.M. Seals, Ixii, 30.

" Deeds of Surrender, No. 52.

«' B.M. Seals, Ixii, 31. '" Harl. Chart. 44 B. 48.
' Tanner, Notitta, Dorset, xviii. The tenth year
of King jEthelstan is the date generally accepted,
and it agrees with the date of the death of Prince
Edwin. Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 85 ; Sim.
of Durham, Oj>. (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^.

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.

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 </.; 12 Edw. II, m. 1 94'.;
6 Edw. Ill, m. 18a'. ; 7 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 3d'.;
8 Edw. Ill, pt. i,m. I a'.; 21 Edw. Ill, pt. l,m. zd. ;
23 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 12 d.

" Ibid. 8 Edw. II, m. 20,2'.; 26 Edw. Ill, m. 5 J.

^Ihld. 6 Edw. Ill, m. 16 a'.

'= Ibid. 8 Edw. Ill, m. 5 d.

" Hutchins {His/, of Dorset, iv, 390) cites this from
' an anonymous author in the Cotton Library.'

^ The excuse put forward by the community in
1320 for declining to receive a certain Robert
Oysel, clerk, who desired to enter the monastery,
was that their house was already burdened beyond
its capacity to sustain its present number, and would
not admit of another; Sarum Epis. Reg. Mortival, ii,
fol. 99.

" The abbot, who received the benediction on his
election in I 33 I at the hands of Simon, archbishop
of Canterbury, ' in the exercise of his right of visita-
tion in the diocese of Salisbur}' ' (Pat. 5 Edw. Ill,
pt. 2, m. 32), does not seem to have been acknow-
ledged by his bishop till the year I 336, when he was
formally pardoned for his irregularity in seeking con-
firmation from the primate instead of from his ordinary
(Sarum Epis. Reg. Wp'ille, fol. 30 </.). A commission
of oyer and terminer was issued in 1338 and 1340 to
investigate complaints of trespass against the superior
(Pat. 12 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. i6</. ; 14 Edw. Ill,
pt. I, m. 41 d.'), who in 1342 appears to have been
imprisoned for trespass at Rockingham (Close, 16 Edw.
Ill, pt. I, m. 22). In 1348 he was charged with
breaking the park of Alesia, countess of Lincoln, at
Kingston Lacy (Pat. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 43 d). In
1351 'Richard Maur)', monk, formerly for more than
eighteen years abbot of Milton, in which time the
abbey acquired more than 60 marks annual rent,'

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

custody, and after making a reasonable allowance to
the inmates at the rate of 5 marks a year each, and
defraying the expenses of its ministers, to apply
the remainder of its revenues towards relieving
it of debt.*' The decrees forwarded by the
bishop after a visitation in July of that year laid
stress again on the discords in the abbey and the
fact that the inmates were too many for its pre-
sent financial condition.^' The abbot and con-
vent were ordered to adhere rigidly to the scheme
of retrenchment laid down by the bishop, though
they were warned about the same time not to
withdraw the chaplains serving various chantries,
or to neglect the needs of the sick. The bishop
also desired them to re-admit Brother Walter de
Sherborne, who had left the abbey with the
object of attaching himself to a severer rule, but
after joining the Brothers Preachers for some
time had apostatized to the world, and now, re-
penting of his excesses, with tears desired to
return.^^ The visitation report of 1378, con-
taining various suggestions for matters in need of
correction, makes no special reference to poverty.
The attention of the abbot — who was enjoined to
bear himself modestly and benignantly towards his
fellow monks — was directed towards the quality
of the bread and ale served out to the house-
hold and to the condition of the drains, ' which
corrupt the air and are the cause of various in-
firmities.' The usual prohibition against the
entrance of women was coupled with an injunction
forbidding the admission of certain ladies men-
tioned by name within the precincts of the
monastery.^'

Save for the appointment of abbots references
to Milton are rare in the century preceding the
Dissolution. A report issued after a visitation in
1425 comments severely on various details of the
management of the then abbot, Richard Cley ;
and he was ordered, under penalty of suspension
from choir and deprivation for forty days of the
pastoral staff, to appoint a receiver of moneys
retained by him without rendering of any
account, and to redeem the jewels and silver
vessels which he had sold.^'' In 1438 the
number of the community seems to have
fallen to fifteen if we may accept the count

obtained exemption from the jurisdiction of his
superiors, by grant of Pope Clement VI, with indult
to retain the goods which lawfully belonged to him and
to convert them to his own use, and licence to choose
one of the monks to say the canonical hours with him
and serve him in other ways ; Cal. Pap. Letters, iii,
432.

'"Pat. 18 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 3.

*' The community consisted at this time, it is said,
■of twenty-one monks, the number being increased by
the return of two absent brethren to twenty-three, as
was notified to the bishop by letter shortly after his
visit.

" Sarum Epis. Reg. Wyville, fol. 130-1.

" Ibid. Erghum, fol. i;.

" Ibid. Chandler, fol. 51.

of those monks who assembled on 10 June of
that year for the election of John Breweton or
Bruton."

The abbot and convent obtained from
Henry VIII in 15 12 a licence to hold the
yearly fair in their manor of Stockland on the
eve, day, and morrow of St. Barnabas, instead of
St. Michael, as was granted by Henry VI," on
account of the injury to other fairs in the neigh-
bourhood.''' Among the benefactions of Abbot
William de Middleton, 1482-1523, must be
mentioned the erection of a free school within
the town of Milton, for the maintenance of
which the abbot, by deed dated 10 February,
152 1, and sealed with the common seal of the
abbey, made over the manor of Little Mayne,
&c., to Giles Strangeways, knt., Thomas Arun-
del, knt., and other trustees.''^

The Valor of 153S gives the abbey a clear
income of ;^665 3J. 3^15^. from the parsonages of
Milton, Stockland, Sydling, and Osmington,^'
and the manors of Milton, Stockland, 'Huysshe,'
Sydling, Compton Abbas, Holway, Cattistock,
Hillfield, Knowle, Osmington, Whitcombe and
Dorchester, Frome and Stafford, Burleston,
Lyscombe, Winterborne Stickland, La Lee, and
other lands.'" Among the annual charges was
a sum of ^51 i6j., set down under the head of
almsgiving, assigned towards the observance of
the anniversaries of founders, including King
iEthelstan."

The appointment of John Bradley, last abbot
of Milton, as bishop suffragan of Shaftesbury,
February, 1539/^ preceded the suppression of
the abbey by a few days only. The abbot, who
surrendered the house with twelve of the monks
on II March, 1539, received a pension of
;^I33 6j. id., the prior ^^13 bs. Sd., the sub-
prior ^^8, and the ten remaining brethren
jCb 1 31. 4d. each.''

" Ibid. Beauchamp.

'^ Pat. 25 Hen. VI, pt. 2, m. 26.

*' L. and P. Hen. Fill, i, 3529.

" Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iv. 396. The chantry
commissioners of Edward VI found that the rent of
the lands thus assigned amounted to £% a year, which
was paid yearly to the ' scolemaster ' for his stipend ;
Chant. Cert. 16, No. 81. An inquisition in 1600
under Elizabeth reported the school ' to be of good
regard and in former times much frequented ' ; Hut-
chins, op. cit.

*' Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 248.

'" Ibid. 249. The sum contributed by Milton
towards the king's expenses for the recovery of the
crown of France was ^^ 100, as against j^200 by Cerne
and /l 1 8 Ss. id. by Abbotsbury ; L. and P. Hen. Vlll,
iii, 2483.

" Of this sum j^30 represented the cost of provid-
ing the daily necessaries of thirteen poor men of the
town of Milton nominated yearly by the convent ;
Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 151.

" Pat. 30 Hen. VIII, pt. 2, m. 20.

=" L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xiv (i), 500.

A HISTORY OF DORSET

The king the following year granted the
house and site of the abbey, with the church,
belfry, bells, and churchyard, the advowson of
the vicarage, manor, and rectory, to John Tre-
gonwell, the commissioner deputed to receive the
resignation of the community.'*

Abbots of Milton
Cyneward, appointed 964 by King Edgar "
Egelric, deposed 11 02 for simony'^
R., occurs in reign of Henry I "
A., occurs in reign of Henry II **
Eustace, elected 1198 ''
William de Stokes, elected 1222^"
William de Taunton, elected 1256,^* died

1273
Robert de Corfe, elected 1273 '^-

Walter de Sideling, elected 1291,"^ died

1314
Robert le Fauconer, elected 1314," died 1331

Richard de Mauro or Maury, elected 1 33 1,"

resigned 1352
Robert de Burbache, elected 1352,"^ died 1382
John Hentin, elected 1382," died 1383
Walter Archer, elected 1383,^ died 141 7
Richard Cley, elected 141 7,''' resigned 1 43 1
John Haselbere, elected 1 431,™ died 1458
John Breweton or Bruton, elected 1458,''

died 1482
William Middleton, elected 1482'^
John Bradley, elected 1525," surrendered

1539
The round, thirteenth-century seal of the
abbey ,'^ the impression of which is very fine
though the edge is imperfect, represents on the
obverse side the abbey church with a centre
and two towers, each having a tall spire and
two side turrets. Under the central tower be-

" L. and P. Hen. VIII, xv, 282 (g. 90).

" Jngl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 94.

''^ Wm. of Malmesbur)', Gata Pontif. (Rolls Ser.),
119.

" Red Bk. of the Exch. (Rolls Ser.), i, 21 1.

" Ibid. ■'' Ann. Mon. (Rolls Sen), ii, 69.

«> 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.

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.

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 </. ; 12 Edw. II, m. 30;
6 Edw. Ill, m. 2 d.). A complaint was lodged in
1335 that the abbey declined to provide full and
proper maintenance, and contented itself with merely
admitting the king's candidate. Pat. 9 Edw. Ill, pt. 2,
m. 21 (/.

"Close, 4 Edw. II, m. \% d.

" Ibid. m. 26. " Ibid. 4 Edw. I, m. 3 ./.

" Pari R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 45'-
65 9

A HISTORY OF DORSET

between G., abbot of Sherborne, and Richard Fitz
HilJebrand restoring to the abbey the towns of
Bradford and Corscombe on the death of the
said Richard, in accordance with a deed of Bishop
Roger of Sahsbury testifying that he had un-
justly taken them away from the church to give
to his brother Humphrey, and afterwards restored
them;*^ and by another charter, subsequently
confirmed by Edward I, bestowed the church of
Stalbridge on the office of the sacristan.^' The
abbey was in the king's hand in the first year of
Richard I, when Thomas de Husseburna ren-
dered account of ^^ 1 00 2s. ^d. for the fixed rent
of the house ;^' and again in 1213, John, on
15 July of that year, notifying the custodian of
the monastery that he had given instructions for
the prior and convent in the voidance of the
abbey to choose and send him suitable candidates
from whom an abbot could be selected, and de-
siring that their expenses should be provided.'"
In the month preceding his death in 12 16 John
gave instructions for the abbey of Shaftesbury to
be committed during voidance to the custody of
the abbot of Sherborne.'^'' Henry III, on
7 January, 1223, issued an order for John,
:almoner of Sherborne, to be allowed twenty
a-afters in aid of the almonry in course of build-
ing,*^ and by another grant in 1246 the monks
■were allowed two cart-loads of dead wood weekly
from the forest of Pamber." Letters of pro-
tection were obtained in 1241 by Abbot Henry
going beyond seas, until he should return from
his pilgrimage,*' licence to elect being granted to
the convent the following year on his resigna-
tion.** Edward I, in 1290, granted the abbot
and convent licence to hold a market and fair at
Stalbridge, and to have right of free warren in
their demesne lands of Weston, Oborne, Stal-
bridge, Wyke, Bradford, Thornford, Corscombe,
and 'Stawel,' in Dorset, and their lands in Devon-
shire.** Edward II granted permission in 1 3 1 7 for
the abbot and convent to acquire lands and rents
to the yearly value of ^10, provided they should
find a monk or chaplain to celebrate daily in the
abbey for the soul of the late king, of Robert
Fitz Payne, and all Christians;*^ in part satis-
faction of this grant the convent obtained lands
in Beer and Seaton (Devonshire).*'' On payment
of a fine of 50 marks, Richard II granted a

"^ By inspeximus of Edward I. Chart. R. 20 Edw. I,
No. 3.

" Ibid. *' Madox, Hist, of the Exch. i, 311.

" Close, 15 John, m. 7.

'" Ibid. 18 John, m. 3.

" Ibid. 7 Hen. Ill, m. 22.

" Pat. 30 Hen. Ill, m. 6.

" Ibid. 25 Hen. Ill, m. 8.

■■' Ibid. 26 Hen. Ill, pt. 2, m. 2.

" Chart. R. 18 Edw. I, No. 66. A grant was made
to the bishop of Salisbury of a four days' fair at Sher-
borne. Chart. R. 24 Hen. Ill, m. 2.

'^ Pat. 1 1 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 34.

" Ibid. 17 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 6.

licence in 1392 for the alienation of lands in
Coringdon, and the reversion of lands and rent
in Stoke Abbott to the abbey." The episcopal
registers record an indulgence granted by Bishop
Mitford in 1397 for a chantry founded at the
altar of St. Nicholas within the conventual
church." Various other indulgences were ob-
tained by the community at the beginning of the
thirteenth century, no doubt with the object of
supplementing insufficient revenues with the alms
of the faithful. Pope Boniface IX, in 1 401,
granted an indulgence to those visiting the con-
ventual church of Sherborne on the Annuncia-
tion, the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel, and
the Sunday following the latter feast, from the
first to the second vespers and giving alms, to-
gether with an indult to the abbot and eight
priests chosen by him, secular or religious, to hear
confessions and grant absolution.^" The abbot
in 14 1 2 received an indult to dispense four of his
monks for promotion to holy orders.*' The
following year the pope published an indulgence
with relaxation of seven years and seven quaran-
tines of enjoined penance, to penitents who, on
the principal feasts of the year, and 100 days to
those who on other days, should visit and give
alms for the conservation of the altar of Holy
Trinity and All Saints, in the church of Sher-
borne. *-

The election of superiors and their benediction
by the ordinary are recorded in the episcopal
registers, but the official records of the bishops of
Salisbury throw little light on the internal condi-
tion of the house, as they contain no visitation
reports for Sherborne. We may perhaps infer
from this omission that its management was on
the whole satisfactory. Up to the incident of
1436 existence seems to have flowed on peace-
fully and harmoniously, with but few interrup-
tions. A small break is reported among the last
entries of Bishop Mortival's register in 1329, in
connexion with the election of John de Comp-
ton ; the sacristan and a certain number of mojiks
appealing to the apostolic see and the Court of
Canterbury against his appointment on the
ground that at the time of his election he had
incurred sentence of excommunication for the
violent laying of hands on a clerk. The official
of the Court of Canterbury ordered the bishop to
cite the said John to appear before the court in
London, and to proceed no further till the case
had been decided.^' Nothing further is recorded,
and John de Compton remained in office till his
death in 1342. A dispute arose in 1 331 between
the convent and the rector of the church at Stal-
bridge of their advowson, respecting a yearly
pension of 10 marks claimed by the monks which

** Ibid. 16 Ric. II, pt. I, m. 35.

" Sarum Epis. Reg. Mitford, fol. 121 </.

** Cal. of Pap. Letters, v, 406.

" Ibid. vi. 282. '' Ibid, vi, 378.

" Sarum Epis. Reg. Mortival, ii, fol. 364 <2'.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

the rector had neglected to pay for two years.^^
The parishioners of the church of Compton
' Hawy,' who had hitherto been obliged to carry
their dead for burial at Sherborne, in 1437 ob-
tained a bull from the pope conferring the right
of sepulture on their church.^'' It is probable
that during the latter part of the abbey's exis-
tence, owing to financial strain, the community
sank far below the original number of its inmates;
the voting body of professed monks at the elec-
tion of John Saunders in 1459 numbered only
fifteen,*' and about that number assembled for
the election of John Merc in 1504." At the
Dissolution the surrender deed of the abbey was
signed by fifteen brethren besides the abbot and
prior, and including the priors of the subordinate
cells of Horton (Dorset) and Kidwelly (Caermar-
thenshire).*'

That oft-quoted incident, the destruction or
partial destruction of the abbey by fire in a riot
in 1436, was the sequel of a violent and bitter
dispute between the monks and townsmen as to
their respective rights within the minster or con-
ventual church of Sherborne, the mother church
of the district, a portion of which, at the extremity
of the nave, served the inhabitants as their parish
church.*' The register of Bishop Neville sets
forth the dispute in full, reciting the appeal of the
abbot and convent to the diocesan against the
parishioners, who, to the detriment and injury of
the monastery, had set up a new font in their
parish church, and had caused the monks much
annoyance by ringing the parish bells for mattins
at unreasonable hours. The bishop visited Sher-
borne before taking steps, with the object of
hearing both sides, and sitting in the hall of the
abbot there appeared before him, 12 November,
1436, John Bazet, John Kayleway, Richard
Rochett, and John Sprotert on the part of and
in the name of all the parishioners, who set before
him their grievances, namely, that the monks
had removed the font from its old position in the
nave, and had narrowed the doorway in the in-
termediate wall between the parishioners' portion
and the body of the church by which the bap-
tismal processions were wont to pass, and they
prayed him to restore the font to its original
place and all things to their ancient use. The
bishop having heard all that could be said on the
part of either disputants announced his decision,

" Sarum Epis. Reg. Wyville, i, fol. 178.

" Ibid. Neville, fol. 88 a'.

^'^ Ibid. Beauchamp, i (2), fol. 53.

" Ibid. Audley, fol. 125.

^ L. and P. Hen. nil, xiv (i), 336.

*' Professor Willis in a paper on the minster or
church of Sherborne says : — ' At the west end of the
minster are fragments which clearly show that the nave
was prolonged in the 1 4th century by a building closely
resembling a parish church with 3 aisles, the plan of
which can be pretty accurately traced. This is known
as the church or chapel of Alhalowes.' j^rch. Journ.
xxii, 180.

decreeing in the first instance on behalf of the
religious men, that the new font, ' which had been
then newly and with daring rashness erected,'
should be altogether destroyed, removed, and
carried out of the church by those who had
caused its erection, and that the bells of ' Alha-
lowes ' should not be rung for mattins, except on
the solemn feasts of All Saints, Christmas, Epi-
phany, and Easter, until after the striking of the
sixth hour by the clock of the monastery and not
before ; on behalf of the inhabitants he ordered
the font to be replaced in its old and accustomed
place, and the door for the entrance of the pro-
cession of the parishioners to the font to be enlarged
and arched so as to give more space and restored
to its previous form, the manner and form of the
procession round the font to be still retained, and
a partition to be made in the nave between the
section of the monks and that of the parishioners
at the expense of the monastery, the font to be
replaced and the door enlarged by Christmas Day
following, and all things to be inviolably ob-
served by both parties under pain of the greater
excommunication.™ Practical and wise as the
bishop's decision sounds, it failed at the moment
to soothe the bitter feelings which had been roused
during the controversy, and a riot ensued, which is
described by Leland in his account of Sherborne —

The body of the abbay chirch dedicate to our
Lady servid ontille a hundrith yeres syns for the
chife paroche chirch of the town. This was the cause
of the abolition of the paroche chirch there. The
monkes and the townes men felle at variance by cause
the townes men took privilege to use the sacrament of
baptism in the chapelle of Alhalowes. Wherapon
one Walter Gallor, a stoute bucher, dwelling yn Shir-
burn, defacid clene the font-stone and after the
variance growing to a playne sedition and the townes-
menne by the meanesof an erle of Huntendune, lying
yn those quarters and taking the tovvnes-mennes part,
and the bishop of Saresbyri the monkes part, a prest
of Alhalowes shot a shaft with fier into the toppe of
that part of St. Marys chirch that divided the Est
part that the monkes usid, from that the townes-men
usid ; and this partition chauncing at that tyrae to be
thakkid yn the rofe was sette afire and consequently al
the hole chirch, the lede, and belles meltid, was
defacid."

The abbot at that time, William Bradford,
' persecuted ' this injury, we are told, and the
inhabitants of the town were forced to contribute
to the ' re-edifying ' of their church.'^

For the remainder of the fifteenth century the
community were fully occupied in the task of
restoration. Henry VI at their petition granted
a licence for them to acquire more lands to the
yearly value of jTio in aid of rebuilding.'^ The
east end of the church was rebuilt in the time
of Abbot Bradford or of John Saunders his

" Sarum Epis. Reg. Neville, fol. 10% d.
" Leland, Itln. ii, 48. " Ibid.

" Pat. 24 Hen. VI, pt. I, m. 6.

A HISTORY OF DORSET

successor.'* Peter Rampisham, elected in 1475
built the west part ' not many yeres syns,' says
Leland." From the time of the fire down to the
Dissolution, when the abbey church was sold by
Sir John Horsey to the parishioners, and the
chapel was pulled down as being no longer
required, Alhalowes' was legally and definitely
assigned to the inhabitants of Sherborne as the
parish church." The income of the abbey on
the eve of the Reformation was declared by the
Valor of 1535 at ;£682 14J. yf^. net." The
churches in the possession of the monks included
the parsonages of Bradford and Horton (Dorset),
Carswell and Beer and Seaton (Devon);'' and
among their temporalities were the manors of
Stoke Abbott, Corscombe, Halstock, Bradford,
Wyke, ' Stawell,' Thornford, O borne, Weston,
and Stalbridge (Dorset), Carswell, Littleham
and Exmouth, Beer and Seaton (Devon).'' The
amount assigned for distribution in alms to the poor
on the anniversary of founders, &c., shows that
the brethren did not neglect one of the main
duties of a religious community. In Thornford,
assigned to the office of the almoner, there was a
yearly charge of £6 6s. as follows : — 4.1. in bread
distributed annually to the poor of Sherborne on
the day of St. Cadast (?) for the soul of John Send
(Saunde or Saunders), sometime abbot ; 6s. 8d. in
bread distributed on the feast of St. Benedict for
the soul of Alfric Thornecomb ; ;^5 in a daily
distribution from the house of the almoner for
the soul of the aforesaid Alfric ; 2s. in bread dis-
tributed on Palm Sunday for the soul of Richard
Chynnock ; 13;. 4^. in bread, ale, fish, and
money distributed to the poor on Maundy
Thursday for the soul of the aforesaid founder.'"
From the rectory of Corscombe 2;. Sd. was
assigned in bread to the poor at Sherborne for
the soul of Ralph Vatrell on the feast of St. Peter
and St. Paul.*' From the manor of Stalbridge a
distribution of 2s. ^d. was yearly made to the poor
for the soul of the mother of William de la Wyll
by the foundation of the said William.*" The
sum of ;^4 1 1;. was laid out in a distribution of
bread for the soul of Peter Rampisham, late abbot
of Sherborne, and 6s. 8d. for the soul of Roger
Gylden ;*' on the feast of St. Bartholomew bread

'* ' All the est parte of St. Mary Chirch was reedi-
fied in abate Bradeford's tyme,' says Leland in one
place, 'saving a chapelle of Our Lady, an olde peace of
work that the fier came not to by reason that it was
of an older building ' (//•/». ii, 48). In another place
he says, ' Peter Ramsunne, next abbate save one to
Bradaford, buildid al the west part of the chirch '
(ibid, iii, 90).

" According to Leland the same abbot ' sette
a chapelle caullid our lady of Bowe harde to the
south side of the old Lady Chapplle ' (ii, 49).

" From the parish register of Sherborne quoted by
Dugdale, Mon. i, 335.

" rahr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 285.

" Ibid. 281. " Ibid. 282-4. *° Ibid. 2.

" Ibid. 282. *' Ibid. 286. *= Ibid. 284.

to the value of 10;. was annually distributed for
the soul of Robert Ayam, knt., and alms were daily
distributed at the door of the refectory, called
' le frayter,' for the soul of Philip, sometime abbot
of Sherborne, viz. one loaf of monks' bread and
a measure of ale, at a yearly charge of £^2 51. c^d^
Among the charges on the abbey was the sum
of ySf. for the exhibition of three scholars in the
grammar school of Sherborne of the foundation
of Alfric Thornecomb,*' and ^^5 for a corrody
for a person to be nominated from time to time
by the king, and at that time held by William
Burn.

In the promotion of John Barnstable as abbot
on the resignation of John Mere in 1535,** the
policy of securing superiors unlikely to lend
opposition to the new order of things is not
far to seek. ' I thank you,' writes Sir John
Horsey, to whom the dissolved abbey was after-
wards granted, to Cromwell on 9 May from
Sherborne, ' for offering my friend Dan John
Barnstable to be abbot of Shyrborne on the
resignation of Dan John Mere late abbot,' ' the
monastery,' he adds, *are well pleased with the
appointment.'*' The new abbot, in a letter to
the ' Visitor General of the monasteries ' thanking
him for his appointment, expresses his willing-
ness to follow various directions as to the man-
agement of the house,** his compliance receiving
due reward in the measure of liberty allowed
him.*' On the fall of the house 1 8 March, 1539,
the abbot, who had surrendered with sixteen of
his brethren, received a pension of ;^ioo, the
priors of Horton and Kidwelly £% each, the sub-
prior of Sherborne and another monk £1 each,
seven of the brethren £6 13J. \d. each, and four
monks £6 each.'" Henry VIII on 4 January,
1540, made over to Sir John Horsey the house
and site of the late dissolved monastery together
with certain of its possessions.'' Sir John, on
26 March following, sold to the parishioners of
Sherborne, for the sum of 1 00 marks, the con-
ventual church, which has from that time been the
parish church of the town.

Abbots of Sherborne"

Thurstan, consecrated 1122'^
Peter, occurs about 1 142 '*

«' Ibid. 285. »» Ibid.

*^Z,. and P. Hen. Vll, viii, 852. John Mere
secured a pension of ^^40 on his resignation.

«' Ibid. 693. «* Ibid. 852.

«' Ibid, ix, 256. » Ibid, xiv (i), 556.

" Ibid. XV, 562.

'' Of the early superiors of Sherborne who presided
in the capacity of praepositu! primus or decanus over
the secular canons, and on their removal as priors over
the monks substituted in their place, no record seems
left prior to the erection of Sherborne into an abbey in
the year 1 122, when Thurstan was consecrated abbot.
Cott. MS. Faust, ii, fol. 25 a'.

*' Ibid. '* Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iv, 232.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Clement, occurs about i i6o '*

Henry, occurs about 1 165 '"

E., occurs in reign of Henry II"

G., occurs in reign of Henry IP'

Pliilip, occurs about 1217°'

William of Tewkesbury '''*'

Henry, elected 1227,'"' resigned 1242

John de Hele, elected 1242'°''

Lawrence de Bradford, elected 1246'"'

John de Saunde, elected I26i,died 1286'°*

Hugh de Staplebridge, elected 1286,'°' died

1310
John Thornford, elected 1310,*"° died 1316
Robert de Ramsbury, elected 1316,'"' died

1329
John de Compton, elected 1329,^"' died 1342
John de Henton, elected 1342,'°' died 1348
John de Frith, elected 1348 ""
Edward Goude, elected 1371,""* died 1385 "'
Robert Bruynyng, elected 1385,"" died 1415
John Bruynyng, elected 1415,^'' died 1436
William Bradford, elected 1436,'" died 1459
John Saunders, elected 1459,'" died 1475
Peter Rampisham, elected 1475,"^ died 1504
John Mere, elected 1505,"' resigned 1535
John Barnstable, elected 1535,^" surrendered

the abbey 18 March, 1539^"

'^ When he quitclaimed to Bishop Jocelin of Salis-
bury and the cathedral church the castle of Sherborne
(Reg. St. Osmund. [Rolls Ser.], i, 235). Willis gives the
year 1163 ; Hist, of Mitred jibbeys, ii, 71.

** About that date Jocelin, bishop of Salisbury, by
charter to Henry the abbot and convent of Sherborne,
recited the rights of the abbot as the holder of a pre-
bend in the cathedral ; Reg. St. Osmund. (Rolls Ser.), i,
249.^

" The abbots E. and G. occur in charters of
Henry II, inspected and confirmed by Edward I ;
Chart. R. 20 Edw. I, No. 3. »» Ibid.

^ Reg. St. Osmund. (Rolls Ser.), {,265.

'°° Hutchins, without a date (Hist, oj Dorset, iv,
232) from the Kennett MS.

"" Pat. II Hen. Ill, m. 15.

"" Ibid. 26 Hen. Ill, pt. 2, m. 2.

'»' Ibid. 31 Hen. Ill, m. 9.

"» Ibid. 14 Edw. I, m. 17.

'»'Ibid. m. 12.

'°* Ibid. 3 Edw. II, m. 6 ; Sarum Epis. Reg. Simon
of Ghent, ii, fol. 89.

"" Ibid. Mortival, i, fol. 182 ; Pat. 10 Edw. II,
pt. I, m. 6.

"« Ibid. 3 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. I 5.

■»' Ibid. 16 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. 6.

"" Ibid. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. 10 ; Sarum Epis.
Reg. Wyville, ii, fol. 1 98.

""' Hutchins, op. cit. iv, 233.

'" Pat. 9 Ric. II, pt. I, m. 39.

'" Ibid. m. 40.

'" Ibid. 2 Hen. V, pt. 3, m. 7.

"* Ibid. 15 Hen. VI, m. 38.

"' Sarum Epis. Reg. Beauchamp, i (2), fol. 53.

'" Pat. 15 Edw. IV, pt. 3, m. 1.

'" Sarum Epis. Reg. Audley, fol. 125.

"» L. and P. Hen. Vlll, viii, 802 (27).

'" Ibid, xiv (I), 556.

An eleventh-century seal of the monastery
(round) gives a fine impression of the abbey
church from the north with apse, towers, and
porch ; the windows of the clearstory and towers
and the doorway are round-headed.^^'* Legend : —

>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.

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.

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.

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</., and a house in Dorchester' besides
estates in Devonshire.

Among the changes in his diocese introduced by
Roger, the great bishop of Salisbury and chan-
cellor of Henry I, was the reduction of Horton
from an abbey to a priory and its subsequent
annexation as a subordinate cell to Sherborne,
which in the same manner was raised to the

' Will, of Malmes. Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 202-3.

' Ibid. * Itln. iii, 73.

' Will, of M.ilmes. Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Sen), 203.

' Matt, of Westm. Floret Hut. (Rolls Ser.), i, 524.

' Owing to a misreading of the text, the abbot in
many accounts is charged with firing the church {infla-
maz'it instead of inj'amavit).

' Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, jU.

' Ibid.

position of an abbey, the transference taking
place in 1 1 22 according to the Annalsof Margam,'"
in 1 1 39 according to William of Malmesbury."
By this change the lands and possessions of Horton
passed over to Sherborne, as we may gather from
a bull of Pope Eugenius III in 1 145 and again
of Pope Alexander III in 1163, confirming the
possessions of Sherborne and enumerating among
them the manor and church of Horton with the
adjacent chapel of Knowlton, the chapel of Holy
Trinity, Wareham, and the church of St. Mary
Wimborne.'^* The faxatio of 1 29 1 gives the prior
of Horton temporalities at Horton valued at
j^4 17J. 4^^.,^^ the church of Horton belonging
to Sherborne was valued at ;^io, the endowment
of the vicarage amounting to £s-^* In I535
the rectory was not worth more than £<) 5/. 4^.,
the vicar only receiving 17$. j^d. ; ^' the gross
value of the manor at that time was returned at
j^22 10s. 6d., out of which 2s. was paid to the
hundred court, and a fee of l6s. Sd. to Giles
Strangweys, knt., steward of the manor."

From the date of its annexation to Sherborne
the priory sinks into that obscurity mostly at-
tending the existence of small dependent cells
from which it rarely emerges.^' In April 1286
we read that simple protection, until the Feast of
St. Peter ad Vincula, was granted to Hugh prior
of Horton, going beyond seas, and appointing
John de Chegy and Henry son of William de
Horton his attorneys during his absence.'* A
commission was issued in February, 1348,00 the
complaint of Alesia countess of Lincoln, that the
abbots of Sherborne and Milton, John de Brade-
ford, prior of Horton, and others, had broken
her park at Kingston Lacy, cut down her trees
and hunted her deer.'' Again in 1401 dispen-
sation was granted to John Cosyn, Benedictine
prior of Horton, ' who is also a monk of Sher-
borne,' to hold another benefice, office, dignity.

" Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), i, 10.

" Cott. MS. Faust. A. ii. The account given
by the chronicler in his Hisloria Novella (Rolls
Ser.), ii, 559, is that Roger of Salisbury first destroyed
Horton and then added it to Sherborne ; he may be
expressing the same thing in his other account of
Horton which speaks of the abbey so being </«/ri!)r<i'
at the time in which he was writing the Gesta Pontif.
(Rolls Ser. 202), meaning that the status of Horton
as an abbey had been done aw.-iy with and not that
its existence had ceased.

" Dugdale, Mon. under Sherborne, i, Nos. v, ri,
338-9.

" Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 184^.

"Ibid. 174*.

•' Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), 1, 281.

'= Ibid. 287.

" Various references given by Tanner under this
house belong to Monks Horton, a Cluniac foundation
cell to Lewes with which the Dorset Horton is
frequently confounded.

" Pat. 14 Edw. I, m. 18, 19.

" Ibid. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 43 d.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

or priory of the same or another order and to
resign it in exchange for another as often as he
pleases.^

At the Dissolution the abbey of Sherborne was
surrendered to the king on i8 March, 1339, the
deed being signed among others ' per me John
Hart,'^' the same John Hart or Herte alias Ray-
nold, prior of Horton, receiving a pension of
;^8.'' The manors, together with the site of the
priory, the rectory and advowson of the vicarage,
were granted in the first year of Edward VI

to Edward duke of Somerset, and on his attain-
der to the earl of Pembroke.^'

Priors of Hoijton "
Hugh, occurs 1286"
John de Bradeford, occurs 1348"^
John Cosyn, occurs 1401 "'
Henry Trew, occurs 1459-60^'
John Dorchester, occurs 1504^^
John Hart or Herte alias Raynold, occurs on
its surrender, 1539'°

HOUSE OF BENEDICTINE NUNS

7. THE ABBEY OF SHAFTESBURY

The Benedictine nunnery of Shaftesbury is
generally, though not universally, ascribed to the
foundation of Alfred the Great * about the year
888;^ the king, by his charter in honour of
God the Blessed Virgin and all the saints, con-
ferring on the nunnery, over which his daughter
Elfgiva, jEthelgeofu or Algiva, presided as abbess,
100 hides of land as an endowment, consisting
of 40 hides at Donhead St. Andrew, and Comp-
ton Bassett (Wiltshire), 20 hides at Handley and
Gussage, ID hides at Tarrant, 15 hides at
Iwerne Minster and 15 at Fontmell.'

This nucleus was much increased by the
grants of Alfred's successors ; from ^thelstan
in 932 the nuns obtained 4^ carucates of land at
Fontmell on condition that they should sing psalms
for the redemption of his soul ^ and by another
charter in 935 land at Tarrant in Pimperne
Hundred.' Edmund in 942 gave to the religious
woman Wenflede the land of twenty manses at
Cheselbourne ; * Eadred in 948 land in Purbeck

*• Cal. Pap. Letters, v, 362.

" P.R.O. Deeds of Surrender, No. 40.

" L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xiv (i), 556.

*' Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iii, 143.

" Very few of these can be recovered, the prior was
' dative and removeable ' by the abbey, consequent!)-
his appointment is never recorded in the episcopal
registers or in the patent rolls. Dugdale only gives
the names of two.

" Pat. 14 Edw. I, m. 18, 19.

'" Ibid. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 43 d.

" Cal. Pap. Letters, v, 362.

"Dugdale, Mon. ii, 511. " Ibid.

™ P.R.O. Deeds of Surrender, No. 40 ; L. and P.
Hen. Vlll, xiv (i), 556.

' Will, of Malmes. Gesta Regum (Rolls Ser.), i, 131 ;
Matt, of VVestm. Flores Hist. (Rolls Ser.), i, 468 ;
Leiand, Coll. i, 26; Leland, however, in another place
(ibid, i, 67) speaks of .^thelbald, the son of .iEthelwulf
of Wessex, as the founder, and his brothers .iEthelbert,
./Ethelred, and Alfred as co-founders. In various
other passages the above authorities ascribe the founda-
tion to St. Elgiva, wife of King Edmund, with her
husband a great benefactor of the abbey (Will, of

2 7

to the religious woman ^Elfthrith ; ' Edwy be-
stowed on the nunnery in 956 for the love of
Christ the land of 80 manses at Donhead St.
Andrew, Easton Bassett (Wiltshire), Compton
Abbas, Handley and Iwerne Minster (Dorset).'
Edgar confirmed and renewed to the chuich
and nuns of Shaftesbury in 966 ten cassates
of land at Piddle formerly granted to them
by his grandmother Wenflede, the record of
which through carelessness had been lost.'
.(Ethelred 'the unrede ' gave in 984 the land
of twenty manses at Tisbury (Wiltshire),''' and
by another charter in looi bestowed on the
church of St. Edward the vill and monastery of
Bradford (Wiltshire) to be subject to the nuns, that
with the relics of the Blessed Martyr (King
Edward) and other saints they might find there a
refuge against the attacks of the Danes, the king
stipulating that on the restoration of peace and
tranquillity when the sisters returned to their
ancient home they should leave behind at Brad-
ford a sufficient community, according as the prior
should think fit, for its monastic state to be main-
tained.'' The chartulary of the monastery
records that in 1019 Canute, who died here in
1035,'^ made a grant of si.xteen cassates of land

Malmes. Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 186-7; Matt, of
Westm. op. cit. i, 455 ; Leland, op. cit. ii, 252 .
It may be that the similarity in the name of the first
abbess, Alfred's daughter, and that of the benefactress
who followed her and was buried in the abbey, has
led to this confusion as to the founder.

' Asser, De rebus gestis JElfredi (Camd. Soc), 19 ;
Sim. of Durham, Opera (Twysden), 150 ; Leland,
Coll. iii, 71.

' Birch, Cart. Sax. ii, 148. The date, however,
871, generally ascribed to this charter is some years
previous to that usually given for the foundation of
Shaftesbury.

• Ibid, ii, 383 ; Had. MS. 61, foL i I.

* Ibid. fol. 15 ; Cart. Sax. ii, 414.
' Ibid. 509 ; Harl. MS. 61, fol. 7.
' Ibid. fol. 4.

' Ibid. fol. 20</. ; Cart. Sax. iii, 158.

' Ibid, iii, 449 ; Harl. MS. 61, fol. 13 d.

'" Ibid. fol. 2. " Ibid. fol. I.

" Jngl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 128.

3 10

A HISTORY OF DORSET

at Cheselbourne to his servant Agemund with
the object of their ultimate reversion to the
church."

During the first century of its existence the
abbey appears under the dedication of the Blessed
Virgin, but after the translation to Shaftesbury
of the body of Edv/ard the Martyr, murdered in
978," it was called after him and became popu-
larly known as St. Edward's ; the earlier dedica-
tion, however, was never formally dropped and
the house frequently occurs, as in the Domesday
Survey, under the dedication of both St. Mary
and St. Edward.''

According to the Survey of 1 086 the abbey
at that time held the following lands : 15^ hides
at Felpham in Sussex ; ^^ 5 hides at Beeching-
stoke ; 10 at Tisbury ; 40 at Donhead ; 42 at
Bradford ; 7 at Alvediston ; 38 at Liddington ;
and 20 at Downton (Domnitone) in the county of
Wilts ;" 5 hides at Combe, and a rent of 50^.
paid by six burgesses of Milborne in the county
of Somerset ; ^' in this county the possessions of
the nuns were as follows : 20 hides at Handley ;
8 at Hinton St. Mary ; 17 at Stour ; 15 at Font-
mell ; 10 at Compton Abbas ; 10 at Melbury ;
18 at Iwerne Minster; 10 at Tarrant; 5 at
Fifehead ; lO at Kingston; l at Farnham ; 5
at Stoke ; 1 1 at Mapperton and 10 at Chesel-
bourne." In the time of Edward the Confessor
the abbess had 153 houses in the town of
Shaftesbury, now owing to the destruction of
forty-two she only had 1 1 1, she also held at the
time the Survey was taken 15 1 burgesses in the
same town, twenty vacant houses and a garden.-"
A great increase in the value of the manors had
taken place since Edward the Confessor's time
and Domesday records that William the Con-
queror had given the church of Gillingham to
the nuns in place of a hide of their manor of
Kingston on which he had built his castle of
Wareham, and had restored to them the manors
of Cheselbourne and Stour, of which they had
been robbed by Earl Harold, on the production
of a writ by the late king ordering their restora-
tion together with the manor of Melcombe,
which the Conqueror still retained for himself.
Puddle was another manor that had been seized
by the late earl."'

The Norman and Plantagenet kings by their
gifts and privileges added enormously to the
power and wealth already enjoyed by this richly-

" Harl. MS. 61, fol. 8.

'* Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 102 ; Leland,
Coll. i, 219 ; ii, 252.

" The possessions of the .ibbey for instance in
Sussex and Somerset are entered under ' Terra Sancti
Edwardi,' in Wilts and Dorset under ' ecclesia S.
Mariae Sceptesberiensis.'

'« Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, i -jb.

" Ibid, i, fol. 6ji.

'« Ibid, i, fol. 91. "Ibid, i, fol. 75.

•» Ibid. " Ibid.

endowed house."' William Rufus in 1090
confirmed to the church of St. Mary and
St. Edward and to Eulalia the abbess various
grants by different persons, each grantor bestow-
ing a daughter as a nun in the house as a con-
dition of his gift.^' Henry I confirmed the
manor of Donhead to the nuns ' for their
clothing ' to be held quit of all geld and tax,
pleas of the hundred, suits and quarrels save for
murder and theft." Stephen by his charter
confirmed the lands which Emma the abbess
had proved to belong to the abbey in the pre-
sence of Henry I and his barons.'* Henry II
took the community under his special protection
and made them free of all toll and passage."'
Richard I in the first year of his reign granted
to the abbey, and especially to the abbess Mary,
the privilege of the hundred in their manor of
Bradford.-' John count of Mortain gave the
nuns, at the special request ' of my dearest
friend the abbess Mary ' of Shaftesbury, two loads
of brushwood daily in his manor of Gillingham."'
The abbess received from Henry III a charter
for wreck of the sea in her manor of Kingston,"®
licence to hold a market and two fairs at Kint-
bury (Berkshire),'" and right of free warren over
her lands at Barton, Cheselbourne, Aimer and
Caundle (Dorset), Donhead, Tisbury and Brad-
ford (Wiltshire), and Felpham (Sussex)." Ed-
ward I by letters patent in 1290 licensed the
alienation to the abbey by Edward de Manneston
of land and two messuages in Donhead and Tis-
bury,'" and on payment of a fine in 1 304
allowed the nuns to acquire the manor of Stour
by feoffment of Ralph Wake.'' By licence of
Edward II in 131 8 Stephen Pruet, parson of
Compton Abbas, bestowed on the convent 20s.
yearly rent out of Donhead (Wiltshire) for the
provision of a light to burn through the night
in the cloister of their abbey.'* Edward III in
1337 gave a licence for the sisters to acquire
more land to the value of ;^I0 yearly." The
king in 1340 after an inquisition confirmed to
them the right to have four horse-loads of brush-

" A summary of the charters contained in the re-
gister of Shaftesbury (Harl. MS. 61) is given by
Dugdale, Mon. ii, 68.

» H.irl. MS. 61, fol. 23. " Ibid. fol. 24.

»»Ibid. " Ibid. fol. 25.

" Ibid. fol. 26. " Ibid. fol. 27.

" Pat. 54 Hen. Ill, No. 50. Confirmed by
Edward IV ; ibid. 21 Edw. IV, pt. I, m. 11.

»" Chart. R. 52 Hen. Ill, n. 12.

" Ibid. 22 Edw. I.

" Pat. 18 Edw. I, m. II.

" Ibid. 32 Edw. I, m. 16.

" Ibid. II Edw. II, pt. 2, m. 32.

'' Ibid. II Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 32. In part satis-
faction of this grant they obtained in 1348 lands
and messuages in Shaftesbur)-, Cann, Gussage St. An-
drew and Minchington (Dorset), Ke!ston (Somerset),
and Donhead St. M,.ry and St. Andrew (Wilts).
Ibid. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 13.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

wood daily except Sunday from the forest of
Gillingham.'^ Hugh le Despenser in 1343 be-
stowed a yearly rent of 10 marks from the
manor of Broad Town (Wiltshire) for the life-
time of his sister Joan, a nun in the abbey,^'
and the following year the community obtained
in proprtos usus the church of Felpham (Sussex)
of their advowson.'^ The abbess was allowed
in 1368 to crenellate the abbey for the purpose
of defence.'^ At the beginning of the fifteenth
century the convent obtained from Henry IV
letters patent inspecting and confirming the
charters granted to them by his predecessors,'*"
and in 1481 Edward IV inspected and confirmed
by his letters patent a grant of Henry III for
wreck of the sea in their manor of Kingston.''^

That popular form of religious endowment,
the foundation of chantries, was the object of
many additional grants to the abbey in the four-
teenth century. In 1326, and again in the first
year of Edward III, the community acquired
two messuages in Shaftesbury in aid of the
maintenance of a chaplain who should celebrate
daily in the church of St. Mary and St. Edward
for the souls of Edward I and all the faithful de-
parted.*^ In 1330 Walter Hervy obtained a
licence for the alienation of a toft and 8 acres
of land in Shaftesbury for the provision of a
chaplain to officiate daily at the altar of St. Anne
in the conventual church ; *^ by another licence
in 1334 three messuages, 26 acres of land, and
4 acres of meadow in the town were alienated
for the maintenance of a chaplain to celebrate
daily for the souls of Sibyl Cokyn, Thomas de
Hacche, John Kokyn, and Agnes de Hacche,
their ancestors and heirs, at the altar of
St. Thomas the Apostle.*'' Richard Poinz in
1340 made over a rent of l^s. for the provision
of a chaplain who should celebrate daily in the
church for his soul and the souls of his an-
cestors;" and in 1342 a chantry was founded at
the altar of St. Nicholas for the good estate of
Thomas Platel of Shaftesbury and Alice his wife
and for their souls after death, and the souls of
their ancestors, heirs, and benefactors.^' The

'= Pat. 14 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 6.

" Ibid. 17 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 3.

»Mbid. 1 8 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 15.

°' Ibid. 42 Edw. I, pt. I, m. 25. A complaint was
made by the abbess and the icing's tenants of Shaftes-
bury in 1 341 that many evil-doers and breakers of the
peace were going about armed, robbing and killing
their servants, and that no remedy had been provided
hitherto. Ibid. 15 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 45.

" Ibid. 2 Hen. IV, pt. 3, m. 20 ; 4 Hen. IV,
pt. 2, m. 23.

" Ibid. 21 Edw. IV, pt. I, m. II.

" Ibid. 19 Edw. II, pt. 2, m. 2 ; ibid. I Edw. Ill,
pt. 2, m. 23.

" Ibid. 4 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 18.

" Ibid. 8 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 21.

*■" Ibid. 14 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. 20.

'« Ibid. 16 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 32.

priest serving the chantry at the altar of Holy
Cross was in 1364 transferred by the bishop to
the church of Holy Trinity within the church-
yard of the monastery, and inducted therein as
perpetual chaplain with a fit salary assigned.*'
Various other chantries were established tc com-
memorate the souls of certain of the abbesses.''*
In the episcopal registers mention is made of the
chantry of St. Edward within the abbey," and
the chantry commissioners of Edward VI in
the sixteenth century made a return of three
chantries at Shaftesbury : St. Catherine's at the
altar of St. Catherine, St. John Baptist, and the
chantry of St. Anne de la Gore in the chapel
of that name within the parish of St. James."*
The abbess and convent were granted in 1386
reversion of the manor of Brydesyerd for the
support of a chaplain officiating in a place called
'leBelhous' in Shaftesbury and of the twelve
poor inmates there.'^ In the Valor of 1535
various sums were assigned by the community
in support of these twelve poor men in the
' Maudelyn ' or ' Belhous ' of Shaftesbury, who
in return for their maintenance were bound to
pray for the founders of the monastery. ^^

The endowment of the monastery was so con-
siderable and the extent of its possessions so vast
that in the Middle Ages there was a popular
saying, 'If the abbot of Glastonbury could marry
the abbess of Shaftesbury their heir would hold
more land than the king of England.' '' In the
reign of Henry II the holding of the abbess was
assessed at the service of seven knights,^' three
of whom appear to have represented her fees in
Dorset and Somerset and four those in Wiltshire.^*
In II 66 she certified the king by charter that
the seven knights she was bound to find for his
service were as follows : Earl Patrick one fee,
Anselin Mauduit, Jordan de Necche, and Thur-
stan de Huseldure a fee each, Robert Fitz-
Peter and Roger de Thoka held the fifth fee,
and the sixth and seventh were held ' against the
convent ' by Roger de Newburgh, who in addi-
tion held Aimer at a rent of 40J. and said that
he ought to hold it for half a fee, which how-
ever the abbess declared William de Glastonia
never did ; twelve other tenants held various
fractions of fees.*' Henry III by charter of

" Sarum Epis. Reg. 'Wyville, fol. 315. See Pat.
41 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 16.

*' Dionysia le Blunde, Cecilia Fovent, Edith Bon-
ham, and Margaret St. John. Hutchins, Hist, of
Dorset, iii, 36.

" According to an institution in Bishop Chandler's
register (fol. 44) the chantry of Edward, King and
Martyr, was founded at the .iltar of St. Nicholas.

" Chant. Cert. Dorset, 16, Nos. 1 7- 1 9, 95-7-

*' Pat. 9 Rich. II, pt. 2, m. 31.

" Fahr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 280.

" Fuller, Church Hist, iii, 332.

" Red Bk. of the Exch. (Rolls Ser.), i, 27, 33, 43,
54, 80.

"Ibid. 64, 65. "Ibid. I, 214.

A HISTORY OF DORSET

4 May, 1233, released to the Abbess Amicia
and her successors the demand made by the king
and his ancestors of the service of three knights
and the fourth part and sixth part of a fee in
addition to the seven already enumerated, ordain-
ing that in future the said abbess should be
accountable only for the service of seven knights,
which she admitted to be due." At the close
of the thirteenth century the Taxatio assessed
the temporalities of the abbey in the diocese of
Salisbury at ;^5o6 14^,'* in the diocese of Chi-
chester at ;^50,'' and ^^33 in the diocese of
Bath and Wells.^" The spiritualities of the
convent, reckoned only at;^i4, consisted of pen-
sions from the churches of St. James, Shaftes-
bury, Tisbury, and Bradford.*' The power and
influence in the district possessed by the abbess
can have been only less than supreme ; to her
belonged a moiety of the manor of Shaftesbury —
the other half pertaining to the king*^ — and
the custody of the vill for which she paid a
\ fee farm of j^i2.*' The patronage in her
hands and those of the community was above
that of any other religious house in the county ;
in addition to the presentation of all the churches
in Shaftesbury, at that time numbering twelve
with the abbey, and the advowson of the hos-
pital of St. John super montem, she had within
her gift the four prebends or portions for secular
priests within the conventual church, viz.,
Iwerne Minster, Gillingham, Liddington, and
Fontmell, the appointment of the various chap-
lains officiating at the different chantries, and
the presentation to the office of deacon of the
high altar within the church, collation to which
fell to the crown in the vacancy of the abbey .^
In the return of church property of 1535 the
receipts and disbursements are entered of an
official appointed by the abbess and removable
at her will, William Breton, clerk, who held the
office of sacrist of the abbey and to whom was
assigned certain rents for the maintenance and
repair of the church, the provision of bread, wine,
and other necessaries for the celebration of
divine offices, and the payment of salaries and
pensions for certain priests officiating in the
church.*'

On the eve of the Dissolution the net income
of the abbey was assessed at ^^ 1,3 29 if. -T^d. ; '*
the spiritualities of the community included the
parsonages of Bradford and Tisbury and tithes
from Barton,*' their temporalities the manors

" Chart. R. 17 Hen. Ill, m. 10.

"^ Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 183. " Ibid. 1 39.

^Ibid. 203. «' Ibid. 178, 180-1.

" Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iii, 11-13.

''In 1 39 1 Richard II made a life-grant to John Rods
of this fee farm paid by the abbess for the town.
Pat. 14 Rich. II, pt. I, m. 30.

" Ibid. 18 Rich, II, pt. I, m. 10.

" Falor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 280.

" Ibid. " Ibid. 276.

of Barton, Downton, Fontmell, Tarrant, Lid-
dington (Wiltshire), Hinton, Felpham (Sussex),
Kingston, Donhead (Wiltshire), Stour, Tisbury
(Wiltshire), Cheselbourne, Combe (Somerset),
Caundle, ' Arne,' ' Kulmyngton,' Handley, Mel-
bury, Sedgehill (Wiltshire), Berwick (Wiltshire),
Aimer, Iwerne Minster and Kelston (Som-
erset). ** But if the revenues of the abbey were
enormous,*^ the charges on the house were by
no means trifling, and the management of so
vast an estate and the direction of so large a
community called for powers of government and
organization which it is more than probable
every abbess did not possess. Whether the diffi-
culties that arose were due mainly to the too
frequent absence of these qualities or sprang
from other causes the fact remains that from the
fourteenth century, and even earlier, onwards,
the house with every outward sign and manifes-
tation of wealth and influence was continuously
crippled by insufficient means and its existence
chequered by the constant recurrence of debt
and insolvency. As regards the charges on the
house, the abbess was summoned by writ to
furnish soldiers for the field in proportion to the
number of her fees ;"* the summons to Parliament,
to which by tenure she was entitled, was omitted
on the ground of her sex. The convent, in
common with the majority of houses under the
royal patronage, was called on to provide mainten-
ance for boarders at the king's presentation,''
and was expected on the occasion of the new
creation of an abbess to furnish a pension for a
clerk at the royal appointment.'^ In addition
the king claimed a right to present a nun on
the occasion of the voidance of the abbey,"
and the episcopal registers record that the bishop
of Salisbury, on his promotion to the see, had the
right of placing an inmate in the house and of
appointing one of the nuns to act as her instruc-
tor.'* Henry V, in the first year of his reign,
presented lodonia Wodehill to the convent in
accordance with his prerogative to nominate a
nun to the abbey on his coronation." Henry VI,
in 1480, recalling this ancient privilege, presented

«* Ibid. 276-9.

^' The contrast between the wealth of Shaftesbury
and that of all the other houses in the county is per-
haps most vividly brought home to us when we read
the list of grants made by the spirituality in 1 527
towards the king's expenses in the recovery of the
crown of France ; Shaftesbury, like Glastonbury,
contributed j{^ 1,000, double the contribution of the
chapter of Salisbury and ten times the amount paid
by Sherborne. L. and P. Hen. Fill, iii, 2483.

" Pari. Writs (Rec. Com.), ii, dlv. 3, 1424.

" Close, 4 Edw. II, m. 25 a-.; 1 8 Edw. II, m. 5 </.;
13 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. \6d.

" Ibid. 19 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. l^d.

" Ibid. pt. 2, m. 17.

" Sarum Epis. Reg. Mitford, fol. 139 ; Neville,
fol. 51a'.; Blyth, fol. 40.

" R) mer, Foed. ix, 11.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Joan Archcombe, 'of good life and honest con-
versation ; ' in like manner/^ Richard III in his
first year issued letters of recommendation for
Elizabeth Bryther to be the king's ' mynchyne '
at Shaftesbury."

One of the causes contributing to the troubles
of the monastery was the excessive number of
its inmates. The pope, whose attention in 1217
was directed to the abbey by an appeal made to
him in connexion with a disputed election,'* in
1218 forbad the community to admit nuns be-
yond the number of a hundred, on the ground
that they were unable to support more or to give
alms to the poor.'' Evidently the decree was not
observed, for in 1322 the bishop of Salisbury, after
a recent visitation of the house, wrote to the abbess
and convent pointing out that they had neg-
lected the order of the Holy Father, that the in-
mates of the house were far too many for its goods
to support, and forbidding them to admit more
until the state of the abbey had been relieved.*"
Four years later, in response to a petition from the
abbess asking him to fix a statutory number,
the bishop issued an order stating that the house
was capable of maintaining 120 nuns and no
more, and until the community had been re-
duced to that number the abbess and convent
should not receive any more inmates.'^ It is
evident that this number became considerably
reduced a century later. The voting body at
the election of Edith Bonham in 1 44 1 consisted
of forty-one professed sisters and fourteen await-
ing profession [tacite professae) ; *' the total num-
ber at the election of Margaret St. John in 1460
was fifty-one ; *' at the election of Margaret
Twyneo in 1496 twenty-five professed sisters
and eleven not yet professed are mentioned ;**
at the election of Elizabeth Shelford, 1504,
twenty-eight professed and twenty-two tacitly
professed voted.*' The surrender deed of the
abbey on its dissolution gives the names of fifty-
five sisters besides the abbess and prioress.*^

The usual expedients were adopted in order to
relieve the financial difficulties of the abbey.
The sisters, after a petition setting forth the charges

" Rymer, Foed. x, 4 38.

" Harl. MS. 433, fol. zzJ.

" Three judges were appointed by the pope to
examine the case of A., nun of St. Edward's, who, as
she declared, having been elected abbess was forced
by her electors to renounce the right of her election.
The case having been tried, however, the pope, on
the petition of J., abbess of Shaftesbury, ordered the
bishop of Salisbury, the prior of Amcsbury, and the
chancellor of Salisbury to impose silence on the said
A., sacristan of the place, whose claim was found to
be void. Cal. Pap. Letters, i, 49, 61.

"Ibid. SI.

*" Sarum Epis. Reg. Mortival, fol. 140.

" Ibid. pt. 2, fol. 231. «' Ibid. Aiscough, fol. 10.

** Ibid. Beauchamp, i, fol. 34.

" Ibid. Blyth, fol. 95. '" Ibid. Audley, 126-7.

" L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiv (i), 586.

incumbent on them for the maintenance of the
statutory number of 120 nuns and the exercise
of hospitality, as well as the losses they had in-
curred through the inundation of their lands,
obtained a bull from the pope in 1343 appro-
priating to their use the church of Bradford of
their advowson." Edward III in 1365, by a
charter reciting the reduction of the house by
tempestuous winds, pestilences, and other ad-
versities, so that its means barely sufficed to
support the community or to meet the charges
incumbent on them, granted to the prioress and
nuns the custody of the temporalities of the
abbey on the occasion of its next voidance by
the death of Abbess Joan Formage.** In 1380
the sisters were allowed, in consideration of the
damage to their lands by encroachments of the
sea and losses of sheep and cattle, to appropriate
to themselves the church of Tisbury, the advow-
son of which already belonged to them.*' About
the same time Bishop Erghum made an ordina-
tion assigning a weekly allowance of 2d. to each
nun from the issues of the house with the object
of reducing as far as possible the expenditure ot
the community.'" The convent in 1382 pe-
titioned Richard II that, whereas they could
not hold out another year against their in-
debtedness unless some remedy were provided,
the king would on all future occasions of a
voidance in the abbey allow the community to
retain the temporalities in their own hands
(saving to the king knights' fees and advowsons),
rendering an account of the same to the Ex-
chequer for a year or any part of a year.'' Bishop
Aiscough in the fifteenth century sanctioned
the appropriation of the church of Gillingham to
the abbey, which, through pestilence, failure of
crops, want of labourers ' and their excessive de-
mands,' was said to be much reduced.'^

To focuss the various references to Shaftes-
bury in the episcopal registers so as to gain
some idea of the state of the monastery, apart
from its financial condition and worldly standing,
is a task of extreme difficulty. Incidents that
illustrate the inevitable defects and shortcomings
of a house are calculated to mislead in many
instances, and doubly so if accepted as repre-
senting the normal state of affairs in connexion
with a community of the size and importance

" Cal. Pap. Letters, iii, 137. This grant was con-
firmed by the bishop, and received the royal sanction ;
Sarum Epis. Reg. Wyville, i, fol. 1 3 2 <«'. ; Pat. 2 3
Edw. Ill, pt. 1, m. 17.

"* Harl. MS. 61, fol. 116. A grant of the custody
during voidance was first obtained by the nuns from
Edward I in 1285, on payment of a fine of X'°°
(Close, 13 Edw. I, m. 3 ; 14 Edw. I, m. 8). It
became the usual custom, but a confirmation of the
grant was generally obtained on every separate occasion.

*' Pat. 3 Ric. II, pt. 3, m. 14 ; Sarum Epis. Reg.
Erghum, fol. 41. " Ibid. fol. 44.

" Par!. R. (Rec. Com.), iii, I 29.

" Sarum Epis. Reg. Aiscough, fol. 60.

A HISTORY OF DORSET

of the abbey of St. Edward.'^ The house
was visited from time to time by the bishop of
Salisbury or his commissary ; he received the
profession of canonical obedience from the abbess,
and bestowed the benediction on her election.
The episcopal registers record the appointment
by him of confessors to the abbey and the recep-
tion of the profession of the nuns. An order
was sent in 1298 to Robert, rector of the church
of Donington, desiring him to enforce suitable
penance to the abbess and nuns of Shaftesbury,
who, ' for their offences against God and by the
creation of scandal,' had incurred sentence of
excommunication.'* A copy of the edict of
Pope Boniface for the stricter inclosure of nuns
was forwarded to the sisters at the beginning of
the fourteenth century by Simon of Ghent, who
announced that by the ' new constitution ' he was
bound to visit yearly the nuns subject to his
authority.'' The abbess, after a visitation in
1309, was strictly admonished not to allow the
sisters to go out into the town of Shaftesbury
save under special conditions, ' lest scandal enter
in and not without negligence on your part.' '^
Further, one of the nuns, Christina Baryl, was
ordered to be confined within the cloister of the
monastery until notice had been sent by the
bishop." The archdeacon of Dorset and William
of Braybrook, canon of Salisbury, were ordered in
131 6 to adjudicate in a dispute which had arisen
in the monastery between the abbess and certain
of the nuns.^' Joan Formage, who was elected
abbess in 1362, received a dispensation from the
bishop in 1368 to leave the abbey for a year and
reside in her manors for the sake of air and
recreation." On her death in August, 1394,
the bishop ordered the abbey to be sequestrated,
and annulled a will by which she had alienated
the goods of the house in bequests to friends,
declaring such a disposition to be injurious to
the community and contrary to the usage of
religious women. ^*"' A good deal of disturbance
and a species of interregnum ensued before the
appointment of a successor, in spite of the con-
sideration of Richard II, who granted a licence
to elect immediately on the voidance of the
abbey,'**^ and, ' in pity for the poverty of the house,'

" The register of Mitford contains a letter from
the pope to the bishop desiring him to restore Alice
Wilton, nun of Shaftesbury, to the position in the
abbey which she had forfeited by the most grievous
lapse of which a religious could be convicted, the sin
of incontinence. The bishop, in accordance with the
order, reinstated the nun, who had proved her
penitence for the offence, and declared her eligible for
all offices in the monastery save that of abbess ; Sarum
Epis. Reg. Mitford, fol. 122.

" Ibid. Simon of Ghent, i, fol. 5 d.

"Ibid. fol. 33. »« Ibid. fol. 127.

" Ibid. =" Ibid. Mortival, ii, fol. 47 d.

^ Ibid. Wyville, ii, fol. 230.

""> 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

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.

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.

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 </. ; see below, Bindon,
p. 84.

'^i Pat. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 40 a'.
" Close, 18 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 13 a'.
" Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 196.
»« L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiv (i), 575.
I II

A HISTORY OF DORSET

twenty-one years; Edward VI, in the first year
of his reign, bestowed the reversion of the
property on the duke of Somerset and his
heirs. By the attainder of the duke the estate
reverted again to the crown, by whom it was
granted to John Hannam of Wimborne Min-
ster, in whose family it remained till the reign
of William and Mary, when it came into the
Bond family."

Priors of Holme ■*

Hada, occurs 121 7-1 8''

Geoffrey, occurs 1262'"

Walter de Welham, occurs 1330"

Gerard de Noiale, occurs 1344^"

William Pope, occurs 1444"

John Wales, or Wallis, occurs 1535 and

1539"*

HOUSE OF CISTERCIAN MONKS

9. THE ABBEY OF BINDON »

A Cistercian abbey was built here in 11 72"
by Roger de Newburgh and Maud his wife, who
transferred to Great Bindon the earlier monas-
tery which William de Glastonia and Maud his
wife iiad begun to build at a spot now identified
with Little Bindon. King John, by his charter,
confirmed to the monks the site of the abbey,
2 acres of land the gift of William de Glastonia,
2 virgates in Lulworth, the manor of 'Borton,'
the land of Nottington, the land of Wood Street
with the meadows adjoining, and half a hide of
land with pasture for 300 sheep in the manor of
Chaldon (Herring) the gift of Thomas Harang.'
The founder himself bestowed on the abbey his
manor of Woolaston (Northants) with all its
appurtenances, to be held by the monks in free
alms quit of all secular suits and exaction.*

A charter of Henry III, dated 4 April, 1234,
confirmed to the church of St. Mary of Bindon '
and the monks serving God there the site of
their abbey, the gift of Roger de Newburgh and
Maud his wife, together with the place in which
the first monastery had been commenced, the gift
of William de Glastonia, the manor of Bexington,
given by Maud de Arundel by leave of King
Henry,* the land of Nottington and Luca, pur-
cliased by Gilbert de Percy from the monksof Ford
and bestowed on Bindon, the land of Hethfelton
according to the agreement between the monks
and Simon de Eneford, the land of Wood Street
which the abbey and convent held of William de

" Hutchins, Hht. of Dorset, i, 552.

" Hutchins, in his account of the priory, gives the
names of three ; Hist, of Dorset, i, 553.

" Hada, prior of Holme, is mentioned in a fine
respecting the church of Warmwell, 2 Henry III. Ibid,
i, 434, note.

■"' Duckett, Chart, and Rec. ofCltiny, ii, 123.

" Pat. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 40.

" Close, 18 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 13.

" Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, i, 553.

" ralor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 196 ; L. and P.
Hen. Vlll, xiv (l), 575.

' A ground plan of the abbey, which was visited
by the British Archaeological Associ.ition, 26 August,
1 8" I, may be seen in their Journ. xxviii, 392.

■ Cott. MS. ' Chron. S. Werburgae Cest.' Faust.
B. viii, 4 ; Hutchins, Dorset, i, 349.

Wodestert as his charter testifies, and half a hide
of land with pasturage for 300 sheep as confirmed
by the charter of Thomas Harang.' By another
charter in June of the same year, the king
further confirmed to the abbey the wood of
Stotwode, part of Hamsted wood with common
pasture, the whole land of Pulham, 150 acres of
waste, the mill of Lulworth with the land per-
taining to it and the moltura of the men of
Lulworth given by Robert de Newburgh, with
certain houses in Dorchester and all the arable
land which the monks held under the walls of
Dorchester, the gift of William Lock of Dor-
chester.*

A charter of Edward II inspecting all previous
grants confirmed to the abbot and convent lands
and rents in Lulworth, Bexington, Nottington,
Hethfelton, Chaldon, Winfrith Newburgh,
mills at Fordington, Cranborne, and outside
Dorchester, the churches of Chaldon Herring
and Fossil, and the right to hold a market and
fair at Wool, with the right of free warren in all
their demesne lands at Stockford, Wood Street,
Wool, Bovington, Lulworth, Bindon, and
Hethfelton.'

In the Taxatio of 1291 the spiritualities of the
abbey are not given ; the temporalities amount to
^^107 6;., of which j^9i 45. was reckoned from
possessions in the deanery of Dorchester,"*
£12 2s. from the manor of Bexington in the
Bridport deanery,*' and £4. from Pulham and
Winterborne Monkton in the deanery of Whit-
church.*^

' H.irl. MS. 6748, fol. 7. * Ibid.

' Bindon, like all Cistercian houses, was dedicited
to the honour of the B. V. Marj*. Dugdale cites a
charter of the reign of Henry III wherein it is styled
St. Salvator of Bindon, Alon. v, 556.

° Coker, citing ' an olde manuscript,' states ' that
Maud,' countess of Sarum, afterwards the wife of
William de Newburgh, ' was so great a benefictour
to this abbie that she was reckoned a foundress.'
Paitie. Surv. of Dorset, 76 ; Leland, Coll. i, 82.

' By inspex. of Edward I. Chart. R. 9 Edw. I,
No. 90, m. 13 ; see Cart. Antiq. Q. 18.

« Ch,irt. R. 9 Edw. I, m. 13.

' Ibid. 6 Edw. II, No3. 12-15.

"• Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 183^, 184.

" Ibid. 183.

"Ibid. 184.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

The house from the outset received much
attention and kindness from the Plantagenets.
The abbot occurs frequently in the records of
John's reign, and from various entries in the
Liberate and Misae Rolls appears to have been
employed by the king in affairs of a confidential
nature.^' On 27 July, 12 13, while staying at
the abbey, John issued letters allowing the
monks tiiirty cart-loads of lead for the purpose
of roofing their monastery, together with fifty
oak logs." During the year 121 5 the king's
treasure was dispersed about in the custody of
various monasteries, preference apparently being
shown for those of the Cistercians and Premon-
stratensians ; an order issued on 24 June of that
year directed that it should be delivered up to the
king, and an entry under date of 3 July in the
patent rolls records that on the feast of St. Peter
and St. Paul (29 June) John, while at Marl-
borough, received at the hands of Robert the
precentor a staff {haculum) set with nineteen
sapphires, and another set with ten, which had
been deposited in Bindon Abbey.''

Henry III also showed favour to the community,
to whom, in 1229 and 1247, he granted letters
of protection. '* In 1235 they received by gift
of the king an order allowing them fifty oak
logs to rebuild their church." In 1272 Henry
de Newburgh, who at that time held the advow-
son, granted the monks leave to elect whom
they would to be their patron, and in view of
past favours it is not surprising that the choice
of the brethren fell on the king and Queen
Eleanor. Henry and his consort accepted their
election, the former, by his charter, signifying
that he had taken the abbey, of which he and
his heirs were now the patrons, into his protection
and defence.'* Early in the reign of Edward I
Queen Eleanor granted to the church of St.
Mary of Bindon and the monks serving God
there, for the soul of her late husband and his
ancestors, 'our' children, ancestors and successors,
all lands and tenements in Wool which she held
by gift of Thomas de Wool, son and heir of
William de Wool, to be held by them in free
alms.''

The abbot and monks bore their share in all
charges and contributions incidental to the
tenure of ecclesiastical landowners. In May,
1278, they contributed to the 'courtesy' of
^TijOOO raised for the king by the whole order

" Rot. de Liberate (Rec. Com.), 128, 144, 146.

" Close, 15 John, m. 7, 8.

" Pat. 17 John, m. 21.

'' Pat. 13 Hen. Ill, m. 3 ; 31 Hen. Ill, m. 6.

" Close, 19 Hen. Ill, m. 12.

" By inspex. Pat. 7 Edw. I, pt. i, m. i.

" Pat. 4 Edw. I, m. 32 ; Edward I in 1275 granted
letters of simple protection to the abbot to List two
years (ibid. 3 Edw. I, m. 32) ; and a few years later
confirmed his mother's gift of Wool to the abbey (ibid.
9 Edw. I, m, 13).

in England,^" and in 1294 the abbot received
protection for a year in favour of his person and
goods in consideration of the fact that with the
rest of ' exempt ' abbots he had granted a moiety
of his benefices and goods towards the Holy
Land.2' In the reign of Edward II the house
was twice called on to assist in the Scotch war.-^
In December, 1309, John Dassh was sent in place
of William Brid to lodge in the abbey and receive
the necessaries of life,^^ and in May, 1335, in
the midst of financial and other embarrassments,
the community was requested by the king to
allow Hugh Prest such maintenance in their
house as their earlier boarder William Brid had
had.^* In return for these accommodations the
abbot received frequent grants of protection and
was permitted freely to visit the parent house at
Citeaux and to attend the general chapter of his
order.^'

It is to be regretted that however favourable
the circumstances of the house under the earlier
Plantagenets, frequent references to the com-
munity in the fourteenth century range them-
selves for the most part under the head of debt
and disorder, internal dissension among them-
selves, and open strife with their neighbours,
making up a sufficiently sordid story. The first
mention of financial insecurity occurs in the
year 1275, when Edward I appointed Henry de
Monte Forte custodian during pleasure of the
abbey, which had fallen into debt.^^ Passing over
a small incident in 1283 of a common enough
nature in those days," the first breach with
the neighbourhood occurred in 1296, when a
charge was brought against the abbot of causing
the death of brother Nicholas de Wyther of

'° Ibid. 4 Edw. I, m. 88. The Cistercians by
special privilege were exempt from the payment of all
such tithe and subsidy and at one time were inclined
to uphold their right to refuse any contribution ;
gradually, however, they found it politic to yield so
far as to give ' by courtesy ' what they declined to pay
as an obligation. ^' Pat. 22 Edw. I, m. 8.

" Close, 3 Edw. II, m. 5, ced. ; Pari. Writs (Rec.
Com.), ii, div. 3, p. 542.

" Close, 3 Edw. II, m. i 5 </.

" Ibid. 9 Edw. Ill, m. z-] d. Ten years later, in
April, 1345, the monks were ordered to send a strong
horse to Chancery for carrying the Chancery rolls.
Ibid. 19 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 16.

" On 27 July, 127S, the abbot going beyond seas
had letters of protection till All Saints (Pat. 6 Edw. I,
m. 8). In 1286 and 1290 he obtained letters of
protection to attend the general chapter of his order
(ibid. 14 Edw. I, m. 8 ; 18 Edw. I, m. 29), and in
January, 1333, he nominated attorneys to act during
hisabsence at the general chapter. (Ibid. 7 Edw. Ill,
pt. I, m. 21).

'° Pat. 3 Edw. I, m. 32. The house may for the
time have recovered itself, for it seems to have met all
the various charges of ihe reign of Edward II.

" A commission was appointed to inquire touching
those persons who had depastured the corn of the abbot
and convent at Lulworth (ibid. I 1 Edw. I, m. I2<i'.)

A HISTORY OF DORSET

Bexington, sometime monk of Bindon, and bro-
ther Maurice, also sometime monk of this place
by relatives of the deceased. A commission of
oyer and terminer was issued in February and
again in July, 1296, but the matter proceeding
too slowly for their taste the plaintiffs appear to
have taken the law into their own hands, with the
result that another commission was appointed
the following March to investigate the complaint
of the abbot against a number of persons who
had come to the abbey and imprisoned him and
carried away his goods.'' What the upshot was
we do not know ; the abbot in the same month
received a grant of protection from the king and
the matter dropped."^ Ill-feeling, however, seems
to have remained in the district, and a complaint
by the abbot in 131 5 of trespass and assault on
the part of William de Whitefield, knt., and
others provoked from the accused knight and his
adherents a counter-charge that the abbot and
monks had trespassed in his meadow and assaulted
his men, both sides at the same time claiming
to be under the royal protection.'"

The troubles of the community came to a
climax in the early part of the reign of Ed-
ward III, and the causes mainly contributing
to the state of affairs then disclosed are clearly
expressed in the king's letter of 21 May, 1329,
appointing the abbot of Beaulieu, Hugh de
Courtenay and Hugh Poynitz custodians of
the king's abbey of Bindon, lately taken into
custody in consequence of the grievous dissension
which had arisen on the question of the removal
of the abbot, resulting in the carrying away
of the goods of the house by a large mob of
people, the withdrawal of many of the monks,
and the cessation of divine ofBces and alms
founded there by the king's ancestors.'^ The
custodians appointed were empowered to collect
the revenues, recover the goods carried away,
and after reserving a reasonable sum to its
maintenance, to apply the residue to the dis-
charge of its debts and the best interests of the
house.^^ On 28 July of the same year John
Mautravers the younger and William de White-
field, knt., were appointed to the custody of the
abbey, ' now grievously burdened with debt for
want of good rule ;' '' in December the following
year, 1330, the custody was transferred to Hugh
de Courtenay, both the elder and the younger,
and the abbot of Ford.'^ The exact date of
the deposition of Abbot John de Monte
Acuto, who appears to have so grievously abused
his trust, cannot be found, but as his succes-
sor, according to the episcopal registers, was

"Pat. 24 Edw. I, m. 12, i7</. ; 25 Edw. I,
pt. I , m. 17 d.

" Ibid. 25 Edw. I, pt. I, m. 13.

'" Ibid. 8 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 4</. ; 9 Edw. II,
pt. I, m. 29 d.

" Ibid. 3 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 18. " Ibid.

" Ibid. 3 Edw. Ill, pt i,m. 18. " Ibid. m. 21.

blessed by the bishop in September, 1332,'*
a species of interregnum may have ensued be-
tween the early part of 1 33 1 and that date ; for in
January of the former year the king ordered a
commission of inquiry into the complaint of the
abbot that brother John de Monte Acuto, 'bearing
himself as a monk of the house,' with a number
of adherents had invaded the abbey, driven aw.iy
cattle and sheep to the value of j^yoo, carried
away books, chalices, and other ornaments of the
church as well as charters, deeds, and muniments,
and breaking open a chest had carried away the
seal of the abbey with which divers bonds had
been sealed, &c., to the prejudice of the house.''
In March William de Warenna and John
Fraunceys were ordered to arrest John de
Monte Acuto, an apostate monk fugitive from
the Cistercian abbey of Bindon, and on 29 April
the chief culprit together with another apostate
monk, John de Wille, was arrested while wan-
dering about the country, sometimes in secular
and sometimes in regular habit to the contempt
of his profession, and ordered to be taken back
to the abbey.'' Unfortunately, John seems to
have obtained a certain following in the neigh-
bourhood and even among the inmates of the
house, and a letter, amongst various communi-
cations addressed about this time to the king by
the brethren,'' petitions that whereas Brother
John de Montagu by favour and power had
been made abbot of Bindon, and for the
destruction he had wrought had afterwards been
deposed by the abbot of Ford, 'son visitour,' and
' for his great sins ' had been placed by the
chapter-general under perpetual ward, but by
favour of his keepers had escaped, the king will
order the abbots of Beaulieu and L .... to take
him into safe custody that he may not again
escape, and that scandal may not thence arise to
the order through his being at large.**

" Sarum Epis. Reg. WjTiUe, ii (Inst.), fol. 17.
It may be that a temporary appointment was made,
for in October, 1 33 I, a commission was appointed on
complaint by William, abbot of Bindon, that William
de Stoke and others had assaulted and imprisoned him at
Great Crawford (Pat. 5 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 15 d).

'« Pat. 4 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 7 </. ; 5 Edw. Ill,
pt. I, m. 32 d.

" Ibid. 5 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 21, g d.

" Unfortunately these letters, which with the official
records give a very vivid picture of the state of the
monastery, are all undated. They abound in com-
plaints of the insolvent condition of the house, of
the misdeeds ' dun mauveis abbe, frere John de
Montague, qui a grand droit fust oste e depose ' (Anct.
Pet. 1 1943) and of entreaties to Edward III to
come to the relief of his almoners the monks, ' qui
sent en dispersion ' (Anct. Pet. 1829-31).

'' Anct. Pet. 1830. The patent rolls record that
the late abbot having made good his escape, certain
men were appointed on i August of that year (13 31)
to retake him and conduct him back to the abbey
to be chastised according to the rule of his order.
Pat. 5 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. z6 d.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

The connexion of Bindon with the abbey of
Ford was at this pass most unfavourable for the
restoration of peace, and in November, 1332,
Edward III wrote to the abbot of Citeaux re-
citing the injuries that had been inflicted on the
monastery of Bindon ' by the indiscreet govern-
ment and detestable presumption ' of the late
abbot who, although he had been removed and
brother Roger substituted in his place, yet found
adherents in the neighbourhood and even among
the monks, and was a source of constant annoy-
ance and loss, so that the dispersal of the monks
was feared unless a remedy could be provided,
and requesting that John and his accomplices,
* who go armed to the scandal of the order,'
should be removed to places far distant to do per-
petual penance and stay there until the state of
the house could be reformed, and that as the
abbot of Ford, ' to whom the house of Bindon is
subject by affiliation,' encouraged John in his
wrong-doing the abbot-general would reserve
the visitation of the house to himself and commit
it to some discreet abbot in whom he had full
confidence.^"

The following January, 1333, Roger, the
newly appointed abbot, with the intention of
attending the general chapter of his order,
nominated his attorney in England for a year,**
and on 3 February the abbot of Beaulieu and
Roger de Guldene were appointed to the custody
of the house, ' burdened with debt by neglect
and bad rule of abbots.' *^ A commission of oyer
and terminer was issued on I May of that year
touching the trespasses of William le Rede of
Wool and others in imprisoning Roger the
abbot of Bindon and nine of his monks while
the abbey was under the king's protection and in
the custody of those appointed by him."

The sordid story continues to run on with its
tale of debt, which the appointment of custodians
failed to relieve," and of ill-feeling that refused
to be placated.'*' On 11 April, 1348, the mayor
of Dover was directed to allow the abbot of
Bindon to cross to the Roman court, whither he
was bound in the interests of his abbey,*^ and in

" Close, 6 Edw. Ill, m. 3 J.

" Pat. 7 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 29.

" Ibid. m. 21. The abbot and convent in that
year made a lease of the manor of Crich. Ibid. 7
Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 10. " Ibid. pt. I, m. 7 J.

"The Close Rolls of 1334., 1335, 1338, 1339,
1344, I347> •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.

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 </.

" He was summoned to convocation in that year.
Ibid. Mortival, il, fol. 31.

" Close, 6 Edw. Ill, m. 3 d.

" Pat. 5 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 15. This was probably
merely a temporary appointment.

" S.irum Epis. Reg. Wyville, ii (Inst.), fol. 17.

«" Ibid. fol. c,-j d.

*' Cal. Pap. Letters, iii, 204.

** Sarum Epis. Reg. Wyville, ii (Inst.), fol. 28612'.

'' Hutchins, op. cit. " Ibid.

" Sarum Epis. Reg. Aiscough.

*° Ibid. " Hutchins, op. cit.

^' Sarum Epis. Reg. Beauchamp, il, fol. 104.

""^ Ibid. Langton, fol. 230 ; Blyth, fol. 47 d.

" According to Hutchins (op. cit.) in that year
John Brjan was made rector of Chaldon Herring by
apostolic dispensation.

"' Hutchins, op. cit.

'' L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv, 6047.

" Cf L. and P. Hen. VIII, vii, 821 ; Valor Eccl.
(Rec. Com.), i, 421 ; L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiv (1),
519.

»' B.M. Seals, Ixii, 24.

" Deeds of Surrender, No. 21.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

HOUSE OF CISTERCIAN NUNS

10. THE ABBEY OF TARRANT

KAINES '

The Cistercian nunnery of Tarrant Kaines,
commonly said to be of the foundation of
Richard le Poor of Salisbury, owed its early
origin to the ' ancient and renowned familie
of Keines,' a member of which — Ralph de
Kahaynes — according to Coker, ' in Richard the
first's time built neare his mansion house a little
monasterie for nunnes which his son William de
Kahaynes much encreased.'^

Accepting the tradition which identifies these
nuns with the sisters to whom was addressed
that famous treatise, the ' Ancren Riwle,' that
modern authority has attributed to Bishop Poor,'
and assuming that the ' Riwle ' was written
about the commencement of the thirteenth
century, we find that the community at that
time consisted of three ladies with their domestic
servants, and that they are described as being
' for your goodness and nobleness of mind
beloved of many, sisters of one father and of
one mother, having in the bloom of your youth
forsaken all the pleasures of the world and
become anchoresses.'^ It also appears that the
sisters, though they had renounced the world to
apply themselves to pious exercises and devout
meditations, had not as yet joined any existing
order, for the bishop advises them ' if any
ignorant person ask you of what order you are,
say that you are of the order of St. James,'
which indeed had no existence in actual fact, but
whose rule {Epist. i, 27), and especially the latter
part of it, * to keep unspotted from the world,'
was specially to be observed by them. It was
probably by the counsel and consent of their
benefactor that the community finally adopted
the Cistercian rule, and it may account for the
tradition soon after prevailing that the bishop was
their actual founder. The step must have been
taken before his translation to Durham in 1228,
for the profession of Clarice, abbess of Tar-
rant Kaines, to Bishop Richard le Poor as
ordinary can still be seen at Salisbury.^

' In the modern parish of Tarrant Crawford.

^Particular Surv. of Dorset (1732), 106. As
Ralph de Kahaignes is returned in the Great Roll
of the Pipe of 1 167-8 for the knights' fees at
which he was assessed in the county, and William
de Chahaygnes in the Roll of 1 186-7, 't seems
more than probable that this ' little monasterie ' was
founded during the reign of Henry II. Red Bk. of the
Ex('h. (Rolls Ser.), i, 44.-64.

^ The '■Ancren Riivle' (The King's Classics), 1905.
Preface. * Ibid, p. 145.

' Among a number of professions' kept in the muni-
ment room of the cathedral. The nuns are described
as belonging to that order in a royal mand.ite

The earliest of a series of charters granted to
the abbess and convent during the reiijn of
Henry III is dated 24 July, 1235, and confirms
to God, the church of All Saints, and the nuns
serving God there all previous gifts, including
those of the original founder and his son. Of
the gift of Ralph de Kahaynes : the church of
All Saints, the manse before the church and the
croft near it, the mill before the manse, all the
downs called ' Thorendon,' ' Holdeley,' and
' Bushenden,' \\ acres of land in Goldecroft,
the land called Medgare, and 2 acres of meadow
at the hedge of Crawford, 2 acres of wood at
Fordham Serlon,' 2 acres of wood in Chetred,
and pasture for a plough-team of oxen with the
oxen of the grantor, a virgate of land in Spettis-
bury. William de Kahaynes added to his
father's benefactions a tithe of all the bread made
in his household wherever he should be in any
part of his demesne 'saving the bread ofRenges,'
a tithe of all salt meat whether of pigs, sheep, or
cows killed in his household each year, one barrel
of his prime and good ale for Christmas with
another barrel of second ale, or malt to make as
much, yearly ; the prior and convent of Christ-
church, Twyneham, among other gifts gave two
mills in Tarrant and pasturage for sheep and
cattle, &c. ; the manor of Woodyates was the
gift of William de Woodyates ; Richard, bishop
of Durham, bestowed all the right which John de
Reygate gave to him in the third part of a hide
and in a messuage and garden in Pimperne.'

Bishop Poor's interest in the house he had
practically re-founded did not diminish on his
translation to Durham ; he made over to the
sisters the custody of the manor of Tarrant
Kaines granted to him by Henry III during
the minority of William, son and heir of
William de Kahaynes, the king sanctioning
the transfer on 7 February, 1237, ^"'^ ^^ ''^^
same time granting letters of protection to the
abbess of the ' Blessed place upon the Tarrant.' *
Two months later the bishop turned his
steps homeward to die in his native place.'

of 1233 prohibiting the exaction of any subsidy
from the Cistercians. Close, 17 Hen. Ill, m.

' The church appears originally under the dedica-
tion of All Saints, but as all abbey churches of the
Cistercian order were ipso facto dedicated in honour
of the Blessed Virgin the church of Tarrant Craw-
ford subsequently appears under the double dedication
of St. Mary and All Saints (See Tanner, Notitia, Dor-
set, xxviii), though it is also given as the church of
St. Mary only. Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 265.

' Chart. R. 19 Hen. Ill, m. 4.

' Pat. 21 Hen. Ill, m. lo.

' Tarrant is generally assumed to be his birthpKice.
Leland, Itin. iii, 62.

A HISTORY OF DORSET

Matthew Paris describes the scene at Tarrant
on 13 April, 1237, when, surrounded by the
household, at the hour of comph'ne, devoutly
following the prayers, Richard le Poor at the
words, ' I will lay me down in peace and sleep '
passed peacefully away.^" Before his death he
had sought to secure the welfare of this loved
community by placing the house under the pat-
ronage of Queen Eleanor, wife of Henry III, who
is afterwards occasionally termed the founder,
the house becoming popularly known as Benc-
dtctus Locus Reg'tne super Tarant. In October
following the death of their benefactor Henry III
confirmed to the sisters the grants set out in
his previous charter of 1235 with fresh addi-
tions, including the gift by William de la
Prentice of all his right in the hermitage of
Mannington, at the same time notifying that he
had taken under his protection the abbey of
Tarrant ' which Richard, sometime bishop of
Durham, founded.' In 1265 the king bestowed
on the abbess and convent — styled ' of the Cis-
tercian order' — for the good of his soul and
the soul of Eleanor, queen of England, ' our
consort,' his manor of Hurstbourne Tarrant
in Hants for the service of half a knight's
fee.i'

The year following the bishop's death the
abbey was called on to give burial to a sister of
Henry III, Joan the wife of Alexander II of
Scotland, who fell ill while on a visit south to
her brother, and dying 4 March, 1238,
bequeathed her body to the nuns for burial ; '-
the king in the same month testified that he
was bound to assign to the abbess and convent,
within fifteen days of Easter next, land to the
value of ;/^20 a year according to a bequest
made to them by his sister Joan, sometime
queen of Scotland.^' A few years later, in
1246, a grant was made to the Abbess Maud
that the sheriff of Dorset should henceforth be
charged with the provision of two wax lights to
burn day and night in the abbey, one before the
host and the other before the place where the
body of the late queen lay buried.'*

It would be impossible to enumerate all the
gifts made to this favoured house in the course of
the thirteenth century. A charter dated 2 1 April,
1242, sets out at considerable length all previous
grants, many of which had been included
in the charters of 1235 and 1237 already

'° Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 479.

" Rot. Fin. 50 Hen. Ill, m. 8.

" Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 479.
The sheriff of the county lodged an account in
the Exchequer for 1 00/. which at the king's com-
mand he had paid for having an effigy of a queen
carved in marble stone, for the carriage of the s.ime to
the abbey of Tarrant and there placing it over the
tomb of the queen of Scotland.

" Pat. 22 Hen. Ill, m. 8.

" Ibid. 30 Hen. Ill, m. 3.

mentioned.^' On 5 December, 1252, Henry III
granted to the nuns for the soul of his sister
Joan that they and their men should be quit
of suits of the county and hundred court
and of sherifTs tourn, that they might claim the
amercements of their men before the king's
justices whether in eyre or on the bench ; the
right of free election ' as fully as obtains in
the Cistercian order,' and the right of free
warren in all their demesne lands in Dorset,
Wilts., and Sussex, provided they should not be
within the king's forest.^' Edward I exhibited
the same regard shown by his father, and at the
instance of his wife, Eleanor of Castille, restored
to the nuns the wood of Beer which John de
Bohun had formerly bestowed on them without
licence of the king, with the result that it had
escheated to the crown.'' The manor of Bin-
derton, the gift of Bernard de Sauve, was
included in a charter of confirmation granted in
the eighth year of the king.'*

According to the Taxatio of 1291 the yearly
income of the convent came to £,i2i> 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*.

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 </.

"The 'Jncrert Ritv/e' (the King's Classics), 316,
287.

^ Sarum Epis. Reg. Simon of Ghent, fol. 73. The
abbess, in common with Bindon and the heads
generally of Cistercian houses, was blessed by the
bishop, to whom she made profession on her
election.

" Pat. 21 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, No 21.

for ;^20 paid by him to the abbess and for other
benefits.'^ In 1383 Sir Robert Rous, whom
Leland mentions as a great benefactor of the
sisters,^' desired by his will to be buried in the
abbey, ' the place of St. Richard the Bishop ; '
among other legacies bequeathing to every nun
at Tarrant 40d., to every sister 2s., and an annual
rent of 8 marks for the provision of four priests tcj
celebrate at the altar ' near the body of St. Richard
in St. Michael's church in Tarrant Kaines,' and
two priests in the church of St. Mary at Tarrant
Crawford ; to the abbess he left a pair of gold
beads with other plate engraved with his own
and his wife's arms.'" On 23 February, 1389, a
licence was granted for the alienation of the
manor of Tarrant Keynston by Robert, bishop
of London, Walter Clopton, William Gascoigne,
and John, parson of Keynston, to the abbess and
convent for the ordination of a chantry of two
chaplains in the abbey to celebrate daily for the
souls of Robert Rous, knt., Joan his wife, his
parents and friends, and to perpetuate various acts
of piety for the benefit of their souls and the
souls of the father and mother of Joan, according
to the ordinance of the bishop. '^

The fifteenth century is almost bare of records
relating to this house. Henry IV on 3 March,
1403, inspected and confirmed letters patent of
Richard II in 1394, confirming the charter of
Henry III for the right of free warren within all
the demesne lands of the abbey.'' The grant
may have been specially made in consequence of
a complaint lodged by the Abbess Joan in May,
1402, that Robert Turbulville, ' chevalier,' and
others had transgressed her right of free warren
at Beer, hunted and fished her preserves, felled
her trees, and assaulted her servants.'' The epis-
copal registers record that a dispensation was
granted to the abbess on 9 September, 1406,
allowing her to have divine service celebrated for

" The corrody was to consist of a weekly allowance
of bread and ale, with a daily pittance of fish or flesh
'such as each nun received,' a cart-'.oad of wood and a
cart-load of litter yearly at Michaelmas. Pat. 5 Ric. II,
pt. I, m. 31. By insfeximus.

" Leland, Itin. iii, 62.

^^ The terms of the will, if correctly reported by
Hutchins {Hist, of Dorset, iii, 122), are somewhat per-
plexing, as the bishop of Durham, Richard Poor, was
buried in the church of Tarrant Crawford or Litde
Crawford, and not in the church of Tarrant Kaines.
The two churches are described as ' not 4 furlongs apart,'
and were united in the seventeenth century. Ibid,
iii, 122. See a paper of the Rev. E. Highton, Last
Resting Place of a Scottish Queen and a great English
Bishop.

^' Pat. 12 Ric. II, pt. 2, m. 20. This foundation
is not entered in the list of chantries suppressed by
the Acts of Henry VIII and Edward VI.

" Ibid. 4 Hen. IV, pt. 2, ra. 37.

" A commission was appointed to investigate the
case. Ibid. 3 Hen. IV, pt. 2, m. 17 </. ; 5 Hen. IV,
pt. I, m. \zd.\ pt. 2, m. 29 -s*.
89 12

A HISTORY OF DORSET

herself and her household wherever she might be
w::hin the city and diocese of Salisbury.'^

'Terenta of the Nuns' was included among
religious houses of the Cistercian order to be
visited by the abbot of Ford in virtue of the
royal commission, January, 1535," but no report
is recorded of its condition.

The Valor of the same year gives the abbey a
clear annual income of jr2l4 7;. <^d., the abbess
claiming to be discharged of a yearly allowance
of £t, for an annual distribution of bread to the
poor on Maundy Thursday in commemoration of
' Eleanor, sometime queen of England, the
foundress."^ The convent held the par-
sonages of Little Crawford, Woodyates, and
Hanford, with a portion out of the church of
Tarrant Keynston.'^ The abbey was at that
time void, conge cTHire on the death of Edith, last
abbess, being granted in August of the same year.'*
The names of the principal officers are given as
follows : — Margaret Lynde, prioress ; Anna
Cheverell, sub-prioress ; Joan More, cellarer ;
Alicia Hart, sacrist.'^

Margaret Russell, who succeeded, held office
till 13 March, 1539, when with the sub-prioress
and eighteen of her nuns she surrendered the
abbey into the hands of the royal commissioner,
John Smyth. A pension of j^40was assigned to
the abbess, to the prioress ^^6 1 31. 4^., to the sub-
prioress lOOi., and to the seventeen remaining
sisters sums ranging from £^ to 66;. 2id. each.*"

William Joliffe, chaplain, later received a pension

of SV- 4^^-"

After the Dissolution the abbey, with the
manor of Preston or Tarrant Crawford, was
granted in reversion to Sir Thomas Wyatt ; *-
a few years later it came into the hands of
Richard Savage and W. Strangways.*'

Abbesses of Tarrant Kaines

Claricia, elected about 1228"
Emelina"

Maud, occurs 1240"
IsolJa, occurs 1280^'
Elena, elected 1298 ''^
Anne, occurs 135 i *'

Clemence de Cernyngton, occurs 1377*°
Joan, occurs 1402 '^
Avice, occurs 1404'"
Edith Coker, died in 1535 "
Margaret Russell, elected 1535," surrendered
March, 1539"

The thirteenth-century pointed oval seal
attached to the surrender deed of the abbey
represents on a corbel the Virgin with crown,
standing, the Holy Child on the left arm. Be-
fore her the abbess kneeling holds up a flowering
branch. In the field two trees.'*

The legend runs : —

jjl SIGILLVM . CONVENTVS . DE . TARENT

HOUSES OF KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS

II. THE PRECEPTORY OF FRIAR
MAYNE

It cannot exactly be stated when the preceptory
of Friar Mayne was erected, though there is ample
evidence that the Knights Hospitallers possessed
property here and at West Knighton early in the
reign of Edward I.^ Thus it is reported among
the inquisitions returned 3 Edward I that Thomas
del Boys gave to the hospital of St. John of

" Sarum Epis. Reg. Mitford, fol. 1 15 </.

« L. and P. Hen. Fill, viii, 74.

^ Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 265-7. " Ibid.

"* L. and P. Hen. Vlll, ix, 236.

'' Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 267.

*» L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xiv (l), 515.

" Add. MS. 19047, fol. 6.

" Dugd-ile, Mon. v, 628.

" Tar.ner, Votltia, Dorset, No. xxviii.

" Her profession to Richard le Poor, bishop of
Salisbury, cannot be later, as in that year he was
translated to Durham.

" Her profession on election, undated, can be seen
in the muniment room at the cathedral at Salisbury.

« Chart. R. 24 Hen. III,m. 3.

*' Hutchins, Hist, oj Dorset, iii, 121.

*' In that year she did homage to the bishop on her
election ; Sarum Epis. Reg. Simon of Ghent, i, fol. 33.

Jerusalem land in Kyngeston or Knighton which
used to do suit and service at the hundred court,
and that this service valued at li. had been with-
drawn by the prior and brethren." In 1290 the
prior of the order obtained from Edward I a
charter of free warren in all the demesne lands
of his manor of Mayne,' and in the Taxatio of

•' Cat. of Pap. Letters, iii, 407.

"> 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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,

" 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</. ; to the sacrist for five wax candles to
be burnt round the bier, and two on the altar
during the mass, and for bell-ropes, ibd. ; to
those ringing the bells, 8^. ; the remainder of the
20;. should be distributed to the poor of the
parish by the advice of the sacrist according to
their necessities, thus : — to one, id. ; to another,
2d. The said Richard Hodgekynnes should
receive yearly £10, and his servant or usher

40J., and he should present a yearly account,
within Michaelmas and the Feast of All Saints,
of his receipts and expenditure in the presence of
the dean, or, in his absence, of the sacrist, and of
the senior chaplain of the chantry of Thomas
Brembre, and it should be deposited in a chest
with three keys whereof one key should be in the
custody of the dean, or, in his absence, of the
sacrist, another in the custody of the senior
chaplain, and the third should be kept by Richard
Hodgekynnes himself and his successors.'^

The deanery was held on the eve of the
Reformation by the famous Reginald Pole, and
according to the Valor of 1535 was worth
^^29 8j. \d. clear.*" The office of the sacrist,
held by Thomas Yeroth who also served the
'Redcottes' Chantry founded in the chapel of
the hospital of St. Margaret and St. Antony
within the manor of Kingston Lacy,*' was
valued at ^^5 9;. i^d. clear.*^ The incumbents
of the four prebends, Richard Sperkeford, John
Starkey, Thomas Myllys, and George Lylly,
received respectively the following stipends : —
^15 5j. id.,li6 15s. 8^2'., ^15 13^. 4^^., and
£12 191. The number of chaplains attached to
the Brembre or Great Chantry had been reduced
from four to three, their names being given as
Walter Gardener, Edward Thorpe, and John
Ase, or Ace as he afterwards appears ; each
had a stipend of £•] lis. lod. Edward Laborne,
the schoolmaster and chantry priest attached to
the foundation of the late countess of Richmond
and Derby, had a net income of ^9 I li. 2d.*^

In the return of the commissioners, appointed
under Edward VI to take the value of the pos-
sessions of colleges and chantries and to report
on their plate, goods and ornaments, the ' college
or free chapel of our Sovereign Lord the king in
Wimborne ' was said to be worth ^5 1 ^s. 6d.,
with 'rents resolute' of £6 131. ^.d. and fees
£6 6s. 8d., reducing the clear income to
;^3^ 5^'** The sacrist's office after deducting
'rents resolute' of j^3 14s. lod. was returned
at £5 2s. 4.d. clear.** The Great Chantry, with
a deduction of £10 2s. \d. in ' rents resolute,'
was worth ^^34 is. ^d., and had the following
' jewels ' and ' ornaments ' : — Three chalices
weighing 55 oz., three pairs of old vestments
worth bs., two table borders, and one ladder 2s.

Item I challice belonging to St. James weighing 5 oz.
2 basons of silver and gilt gyvty to the kinges Majestic
by the parishioners of Wymborne so it [is] said =
50 oz. Total 8/., 1 10 oz."

" A copy of the original of this deed is given by
Hutchins, Hiii. of Dorset, App. 3, iii, 271-3.

'" yalor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 273.

*' For account of this chantry see under hospitals,
p. 106.

" Falor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 273.

" Ibid. 274-5.

*' Chant. Cert. Dorset, 16, No. 24..

" Ibid. 25. *' Ibid. 27.

I I I

A HISTORY OF DORSET

The chantry of Margaret, countess of Rich-
mond, was returned at a clear income of
£(> 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 </.

'" Ibid. Mortival, fol. 172.

*' Ibid. Wyville, ii (Inst.), 40.

"' Ibid. Wyville.

■"' Close, 19 Edw. Ill, m. 22 </. ; 21 Edw. Ill, pt. I,
m. d d.

^' Sarum Epis. Reg. Erghum, i (Inst.), fol. 15.

" Ibid. Mitford, fol. 67 d.

The fourteenth-century pointed oval seal of
Prior Richard found at Sydling, near Frampton,
represents the Virgin half-length, the Holy Child
on the left knee, in the field on the left a crescent,
on the right a star. In base, under a pointed
arch with a carved gable topped by a cross on
either side, the prior, half-length, in prayer."
Legend : —

^ s' RICARDI PRIORIS DE FRVMTVNE.

34. THE PRIORY OF LODERS

This alien priory, cell to St. Mary of Monte-
bourg, was founded about the beginning of the
twelfth century in connexion with the manor
which Richard de Jledvers had given to the
Norman abbey, said to be of his foundation.
Henry I by charter confirmed the grant and
testified to Roger, bishop of Salisbury, 1107-37,
and Aiulf the chamberlain (sheriff of Doriet),
that for the souls of his father and mother, of
himself, his wife and children, and all his rela-
tions, he had granted to the abbey of Montebourg
and Urse its abbot that the manor of Loders,
which Richard de Redvers had given by his per-
mission, should be assessed at five hides henceforth
and for ever both in geld and other dues.'''
Baldwin, earl of Exeter, confirming the gifts of
his father to the abbey, which was to be wholly
quit of all dues to the donor and his heirs,
specifies the manor of Loders with all its appur-
tenances and the church, in Dorset, and the
manor, appurtenances, and church ofAxmouth,
in Devonshire ; '* these are included in the charter
of Henry II ratifying to the abbey the previous
gifts of the reputed founder and his family."

Besides the church of Loders the abbot of
Montebourg held in Dorset before the end of the
twelfth century the chapel of St. Andrew of
Bradpole, the gift of William de Moreville ;*^ the
cliurch of Powerstock, the gift of Roger Arun-
del ; ^~' and the church of Fleet granted by Hawy-
sia Redvers, the sister of Earl Richard,'* the last
two being confirmed by Jocelin, bishop of Salis-
bury, in II 5 7.'' About the year 1215 the abbot
and convent of St. Mary, Montebourg, released

" B.M. Seals, Ixii, 411^.

"' Cal. Doc. Trance, 313.

^ Ibid. 314.

" Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1097. Among other grants
to the abbey by Henry II was one directing that the
house, which was under his protection, should enjoy all
such liberties and dues as it enjoyed in the time of
his father ; and another stating that the abbot and
monks should be free of toll and passage and of all dues
wheresoever they should go or whatever they should
buy, provided it should be for the use of the monks.
Cal. Doc. France 319.

" Ibid. 316.

" Chart, of Salisbury in Ttvelfth and Thirteenth Cent.
(Rolls Ser.), 26.

"Ibid. 28. "Ibid. 29.

116

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

to Bishop Herbert Poor and the chapter of Salis-
bury their churches of Powerstock and Fleet,'''*
and by a mutual arrangement were allowed to
retain the church of Loders and chapel of
Bradpole as a prebend in Salisbury, thereby
entitling the foreign superior to a stall in the
cathedral choir and a voice in the chapter.'^ In
the Taxatio of 1 29 1 this prebend of Loders ' with
the chapel ' was assessed at ;^20, the vicarage at
£S->^' 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.

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 </.

' Ibid. 7 Ric. I, m. 17. * Liber Niger, i, 80.

' Hardy, Itin. Arch, xxii, 125 sqq.

' He reigned from 27 May, 1 199, to 18 Oct. 1 2 16. Four years of this time were spent in Normandy,
for two more years the Itinerary is wanting.

' See Pipe R. of the bishopric of Winchester, p. 76. {Studies in Econ. and PoUt. Sci.)

' See, inter alia, Pipe R. 2 John, m. 7 ; Pipe R. 10 John, m. l\ d. ; Pipe R. 2 John, m. 7 ; Pipe R.
4 John, m. 7.

' Ann. Marg. (Rolls Ser.), i, 26 ; Pat. R. 4 John, m. 3. '" Ann. U'int. ii, 68.

" Pipe R. 5 Hen. III. " Ann. Londiniensis (Rolls Ser. 76), i, 17. " Ibid.

" Gervase, op. cit. ii, 102.

135

A HISTORY OF DORSET

the refusal of his miUtary tenants to accompany him on the French expedi-
tion.' This he repeated in 1213, again landing at Studland.'

After the Interdict (1208) and the excommunication of the king (1209),
Peter of Pontefract or Wakefield, a seer, prophesied that John would reign
fourteen years and no more. John imprisoned him in Corfe Castle till the
time for fulfilment of the prophecy should have expired.^ The surrender to
the papacy took place in 121 3 (23 May), the fourteen years were up, count-
ing from Ascension Day, 1 199 (from which John's regnal years were dated),
on 27 May. The prophecy therefore came true, in a sense, and the king had
the prophet executed in Corfe Castle.*

On the landing of the Dauphin in 12 16, John at first entrenched himself
in the castle, but Louis, instead of advancing upon him, stayed to harry
Hampshire. Nevertheless John, who had been at Corfe and Wareham till
17 July ^ (the Dauphin landed 20 May), withdrew to Bristol.

One of the barons who had helped to call in Louis was William
Longespee, the natural son of Henry II. He had married Ela, daughter and
heiress of William earl of Salisbury [ob. 1196), grandson of Edward of
Salisbury, and successor to his Domesday fief. This had included the manors
of Canford and Kingston, and the manor of Great Kingston had been added
to the Salisbury inheritance by the marriage of the son of Edward of
Salisbury with the daughter and coheiress of Ernulf of Hesding, successor
to many of the lands of Ulward the White. Another of the rebellious
barons was William of Montacute, sheriff of Dorset and Somerset from
1206 to 1208, grandson of Drogo of Montacute, who at the date of
Domesday had been in Dorset a tenant of the count of Mortain."

On the death of John the castle of Corfe was handed over to the regent,
William Marshall (whose nephew John had already held Dorchester Castle^),
by Peter de Mauley, one of John's Poitevin favourites,' and formerly sheriff
of Dorset and Somerset, and constable of Corfe. In 1221 he was again
sheriff", and in 1222 was made governor of Sherborne Castle, presaging the
downfall of Hubert de Burgh, who had himself up to 1206 held the manors
of Corfe Mullen and Milborne, with lands in Winfrith.' Queen Eleanor
of Provence, wife of Henry III, held lands at Warmwell, in the hundred of
Winfrith.^" The connexion with Dorset of another foreigner, the great Earl
Simon, arose through his mother. The elder Earl Simon, ' the scourge of
the Albigenses,' had married Amicia, sister and heiress of Robert de
Beaumont earl of Leicester, sometimes also called ' Fitz Pernell ' from his
mother Petronilla, daughter of Hugh of Grantmesnil. Earl Robert had
mortgaged at one time the manor of Blandford Forum to Aaron, a Jew of
Lincoln," but became repossessed of it on the seizure of the latter's
property. The inheritance of the earls of Leicester came originally from
Roger de Beaumont, who as a very old man was holding at the time of the

' Ralph of Coggeshall, Chron. (Rolls Ser. 66), 152-4 ; Rog. Wend. Chrm. (Rolls Ser. 84), iii.
' Walt. Covent. Chron. (Rolls Ser. 58), ii, 212 ; R. Cogg. op. cit. 167 ; Rog. Wend. op. cit. iii, 261, 262.
' Walt. Covent. op. cit. ii, 209 ; Rog. Wend. op. cit. 240.

'Walt. Covent. op. cit. 212 ; Rog. Wend. op. cit. 255 ; Ann. Men. 278; Chron. Th. Wyka (^oVi»
Ser. 36), iv, 58. ' llin. ' Dom. Bk. i, 79.

' Dugdale, Baronage, i, 599. ' Ibid, i, 733-4 ; Ralph of Coggeshall, op. cit. 66, 190.

' Liber Niger, i, 102 ; Ejton, op. cit. 120.

'" HunJ. R. (Rec. Com.), 103. Plac. de Quo Warranto (Rec. Com.), 181.

" Pipe R. 5 Ric. I, m. 8.

136

POLITICAL HISTORY

Domesday Survey inter alia the valuable manor of Sturminster Marshall
(involving also Lytchett Minster and East Aimer), once Archbishop Stigand's.
In 1258, Henry III granted to the great Earl Simon (who had married his
sister Eleanor) the manor of Bere, which he had from his father.

During the Barons' War Corfe came again to the front. In 1258 by
the Provisions of Oxford it was placed in the hands of Stephen Longespee ^
brother of William, who had been killed on crusade in 1250. It was one of
the three castles which, six years later, on the surrender of the Prince of
Wales, Simon placed in the custody of his son the younger Simon, to prevent
the effectual sending of foreign troops by the queen. ^ Its connexion with
the de Montforts ended with the captivity there of Aimery and Eleanor de
Montfort, who had in 1275-6 been taken at sea off Bristol.^

The de Montfort lands in Dorset, on the fall of the great earl, lapsed
to the crown. Edmund, son of Henry III, brother of Edward I,* who in 1267
was made governor of Sherborne Castle, was granted Shapwick ; ^ Kingston
and Blandford went to Henry de Lacy, grandson of John de Lacy (made
earl of Lincoln 1232), who was son-in-law to Hawise, sister of that Ran-
dolf of Chester (o.s.p.) who had helped Henry III at Lincoln in 12 17. For
this he was rewarded with the earldom of Lincoln, being nephew of the first
earl, William of Roumare, who was himself nephew and heir of Robert
son of Gerald, who, in Domesday, held Corfe Mullen, Lye, Ranston, and
Povington. Henry de Lacy received full investiture of the earldom in 1272.
In 1258 he had married Margaret Longespee, the above-mentioned heiress.

The Quo Warranto of 1275 did not, in Dorset, deal with the greater
barons, with one exception. For the most part those summoned were
ecclesiastics, such as the abbesses of Tarrant and Shaftesbury, the abbot of
Cerne, and the dean and chapter of Salisbury. Their offences were mainly
of the nature of taking wreck of the sea, or free warren, without authority.
Among the local secular land-holders, William Ic Moyne, summoned for
taking free warren, wreck of the sea, and assize of bread and ale, in Winfrith
and Owermoigne, pleaded that he held in chief of the king by serjeanty, and
that his ancestors had had these rights.* Walter de la Lynde, summoned for
the same cause, answered on the first count, a grant of King Henry's, which
not improbably later gave rise to the legend of the White Hart of Blackmoor.
The only great baron, among the secular land-holders, was Gilbert of Clare
earl of Gloucester. Three years earlier the Hundred Rolls^ stated that, for
years past, he had diverted to his own court Helwell, which formerly owed
suit to the hundred court of CuUiford Tree. In 1275 he was summoned for
encroachments on the royal rights in the hundreds of Rowburgh, Haslor,
Culliford Tree, Pimperne, and Ugscomb. He alleged in answer a grant of
Henry I, made at Marlborough. The matter was ordered to be further
inquired into.^ He was also accused of taking free chase on the highway
between Shaftesbury and Blandford and ' over the hill from the west,' with a

' Provisions of Oxf. ; Tit. Les Nums des Cheveteins Chasteaus le ret. Stubbs, Chart. 392 ; j^nn.
Burton (Rolls Ser.), i, 453.

^ j4nn. Wig. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 453 ; Stubbs, Charters, (ed. 1895), 409.

' Thom. Wykes, Chron. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 267 ; Gervase, op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 284.

* Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), 97. ' Patent R. 51 Hen. Ill, m. 8.

' Abbrev. Plac. (Rec. Com.), 184. ' Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), 10 1.

' Ptae. Jbbrev. (Rec. Com.), 183, Rot. 5 d.

2 137 18

A HISTORY OF DORSET

list of further geographical details. To this he returned that a perambulation
of the bounds and chase of Cranborne, in the reign of King John, had deter-
mined the rights of the earls of Gloucester. Further encroachments were
alleged against him in the hundred of Combsditch ; but it was admitted that
he had assize of bread and ale, and wreck of the sea, in the manors of
Weymouth, Portland, Wyke, and Elwell.^

Such checks upon the power of the great territorialists, though in them-
selves negative, were assisted by the parallel movement of increased privileges
of town-dwelling communities. The fact that such definition of status and juris-
diction occurred somewhat late in Dorset does not imply that the powers
now formally legalized had not hitherto been exercised. It would seem that
the number of royal boroughs in the county had tended to make for peace
between the burgesses and their overlord. In no case is there sign of
previous strained feeling between the community as such and the overlord who
grants the charter. The charters were therefore not extorted perforce, but
were the result of handsome pecuniary compensation. Henry III gave
charters to Bridport and Shaftesbury in 1252,* by which the former was in-
corporated, while Shaftesbury (whose mayor witnesses a charter in 1352)'
obtained freedom that its burgesses should not be impleaded outside the
borough during the visits of the justices in eyre, and that they should elect
from among themselves two coroners to determine the pleas of the crown in
the said vill. Weymouth, granted by Henry I to the monks of St. Swithun,
Winchester,* and exchanged by them with Gilbert of Clare for other lands,'
passed by the marriage of Gilbert's granddaughter Elizabeth to Lionel duke
of Clarence (son of Edward III), who then obtained for the town certain
liberties. Sherborne was never a borough, but belonged to the bishop of
Salisbury.' Melcombe, Bere Regis, Lyme, and Newton received charters
from Edward I,^ by which the former obtained the usual freedom from extra-
burghal impleading, and that the burgesses should have their town at an
annual fixed fee-farm rent in perpetuity. Bere and Lyme became free boroughs.
The men of Wareham for many years had paid 100 marks to have their town
at fee-farm rent.* It received a charter from William Longespee,^ as did also
Poole, probably about 1248.'° Corfe Castle and Blandford were boroughs by
prescription, but were not formally incorporated till 1576 and 1606 respec-
tively.'^ Dorchester, which had hitherto paid ^^20 by tale or f^iT. blanch for
the fee-farm rent of the town,'^ an arrangement on a somewhat uncertain foot-
ing,'' obtained the perpetuation of this scale in 1337/* having only obtained
from Edward I that they might ' make at their own expense a prison to
detain there the persons indicted for trespass and felony.' "

' Plac. Abbrev. (Rec. Com.), 183, Rot. 5 d.

' Madox, Hist. Exch. 250, 290 ; Browne-Willis, Hot. Pari, ii, 460-1 ; Mayo, Municip. Rec. of the
Borough of Shaftesbury, 3. ' M.iyo, Municip. Rec. of the Borough of Shaftesbury, 3.

' H. J. Moule, Calendar of Weymouth Charters, 3.

' Hutchins, Dors, ii, 428. ' Ibid, iv, 208.

' Browne-Willis, A'o/. Pari, ii, 446 ; Pat. 19 Edw. I, pt. i, m. 22 d.; Chart. R. 13 Edw. I, No. 136.

' Pipe R. I 2 John, la. ' d. ; rep. I 3 John [nova oblata).

' Hutchins, Dors, i, 82. " Sydenham, Hist. Poole, 154, 78.

" Hutchins, op. cit. i, 471-2 ; Browne- Willis, Not. Pari. (ed. 1716), ii, 391.
" Dorchester Corp. MSS. A. 30 ; Madox, Hist. Exch. 195.
" Bro%vne-Willis, Not. Pari, ii, 418.

" Dorch. Corp. MSS. loc. cit. ; Chart. R. 11 Edw. Ill, m. 3, No. 26
"- Dorch. Corp. MSS. loc. cit.

138

POLITICAL HISTORY

The towns quarrelled among themselves as to their status and jurisdiction
all through the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In 1432 Poole obtained
an Act of Parliament reducing Melcombe for a time from a port into a creek,
and erecting itself into a port.^ It was erected into a county by Letters
Patent of 1568, but the borough was still subject to the authority of the
Lords-Lieutenant of Dorset, the Privy Council, the year after, sending a
special letter to ensure this.^ The burgesses of Dorchester in 1445 succeeded
in enforcing certain jurisdictions as against those of Bridport.' They had
already (14 14) drawn up by-laws for the governance of their town.*

Eleven towns sent representatives to Parliament at one time and another.
Dorchester, Bridport, and Lyme sent them continuously from 1295,^ Shaftes-
bury from 1297,° and Wareham from 1302.^ Weymouth and Melcombe
(the latter summoned in 1305 and 1306, but not replying) were represented
from the reign of Edward II onwards.* Sherborne was represented at the
Great Council held in 1344.' Blandford was represented in Parliament on
two isolated occasions^" (i 305 and 1329). Poole was represented in 1341,
1363, and 1 369, and then not again till 1453 or 1455, after which it returned
members continuously.^^ Corfe Castle returned no member till 1572.'^ The
knights of the shire during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were
drawn '' from that class of secondary landholders which furnished the ' new
men ' of the Tudor county-administration. Their forefathers appear for the
most part as knights of the great feudatories, but themselves inconspicuous.
The families of Mowbanks (or Maybank), Turberville, Newburgh, Sifrewast,
Goviz, Herring, Matravers and Filliol (many of them commemorated in
place-surnames) now begin to come into prominence as representing the
county in Parliament. It is not till the reign of Edward VI that the well-
known names of Strangways and Horsey occur in this connexion.

In spite of the growth of popular freedom, the local influence of the
great barons was still strong in 131 1, when Gaveston fled to the west. The
king was compelled to issue a proclamation (30 November) ordering search
to be made for him. Dorset was mentioned as one of his probable hiding-
places.'* Gilbert of Clare was the king's close friend, and Gaveston's brother-
l in-law ; and Henry of Lacy ^' (who had only just died, and had, indeed,
ended his days in the county) had before his death come to an understanding
with the king, probably with reference to Gaveston.'* Alice, daughter and
heiress of Henry of Lacy and Margaret of Salisbury had, it is true, married
Thomas of Lancaster, the son and heir of Edmund, son of Henry III, who
held, in his own right, the manors of Kingston, Fordington, and Bere,''
together with other Dorset manors,'* both in his own right and in that of

' ffeymouli darters, i, 26 ; Sydenham, op. cit. 4, 5.

' Browne- Willis, Not. Pari, ii, 407 ; Sydenham, op. cit. 179 sqq.

' Dorch. Corp. MSS. A. 9, B. 2. * Ibid. ' Dorchester Domesday.'

' Hutchins, op. cit. ii, 356, 12, 51. ' Browne-Willis, Not. Pari. 11,478, 483.

' Hutchins, op. cit. i, 84. * Ibid, ii, 433, 452-

' Browne-Willis, op. cit. i, 87. '° Ibid, ii, 391.

" Hutchins, op. cit. i, 25. " Ibid, i, 471.

" See list in Hutchins, op. cit. i, p. xlv sqq.

" Rymer, Foedera (orig. ed.), iii, 294. " Vide supra.

'* Cal. Docts. Scot, iii, 177.

"Duchy of Lane. Misc. Rec. xi, 37 a'. 69 a'.; FeuJ. Aids, i, 17 ; Chart. R. 8 Edw. I, No. 73, m. 7, No. 37.

'* Duchy of Lane. Misc. Rec. xi, 55.

139

A HISTORY OF DORSET

his wife Aveline,^ daughter of Isabella de Fortibus, Lady of the Isle of Wight.
But his father-in-law's death was so recent that his influence would no doubt
avail, for a time, to shelter Gaveston against the Earl of Lancaster. After
the execution of the latter, in 1322, his widow. Countess Alice, remarried
without the royal assent. Her estates were seized, and most of them were
given in 1323 to the younger Despenser,' who had married Eleanor, elder
daughter of Gilbert of Clare, and had livery of her purparty of his lordships
and lands.'

Edward II was for a time confined in Corfe Castle before he was taken
to Berkeley. One account even gave it as his place of execution.* Hence
probably arose one version of the story of his brother Edmund of Kent. It
was said that the earl, being anxious to restore his brother, was made the
victim of a plot by which a certain friar was persuaded of the truth of the
tale that the king was still alive and in Corfe Castle. To this end the friar
was smuggled into the castle, and was shown the supposed king. Reporting
to the earl, the latter was persuaded to incriminate himself by a letter to the
brother, whom he supposed still living, though captive : and this letter was
used by Isabella and Mortimer as an excuse to ruin and execute him. It is,
however, probable that Stow's account is much too detailed, and that the
details given result from a mixture of the two facts of the temporary im-
prisonment of the king at Corfe, and of the application by the Earl of Kent
to a certain friar to raise his brother's spirit for him.^

The Mortimers appear in 1285 as already holding lands in Dorset.
Edmund Mortimer earl of March had lands in Winterborne Steepleton,
and held Chilcombe, which, however, he subinfeudated to the prior of
St. John of Jerusalem, as did Roger Mortimer, lord of Chirk, his manor
of Stottingway in the hundred of Culliford Tree.* Simon de Montacute
{pb. 1 3 17), in return for services in Edward's Welsh campaign in 1277,
received additions to the Dorset lands which had descended to him from
the original Drogo de Montacute of Domesday Book, tenant of the count of
Mortain in Nyland and in Toller.' In 1299 he was made constable of Corfe
Castle. His grandson William, who helped Edward III to arrest Mortimer,
was rewarded by grants of land forfeited by him, including Sherborne Castle,
Corfe Castle, and Purbeck Chase.* Later, Simon obtained also the manor of
Canford,' which had passed from Henry de Lacy and Countess Margaret to
their daughter Alice. On the death of Thomas of Lancaster she remised it
to the crown, who granted it to the Earl of Surrey for life, and then to
Hugh le Despenser, and on his forfeiture to William de Montacute the
elder." Later again he obtained the manors of Marshwood, Wootton,
Worth, Frome Whitfield, and Poole. '^ In 1337 he was created earl of

' SeeDugdale, Baronage, ii, 114 ; Genealogist, May, 1905 ; Feud. Aids, \, 15, 17, 19, 22, &c.

'See Cat. Anct. Deeds, A. 214, 215, 4587, 249, 250. ' Dugdale, Baronage, i, 392.

* Ann. Bermondes. (Rolls Scr.), iii, 472 ; Vita Edtcardi Secundi (Rolls Ser.), 76.

'See Leland, Collectanea, \, 686 ; Stow, Chron. 129 ; article on 'Edmund of Kent' in Diet. Nat. Bicg.;
Bond, Corfe Castle, 23.

^ Feud. Aids, i, 3, 6, 20. See Hutchins, op. cit. ii, 845, where it is included in the hundred of
Ugscomb.

^ Dom. Bk. i, 79. 'Pari. R. ii, 606 ; Chart. R. 4 Edw. Ill, m. I, No. 2.

' Chart. R. 9 Edw. Ill, m. 6, No. 26 ; Close, 2 Ric. II, m. 23.

" Chart. R. 1 1 Edw. Ill, m. 26, No. 54.

"Ibid. 9 Edw. Ill, m. 3, No. 16 ; 10 Edw. Ill, m. 18, No. 36.

140

POLITICAL HISTORY

Salisbury, and his son William, the second earl, in 1356 came to an agree-
ment with the Bishop of Salisbury about the long-disputed custody of Sher-
borne Castle.^ On 31 July, i 381, he was appointed captain against the rebels
in Dorset and Somerset ; but the rebellion did not come to a head in
Dorset. His great-grand-daughter and heiress Alice, by her marriage to
Richard Neville (eldest son of the earl of Westmorland by his second wife,
Lady Joan Beaufort, daughter of John of Gaunt), took the inheritance to the
Nevilles. After the death of their son at the battle of Barnet it was granted
by Edward IV to his own brother George (whom he had made duke of
Clarence) on his marriage with Isabel Neville. The lands of the Duke of
Clarence included the manors of Todber, Iwerne Courtney, Ibberton,
Ranston, Wraxall, Chilfrome, Kentcombe, Mapperton, Puncknowle, Toller
Porcorum, and the castle and manor of Corfe.^ The Edmund Mortimer
of the reign of Richard II had married Philippa, daughter and heiress of
Lionel duke of Clarence, third son of Edward III, who had died seised
of the manors of Marshwood, Cranborne, Tarrant Gunville, Pimperne,
Steeple, Wyke, and Portland, and the boroughs of Wareham and Wey-
mouth.* On her mother's side (as grand-daughter of the coheiress of
Gilbert of Clare) she enjoyed also many Dorset manors.* The heir to their
grandson Edmund, who died in 1425, was declared to be Richard duke of
York, who accordingly had livery of his lands. ^

John of Gaunt had succeeded, in right of his wife Blanche (who was
sister and heiress of Maud, daughter of Henry duke of Lancaster, brother and
heir of Thomas, executed after Boroughbridge), to the manors of Kingston
Lacy, Shapwick, and Maiden Newton, the Chase of Wimborne Holt, and
the hundred of Badbury.' This formed the nucleus of the Beaufort connexion
with Dorset, the Yorkists, as has been said, being well represented also.
The two Beaufort sons of the Duke of Lancaster who were laymen en-
joyed the Dorset title. John, the eldest, was created marquis of Dorset in
1397, but degraded in 1399. In 1402 the Commons petitioned the king to
restore to him the name and rank of marquis, but he himself was opposed to ;
their request on the ground of the novelty and foreign sound of the title.'
His son Henry died, while yet a minor, seised of the castle and lordship of
Corfe. Thomas, third of the sons of John of Gaunt by Catherine Swinford,
was created earl of Dorset in 141 1 and duke of Exeter (for life only) in
1 41 6. He died without issue in 1426. Edmund Beaufort (his nephew
and heir, and son of John, first marquis) succeeded as earl of Dorset in 1441,
and was created marquis of Dorset in 1442, for his services at the relief of
Calais.* His elder brother John duke of Somerset had succeeded to the
lands of his grandfather John of Gaunt, and thus it came about that the Lady \
Margaret Beaufort, his daughter, and the mother of Henry VII, was born at •
Kingston Lacy. Edmund, the second marquis above mentioned, was killed
at the battle of St. Albans in 1455, and left three sons, Henry, Edmund, and
John, of whom the youngest, John, was killed at Tewkesbury. In 1452
Henry VI made a grant to Queen Margaret of lands in Dorset, mainly

' Close, 29 Edw. Ill, m. 36. 'Dugdalc, Baronage, ii, 164.

'Ibid. 168. Mbid. i, 150.

'Ibid. 1 5 1-2 ; Jc/s o/P.C. (ed. Nicholas), iii, 94-5.
* Dugdale, op. cit. ii, 1 14. ' Ibid. 122.

'Pari. R. 20 Hen. VI, No. 3 ; Jcti o/P.C. (ed. Nicholas), v, 209.

141

A HISTORY OF DORSET

in the neighbourhood of Weymouth.' She landed at Weymouth in 1471,
and was joined there by Somerset. It is said that many Dorset men took
part in the succeeding campaign of Tewkesbury. -

The title of marquis of Dorset was granted by Edward IV to Thomas
Grey of Ruthyn (son of his queen, Elizabeth Wydville) in 1475, and he
intrigued for the absent Henry Tudor.' On his accession Henry granted
Corfe Castle and manor to his mother ; on her death Henry VIII granted
them, together with the Isle of Purbeck, to the Duke of Richmond and
Somerset. On his death they once more reverted to the crown,* and later
were again granted to the Duke of Somerset, this time to the Protector. On
his attainder they again reverted to the crown, Elizabeth finally granting
them to Sir Christopher Hatton.'

Dorset was associated with the rebellion of Perkin Warbeck in two
different manners, answering to the two phases of that rebellion. The under-
lying motive of the first stage of the rising was protest against extortionate
taxation. This ended, in June (1497), with the defeat of the Cornishmen at
Blackheath. A purely personal sentiment for Warbeck began in the west
country with his landing in Cornwall that September. It crumbled
away on his flight.

The first rising found sympathizers all over the shire. The fines after-
wards levied extend pretty generally throughout it. But the names of the
more important families are absent from the Exchequer Roll of Accounts for
the twelfth year of the reign (ending 21 August, 1497, ^•^- before the
second rising began), which gives the list of fines levied. The Horseys,
Strangways, Binghams, Trenchards, Martins of Athelhampton, Delalyndes,
Mortons, and Rogers of Bryanston apparently held aloof.* The boroughs of
Dorchester and Bridport, and seven hundreds are implicated. The famous
merchant, John Williams of Dorchester, was among the fined. A Turberville
was fined in the hundred of Bere Regis. The monasteries sided generally
with the commonalty in their disloyalty. The inhabitants of Abbot's Fee
in Sherborne were fined nearly ;!^40, the abbot of Bindon ^^20, and the
tithings of Cerne Abbas and Milton Abbas respectively £1^ and >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.-<d been held con-
tinuously for the Parliament since the beginning of the war), ' raising the posse com.' SymoniTs Diary,
24 Sept. 1644 (Camd. Soc).

" Walker, Hist. Discoursa, 80-8.

" Walker, op. cit. 98. Digby to Rupert, 20 Oct. 1644. Add. MSS. 18781, fol. 297.

" Walker, op. cit. 165.

155

A HISTORY OF DORSET

was forced to fall back before him, and thus to abandon the idea of making
him fight at Shaftesbury, to cut him off from the garrison round Oxford.
Manchester ^ at Harefield (Hertfordshire) haggled incessantly, declining to
join Waller at Shaftesbury, but expressing his willingness to join Essex at
Newbury.

The second battle of Newbury (27 October, 1644) marks a fresh stage
in the development of the war. It impressed upon the Parliament the
unwisdom of trusting to local levies (which had failed as signally in Dorset
as elsewhere), and it revealed the existence of the peace-party under Man-
chester and Holies. The ultimate overthrow of the king, even in his
chosen stronghold the west, was involved in the determination to reorganize
the military forces, and in the demonstration of the impossibility of com-
promise. The former resulted in the new model army of the following
spring : the latter was the result of the private negotiations of Holies and
Whitelocke with the Royalists.

The situation in Dorset in November was marked by an even division
of forces. The king had Shaftesbury, Sherborne, Portland, and Corfe,
while his enemies held Lyme, Weymouth and Melcombe, Dorchester,
Wareham, Poole, and Bridport. Of these, Shaftesbury, dominating the vale
of Blackmoor from its hill fortress, Sherborne, the as yet impregnable castle,
Portland peninsula, whose guns commanded the harbours of Weymouth and
West Bay, and Corfe, strong naturally and artificially, were individually
the more valuable assets. Dorchester, a country town in a plain, and half
surrounded by water-meadows, was, in spite of the great sums spent upon it,*
unable to withstand serious attack. Lyme and Poole* had suffered so
grievously already that, as fortifications, their value was much depreciated.
But the possession of a series of coast towns, which included all the good
harbours in Dorset, was of more importance to the Parliament than the
maintenance of isolated fortresses, however strong. These, at best, could do
no more than furnish troops to harry the immediate neighbourhood, while
Lady Bankes at Corfe had no men to spare, even for this purpose, beyond
the bare maintenance of her hold upon the castle.* The possession of the
seaports hindered communication with the queen at St. Germains, and drove
a wedge between the Royalist districts of the south-west and of Hampshire.

Many gallant sallies were made this autumn (1644) by Sir Lewis Dives,
step-brother of Lord Digby, and step-son of Lord Bristol, to whom Sherborne
Castle belonged. In October he ^ had been appointed serjeant-major-general
of the king's army in Dorset, and made Sherborne his head quarters.*
In November the well-known Vandrusques was appointed to command the
Dorset Parliamentary Horse.'' Dorchester was more than once occupied
by each party in turn for a day or two at a time, in the course of the autumn
and winter : for after the fiasco of June, 1643, both sides had tacitly agreed

' The House voted (2 1 Sept.) that Manchester and Waller should join forces against the king. Holies,
M.P. for Dorchester, in vain urged that Essex should be included in this combination.

' / 1 9,000 was spent on the fortifications the year before ; Hutchins, Dorset, ii, 343.

' ' Poole was in great distress and scarcely tenable' ; Commons Journ. App. 17 (10 June, 1644).

* Sir John Bankes died 28 Dec. 1644.

' For the frequent omission of the final 's' in Dives or Dyves see note, Gardiner, Hist. Gi. Civil IVar,

' Walker, Hist. Discourses, 99. ' Cal. S.P. Dom. 1644-5, PP- 85> "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 </.

182

MARITIME HISTORY

Dorset waters." But in many instances the so-called piracies were merely
cases of seizing enemy's goods in neutral ships and would, later, have merely
provided suits in the Admiralty Court. Others can have had no such
explanation. In 1322 a Plymouth ship was attacked for a whole day by
crews hailing from Weymouth and Portland who, having at last driven her
to Lyme, there boarded, ransacked, and scuttled her.

The constant warfare of the reign of Edward II caused continual
demands to be made upon the ports. In 1308 Poole, Weymouth, and Lyme
were each ordered to send one ship manned by 42 men for the Scotch war;'-
in the following year Wareham is named among the passage ports of the
south coast.'^ A large fleet was required in 13 10, so that Poole, Wareham,
Weymouth, Melcombe, and Lyme were assessed for one vessel each.^* A
still greater effort was necessary in i 3 1 1 ; Poole was linked with Lymington
for three vessels, Wareham was again asked for one, Lyme for two, and
Weymouth, no doubt with Melcombe, for two.'^ In this case Southampton
and Dartmouth were the only towns on the south coast, exclusive of the
Cinque Ports whose organization does not admit of comparison, which sent
three vessels each, so that we have here a measure of the relative importance
of the ports. In i 3 i 3 thirty of the best ships between Plymouth and Shore-
ham were selected for service, for which Dorset may have supplied one or
more ; in 13 14 there was another heavy levy for the Scotch war, for which
Poole and Wareham sent one ship each, Lyme two, and Weymouth and
Melcombe two."* The exhaustion of the exchequer now forced the king to
obtain vessels from the ports at their own cost, a demand in such contrast to
the methods of Edward I that it must have brought home to shipowners the
possible disagreeables of the crown service. In this way John de Norton
was sent to the towns between Southampton and Falmouth in 13 16 to
persuade them to set out as much shipping as they could at their own
expense 'for better keeping of the English sea.'" This was a request ; the
next year came a command for ships to serve one month at the charge of the
towns, and afterwards at the king's cost ; Wareham was coupled with
Beaulieu Abbey for a vessel, the other Dorset ports being set down for one
each.'' In 13 19 the period of service at the expense of the towns was extended
to three or four months,"' and the coast, generally, must have welcomed a two
years' truce in 1320 with Scotland.

Besides their warfare in the service of the state several of the counties
found themselves strong enough to carry on private wars of their own. In
August, I 32 1, the king issued inhibitions to the men of the Cinque Ports on
the one side, and on the other to those of Poole, Lyme, Weymouth, and
Melcombe in Dorset, ordering them to desist from the mutual homicides,
robberies, and ship-burnings which they had been perpetrating.*" The
Dorset ports were not fighting alone, for Hampshire, Cornwall, and probably
Devon, were their allies in this county war, but that they should have
been sufficiently strong and wealthy to contend with the Cinque Ports at this
time shows their rise into importance.

=' Pat. 5 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 24. =" Close, 2 Ediv. II, m. 22 a'.

" Ibid. 3 Edw. II, m. I9«'. " Rot. Scot. 3 Edw. II, m. I.

" Pat. 4 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 7. '= Rot. Scot. 7 Edw. II, m. 6.

" Close, 9 Edw. II, m. i 3 </. '* Rot. Scot. 1 1 Edw. II, m. 17.

" Ibid. 12 Edw. II, m. 3. "Close, 15 Edw. II, m. 32^., 31^.

183

A HISTORY OF DORSET

The Scotch war was renewed in 1322 ; the ports were asked for naval
aid to serve at their own expense as long as they could, and afterwards at that
of the king. A thirteen years' truce with Scotland was arranged in 1323,
but war with France then threatened, and in May, 1324, the preparation of
a large fleet was ordered ; Weymouth was put down for ten ships, Poole,
with its members, for four, and Lyme for two.*^ Apparently this levy v/as
considered a nuisance by those immediately concerned in satisfying it, for we
find by a writ of June that some of the masters and mariners of Lyme, Poole,
Weymouth, and Wareham had ' eloigned ' themselves and their ships when
the order was received, for which the king expressed his intention of punish-
ing them.*' From the account of wages paid to those who obeyed we glean
remarkable information concerning the size of ships of this period. From
Weymouth came two of 200 tons each, one of 140, and one of 120 tons ;
from Melcombe one of 120 and one of iio tons; from Poole two
of 160 tons; and from Lyme one of 160, and one of 140 tons. For
the moment there was a possibility that the Dorset ports would move
into the first rank.** Isabella proceeded to France in 1325 to nego-
tiate a peace between her husband and her brother, but it soon became
evident that she was going to sacrifice the former in favour of her son.
In 1326 invasion was seen to be imminent, and in August officials were
nominated to survey and take up all ships of 50 tons and upwards.** For
the southern fleet the place of concentration was Portsmouth. Early in
September it was decided to strengthen the royal fleets still further by calling
upon those who had not been affected by the first levy to contribute to the
equipment of more ships. Melcombe was charged with three ships and 76
men, Weymouth two ships and 82 men, Poole six ships and 163 men,
and Lyme five ships and 164 men.*' It will be noticed that Bridport is
absent from all these lists, and the fact that it does not appear in the minute
survey of 1326 shows that it was known not to possess any sea-going craft.**
There was no harbour,*' but some sort of shallow river exit, unfit for ship-
ping of any size, must have existed and this had gradually deteriorated since
the Saxon era. Such aid as it could give probably went to assist Lyme.

A short war with Scotland marked the accession of Edward III, but
there were no naval operations on a large scale. The Cobb of Lyme, which
probably dates from the reign of Edward I, when the town was making such
progress,*' is the subject of a writ in 1328 ; it was then much decayed, and a
toll for five years on all merchandise was granted for its repair.*' It was said
to be built of timber and stone, no doubt in the same way as is shown plainly
in a map of the reign of Henry VIII. '" Another Scotch war commenced
in 1332, and for some years general arrests of shipping followed each
other in quick succession. At last the towns were becoming impatient
of the injury to commerce, due rather to the embargoes which preceded
the actual taking up of ships than to the levies themselves ; moreover the
Scots had the unofficial assistance of France and Flanders, and for the
first time carried on an effective maritime war. There were signs of

♦' Close, 17 Edw. II, m. 1 1 </., 9 </. " Ibid. m. b d. " Add. MSS. 26891, fol. 50.

" Close, 20 Edw. II, m. I I rf'. *Mbid. m. 8. " Pat. 20 Edw. II, m. 21. "Po/Ap. 189.

*' Ante; p. 181. Lyme \v.is incorporated in 1284, but the prosperity of the town must have followed the
construction of the Cobb, which must, therefore, be early Edward I, if not of the reign of Henry III.
" Pat. 2 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m 15. '» Post, p. 197.

184

MARITIME HISTORY

restiveness in several parts of the kingdom. Edward met the difficulty by,
in appearance at least, taking his subjects into his confidence, and in Decem-
ber, 1336, sent a representative round the coast to explain ' certain things
near the king's heart.' " Also, he summoned delegates from the ports to
meet him at Westminster and discuss matters when, we may be sure, social
and other influences were brought to bear on them ; Weymouth, Melcombe,
Poole, Wareham, and Lyme, were all invited to send their burgesses. ^-

France declared war formally in 1337, and expectation of invasion grew
acute in Dorset and Hampshire, where beacons were held ready and keepers of
the coast appointed. The anticipated blow fell upon Portsmouth in i 337, and
on Southampton in 1338 ; but nothing is known to have happened in Dorset
in either year. The statement in the Inquisitiones Nonarian of 1340" that
Portland had been burnt and devastated probably relates to 1339, because
there is a writ of that year discharging the men of Studland, Swanage,
WhiteclifF, and Herston of certain liabilities in consideration of the injuries
suffered in a recent maritime raid." The landing here and at Portland is
likely to have been the work of the same squadron. Edward went to
Flanders with an army in 1338, and the usual demands for shipping were
made, Wareham sending one vessel, Melcombe three, Weymouth and Poole
six each, and Lyme five.*" The French fought chiefly with hired Italian
vessels, and although they were unable to win any striking success they were
in superiority at sea until the great victory of Sluys, in 1340, restored our
supremacy for many years. By that time the strain of a period of more or
less unsuccessful maritime war, and of commercial losses, was telling upon the
English reserve of shipping therefore the sheriffs of the coast shires were
ordered to prevent any sale of ships to foreigners.'* In consequence of the
losses suffered by the ports it was necessary for the crown to come to their
assistance, so that when those of the south and west promised, in 1340, to
equip seventy ships of 100 tons and upwards as far as possible at their own
cost, the Council undertook to help them with money ' as an especial grace.'"
No doubt some of the Dorset ports obtained a share of the royal favour. To
deal with the difficulties of the situation another advisory council of ship-
owners and shipmen was summoned to meet at Westminster in 1341 ; '** to
this Weymouth and Poole each sent a single representative, whereas the
great ports sent two each. The plan of holding what was a subsidiary
maritime Parliament must have been found to have its advantages, for it was
repeated in 1342, 1344, and 1347. In 1342 and 1344 Poole, Lyme,
Weymouth, and Melcombe sent delegates; in 1347 Weymouth was omitted.

Complications arose in Brittany in 1342 through the death of the duke
without direct heirs, leading to the dispatch of a large fleet and army under
Sir Walter de Mauny, in March, while Edward himself crossed later in the
year. In one fleet alone there were 357 vessels, of which Poole sent four,
Weymouth and Melcombe four, and Lyme one."" An undated list, probably

" Close, 10 Edw. Ill, in. 4 </. " Rot. Scot. 10 Edw. Ill, m. 3 d.

■" Op. cit. (Rec. Com.) 50. " Close, 13 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 7.

^■' Misc. Bks. of Exch. Tr. of Rec. 203, fol. 2881^. We h.ive here an opportunity of testing the accuracy
of the chroniclers. Stow (Chnn. [ed. 161 5], p. 235) sa}S that Edward crossed with 500 ships; the pay sheets
show that, altogether, 338 were in commission from July to November, I 3 38.

^ Rymer, Foed. v, 210. " Rot. Pari. (Rec. Com.) ii, 108. " Rymcr, Focd v, 231.

"' Chan. Misc. •^. The Inq. Nonarum of 1340 notes that a great part of L)'me was then destroyed by
the sea.

2 185 24

A HISTORY OF DORSET

relating to another fleet prepared for this expedition, gives a total of 119
vessels, of which Poole sent three barges and Weymouth four.*" "When Edward
returned from Brittany in March, 1343, he landed at Weymouth,'^ but there
were reasons why his visit was not likely to be very welcome. After his
arrival at Brest in the previous October, many of the transports had deserted,
' leaving him and his army in very great peril.' There could have been no
secret about the fact that he intended to make an example of the transgressors,
although the first writs relating to the matter did not issue until May. Two
Weymouth vessels had left him, and if the owners or others concerned were
present at his arrival in the town they probably lived through some un-
pleasant minutes ; the men of three Poole ships and one of Lyme had also
committed the same offence.*- Altogether, from all the counties, 293 ships
and their masters were scheduled, and it is certain that, at least in some cases,
the owners were severely punished by fine or confiscation. The sum of
upwards of ^(^3,000 was levied in fines varying in amount from 6s. Sd. to
j^i8o ; the owners of a Poole ship paid ^^35, and those of another of Wey-
mouth £4.0.^^ Usually, although threats were frequent and the possible
penalties heavy, owners escaped lightly, the shipping interest being too
powerful and important to be offended without serious consideration.

There was a truce with France from January, 1343, which lasted, except
for small violations on either side, until the campaign of Crecy opened. For
Edward's passage, a great fleet — from 1,000 to 1,600 sail, say the chroniclers
— was collected, and another attended the siege of Calais. The original
record, said to be a Wardrobe Account, containing a list of the fleet at Calais,
appears to have perished ; the existing copies, which offer internal evidence
that the original MS. was in some places nearly or quite illegible when it was
transcribed, are of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. There
are discrepancies in these MSS. in the details relating to many of the ports,
but in Dorset the figures are in agreement except in the case of Weymouth.
Lyme sent 4 ships and 62 men ; Poole, 4 ships and 94 men ; Wareham,
3 ships and 59 men ; of the six MS. copies available, five assign Wey-
mouth 15 ships and 264 men," but the sixth gives it 20 ships with the same
number of men." Melcombe, and the whole district around, must be in-
cluded in Weymouth ; with Melcombe it was evidently growing a big place.
Its great neighbour to the east, Southampton, sent 21 ships to Calais ; Ply-
mouth, to the west, rapidly growing into a powerful naval port, sent 26 ; with
both it compares favourably, in view of a late start and some obvious dis-
advantages, but both without doubt possessed bigger ships than Weymouth
and Melcombe although they do not appear in these lists. The mercantile
and maritime importance of the towns is indicated by an order of 1 347 directing
the bailiffs to treat Venetian ships in a friendly manner;''^ this associates them

" Chan. Misc. ^'j. The great ports sent ships as well as barges, e.g. Southampton five ships and one barge.

*' Close, 17 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 23 J. " Ibid. m. 4.2'. ; P.it. 17 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. i 7 «'.

" Pipe R. 21 Edw. Ill, m. 29.

''' Stowe MSS. 570, fol. 23 ; ibid. 574, fol. 28 ; Harl. MSS. 3968, fol. 130 ; ibid. 246 ; Ravvlinson
MSS. (Bodleian) C. 846, fol. 17.

" Cott. MSS. Titus, F. iii, fol. 262. The ships belonging to the eighty-three ports enumerated are nearly
all small ones. Large vessels would only have gone aground oft' Calais at that time ; small coasters of light
draught were required. The Calais Roll is often quoted as a measure of the maritime strength of England
in 1346, but, even if it were reliable, it is plainly nothing of the sort. It may, however, be a guide to the
.imount of shipping engaged in the coasting trade. ^ Close, 21 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 8.

186

MARITIME HISTORY

with only six other ports in England, and we may therefore infer the
occasional arrival of a Venetian galley either for trade or for shelter. In
1352 Weymouth and Melcombe were the only ports in Dorset to which a
writ was sent, repeating the inhibition on the sale of English vessels to
foreigners, which is further evidence of their strength in shipping/^ Mel-
combe is frequently mentioned during this reign in relation to the export of
wheat and as a passage port to France ; in 1371 the town authorities were
directed to allow Portuguese merchants to trade there peaceably.***

The naval history of Edward III is an illustration of the fact that the
uniform result of the destruction of an enemy's military fleets, formerly, was an
increase of raids and privateering. Although naval victories were won and
no resistance was, or could be, made to the transport of Edward's armies, the
coasts were continually harassed by French incursions or the fear of them,
while the sense of weakness was increased by the loss due to privateers and
the exhaustion of the shipowning classes. In 1348 Bindon Abbey was
practically in the hands of receivers, and the misfortune was attributed, among
other causes, to the losses caused by the enemy's raids."" The reference may
be to the events of 1339, but if, on the other hand, they were recent — and
Budleigh, in Devonshire, had suffered considerably in i 347 — it shows that while
the English fleets were in absolute command of the Channel, they were still
unable to prevent those injuries which even the victor suffers in all wars.
An unstable peace endured between 1360 and 1369 ; the recommencement
of hostilities in the latter year was followed by a meeting of another council
of maritime experts at Westminster, to which Weymouth, Poole, and Lyme
sent representatives.™ The renewal of the war was attended by the complete
loss of English supremacy in the Channel. Levy followed levy without
result or with calamity, for while France was displaying an unexpected
strength at sea England was suffering from the weariness of a long war and a
weakening government. The Commons laid before the king the causes to
which they attributed the decay of shipping, and in June, 1372, after the
defeat of the earl of Pembroke before Rochelle, the crown was reduced to
collecting troops along the coasts of the maritime counties to repel invasion
instead of defending them by fleets at sea. The ordinary rate of hire for ships
taken up by the crown was 3J. 4^. a ton for every three months, but now
both that and wages were left unpaid in contrast to the liberality Edward had
shown thirty years earlier, when he could afford to make extra and unusual
payments to help the equipment of the fleets. The year 1375 was marked
by another maritime disaster in the shape of the capture or destruction in
Bourneuf Bay of 39 merchantmen, ranging from 300 tons downwards. Three
Weymouth ships, of which one was of 100 tons, were lost there.''

Edward III died 21 June, 1377, and within a week of his death the
French were raiding the south coast from Kent to Cornwall. Several towns
were more or less wasted, and Melcombe is ranged among them by one
chronicler; it must have suffered severely, for in December, 1378, the
burgesses petitioned to be allowed delay in paying the tenths and fifteenths,
because lately ' burnt and destroyed.' '^ In another petition of 1379 they asked

"' Close, 25 Edw. Ill, m. 4 a'.
'■' Pat. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 9.
" Chan. Dipl. Doc. P. 324.

Rymer, Foei^. (ed. 18 16), iii, 929.
' Rymer, Foc</. (ed. 1816), iii, 880.
Close, 2 Ric. II, m. 22<2'.

187

A HISTORY OF DORSET

tor allowances to pay for walling the town." In 1388 the farm, as well as
the tenths and fifteenths, was remitted for seven years, because ' often ' burnt
and destroyed by the enemy, the inhabitants having thereby been driven
away." From this it may be guessed that it suffered again when the Con-
stable, Oliver de Clisson, harried the coast in 1380. These attempts at
alleviation were fruitless, for in 1394 a further remission for twelve years was
necessary." When this term expired the town was still ' poor and desolate,'
whereas of old the customs and subsidies were wont to amount to jf 1,000 a
year.''* In 1410 there was further reason for petition, but here the customs
and subsidies were stated as being at least 1,000 marks.'*^ In this a definite
assertion is made that the town was burnt in the reigns of both Edward III
and Richard II ; the exact date of the first attack must remain unknown, but
it may have occurred a few days before Edward's death.

These petitions and allowances can be traced as late as 1433, when

having consideration of its feebleness and non-sufficiency, nought inhabited nor of strength
... as it well seemed by the loss that John Roger and other had there late for lack and
scarcity of help and people to withstand . . . your enemies,

SO that traders feared to send or receive merchandise there, Melcombe was
discontinued as a customs port, the collection being removed to Poole." The
story of the ruin of Melcombe, due to two French attacks and acknowledged
after half a century of struggle and decline, is of general as well as of local
interest. It has been held"" that ' cross-ravaging,' i.e. raids for destruction and
plunder such as French and English inflicted on each other in the mediaeval
period, were of no value in helping towards the decision of a war. It is
altogether questionable whether such raids were merely for plunder,'* but it
is obvious that any permanent injury done to an element of national strength,
such as a commercial town, reduces by that much the power of the state in
the immediate war and in the endless national rivalry which is the cause and
sequel of wars. Here, Melcombe, which had been climbing gradually to a
place among the leading ports, soon ceased to be a revenue-producing portion
of the body politic ; its shipping must have nearly disappeared, and with its
shipping its trade and seamen, for in 1407 there were only eight burgesses,
and therefore few employers. By all this the nation was so much the poorer
in its future contests with France. Locally, the effect of the disaster must
have been widespread in the district to which it had been the seaport, for it
was practically the only outlet between Poole and Lyme ; the difficulty and
cost of transit in transporting merchandise between the interior it had served
and the eastern and western borders of the county must, for a time, have
extinguished the nascent commercial spirit growing up inland. By this,
again, the nation as a whole was the poorer. But for its association with
Weymouth in the Newfoundland fishery, which gave it a term of renewed
life for two centuries, it would at once have sunk to the condition of coast
village from which it was rescued by the favour of George III. Moreover,
it is not unlikely that had it continued to grow in the especial attributes of

■' Rot. Pari. (Rec. Com.), iii, 70. " Pat. 2 Rlc. II, pt. ii, m. 12.

■' Ibid. 17 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. ^o.

'^ Rot. Pari. (Rec. Com.), iii, 6 1 6. Before the assault of 1 377 there were 24 sea-going vessels and 40 fishing
boats belonging to the town. Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset (3rd ed.), ii, 450.

"' Rot. Pari. (Rec. Com.), iii, 639. " Ibid, iv, 445.

"" Colomb, tiaval Warfare, 3. "' Cf V.C.H. Sussex, 'Maritime Histor}-,' ii, 140.

188

MARITIME HISTORY

a seaport, and, therefore, been able to supply naval necessaries, its position
might have caused Henry VIII to select it as a fleet-base under the altered
condition of naval operations against France in his reign.

It will be noticed that there is no reference to Weymouth in the
foregoing petitions to king and Parliament. The town may have shared the
fate of Melcombe or it may have escaped as poorer and less tempting than
its neighbour ; in any case it was more difficult to attack and more easily
defended than Melcombe.

The burgesses of Lyme petitioned in February, 1378, that the town
was being wasted by the sea and that the Cobb, large enough to shelter two
or three barges — from which we get an idea of its size — had been destroyed
in the gales of the previous November.^*' In this nothing was said of any
French descent, but in one of their numerous appeals for help — that of 1410
— they stated that the place had been burnt by the French in the reigns of
both Edward III and Richard II." It is probable, too, that Poole was
partly burnt in 1377.'^'^ The misfortunes of their neighbours may have
aroused the energy of the men of Bridport and tempted them to an effort
to take the lead of Lyme. In 1385 there was grant of a toll for three years
to John de Hudresfeld who had begun to make a harbour, there having been
none previously. The toll was continued for another year from 1388, and
again for three years from 1393, to enable the bailiffs of Bridport, who then
claimed to have begun the construction of the harbour, to finish it.*" The
fact, however, that the toll was on goods exported or imported by water
shows that there must have been some small shipping trade before the
improvement was effected.

That the events of 1377 could have occurred proves that the English
fleet was practically non-existent ; in November of that year Parliament
decided that the country generally, including inland towns, should be
required to build ships by the following March, which is evidence of the
known exhaustion of the ports. No town in Dorset was called upon, and
that omission is almost conclusive that the county had suffered severely in
the summer. For years the coast was more or less in a state of blockade ;
alarms of invasion were frequent and the local levies were continually under
arms. The marine of Weymouth was not entirely destroyed, for we find
two ships, of which one was of 120 tons, taken up about 1383.^°^ When
John of Ghent sailed for Spain in 1386 to obtain the crown of Castile his
fleet of 57 ships included the James, 80 tons, of Poole. This ship was also
engaged in the passenger trade, now developing, in the carriage of pilgrims
direct from England to perform their devotions at the shrine of St. James of
Compostella."* Another such vessel was the Katherine, of Lyme, newly
built in 1395.*^^

Formal hostilities with France ceased in 1389, but although no declara-
tion of war came from either side during the remainder of Richard's reign
and that of Henry IV, the truce was only nominal. English and French
royal fleets did not meet as declared enemies after a ceremonial rupture, but
short of that the conditions differed nothing from open war. French and

"■" Pat. I Ric. II, pt. iii, m. 3 d. " Rot. Pari, iii, 640. "•■ Froissart, Chron. cap. 378.

'" Pat. 9 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 20 ; ibid. 12 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 3 ; ibid. 16 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 10.
*" Exch. Accts. K.R. bdle. 42, No. 22. " P.it. 19 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 29.

""'' Ibid. 18 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 15.

189

A HISTORY OF DORSET

English raided each other's coasts, and each made captures at sea. War was
considered so certain in 1401 that in January not only the ports but many ot
the inland towns were ordered, singly or in combination, to build and equip
ships at their own cost by the following April "*- ; Weymouth was grouped
with Seaton and Sidmouth for a balinger between them, Lyme with Exmouth
for one barge, and Poole, Wareham, and Melcombe together for another. It
is difficult to say which town takes the lead as being considered the wealthiest
in the county, but Melcombe is shown to have fallen from its former place.
Parliament met on 23 January and protested against this call upon the
country. Henry's position was too uncertain to permit him to insist, as he
might have done, on the strict legality of his action, therefore he was com-
pelled to content himself with a general arrest of shipping, in May, of the
usual type, by which the same ports were affected.*^' English merchants
were reckoning up French spoliations to the amount of ^100,000, done
under cover of the Scotch war, and the French chroniclers were recording
the ravaging of their coasts by whole fleets of English pirates. The famous
Henry Pay, of Poole, appears in 1402 as charged with piracy in company
with other sailors belonging to towns of the south coast. *^ By 1404 the
political vane had veered and Pay was then empowered to fit out privateers,
perhaps because the French had fallen upon Portland in the spring and swept
it with fire and sword. They did not, however, escape scathless ; probably
their strength was very small, and when the inhabitants, reinforced from the
main land, attacked them many were killed or taken prisoners.*'' In 1405
an English fleet burnt 40 Norman towns and villages, and the French took
some small revenge along the south coast. It had been intended that three
galleys and 40 ships belonging to Castile should have joined a French
squadron ; but in the result only the three Spanish and two French galleys,
under Don Pedro Nino and Charles de Savoisi, sailed in August. After
operations in Cornwall and Devon they made Portland, where they met
with little resistance. ''*' Then the writer of La Victoria! digresses at length
on the misdeeds of Henry Pay (' Arripay '), and as they were under the
impression that Poole belonged to him it was no wonder that the com-
manders seized the opportunity to pay some old debts. They went into the
harbour one morning towards the end of September and found the town
unfortified but looking defensible and populous — so much so that Savoisi,
whose feelings were perhaps less embittered, refused to allow his men to
land. The Spaniards went ashore, and there was a sharp fight ; their object
being revenge they tried to fire the place rather than to plunder it, and they
did burn some buildings, including a large storehouse full of naval stores.
Eventually the Spaniards were so hard pressed that the French had to come
to their assistance ; and although the Spanish writer says that the English
were forced to give way it seems more likely, as the town was not burnt,
that the French only succeeded in bringing ofF their allies. One of Henry
Pay's brothers was killed in the defence. The redoubtable Pay was himself
at sea in 1407, and took a fleet of 120 French merchantmen, but it is
uncertain whether he had any Dorset ships with him.

" Rymer, Foedera, viii, 172.

*»^ Pat. 2 Hen. IV, pt. ii, m. 16. '' Close, 4 Hen. IV, m. 30.

'^' '9^j-aitx,Focdira, viii, 356. The ' Raase' of Portland is noticed in 1408 (Roll of For. Accts. 10 Hen. W,
m. A.) *"" La Vktorial {^A. Circourt et Puigaigre), Paris, 1867.

190

MARITIME HISTORY

The closing years of the reign of Henry IV were somewhat more
peaceful at sea than had been the earlier ones. Henry V had perhaps formed
his own opinion of the anarchy that had existed, for in 141 4 he instituted
officials, called conservators of truces, in every port who, assisted by two
legal assessors, and holding their authority from the High Admiral, were to
have powers of inquiry and punishment in relation to all illegal proceedings
at sea/* They were to keep a register of the ships and seamen belonging
to each port and acted as adjudicators in such cases as did not go before the
Admiralty Court. They seem, so far as related to judicial functions, to have
been a link on the civil side between the earlier keepers of the coast and the
vice-admirals of the coast created in the sixteenth century. That the statute
was strictly enforced and helped to produce quieter conditions at sea is shown
by the fact that two years later the king consented to some modification of
its stringency by promising to issue letters of reprisal when equitable. In
1435 it was entirely suspended, being found ' so rigorous and grievous,' said
the Commons ; in that year Burgundy broke away from the English alliance,
and the shipowners foresaw hostilities and profits. In 145 1 it was brought
into force again for a short time, and once more renewed by Edward IV.

Henry V began his reign with the intention of having a great fleet of
his own. The custom of general impressment was now expensive, both to
the shipowner and to the crown ; moreover, it was slow in operation, while
in the mind of a great soldier like Henry speed in concentration and in
striking was a necessary element of his combinations. There were also
political reasons for not disturbing trade, now beginning to take a wider
flight. The system could not be, and was not, at once abolished, but it
became much less frequent during the fifteenth century ; a definite note of
change is sounded in the establishment of cruisers round the coast in 141 5,
five vessels being stationed between Plymouth and the Isle of Wight.*^ The
great fleet of upwards of 1,400 vessels required for the campaign of Agin-
court included a contingent from Dorset, but very many were hired in
Holland and Zealand, either because the resources of the kingdom were
insufficient or Henry resolved not to tax them unduly. In 141 6 the French
had a fleet at sea which contained some hired Spanish and Genoese vessels of
large size ; they were off Portland in May, and did some damage in the
island, but as a whole their cruise was not very successful, and in August
many of the ships of their fleet joined the Royal Navy by right of capture.
For Henry's passage to France in 1417 another large fleet was collected, but
out of one list of 238 vessels 117 belonged to Holland and Zealand. Many
of the English ports were unrepresented, and it seems clear that Henry had
determined from the first to make war with as little economic disturbance as
possible — to do with his own ships the fighting which cleared the road and to
use foreign ones to transport his troops. There were, however, six Dorset
ships in the fleet of 1417, three from Poole, two from Wareham, and one
from Weymouth."' It has been noticed that the oversea transport of pilgrims
to the shrine of St. James was springing up during the reign of Richard II.
The business grew rapidly during the first half of the fifteenth century, and
merchants and nobles seem to have been equally eager to obtain a share in
what must have been a lucrative traffic. Most of the ships so employed

" 2 Hen. V, cap. 6. " Proc. ofP.C. (ist sen), ii, 145. ^ Rot. Norman, (ed. Hardy, 1835), 320-9.

191

A HISTORY OF DORSET

belonged to the southern ports, but any taken up for the purpose must
necessarily have been of considerable size judged by the standard of that age.
Ships of Weymouth and Poole were running frequently, and occasionally one
from Wareham."

After the death of Henry V one of the first proceedings of the Regency
was to sell off the Royal Navy by auction, but the loss was not felt at once,
because there was no French force capable of contesting the dominion of the
sea. There were arrests of shipping during the early years of the new reign,
but there was now a general feeling that in this method ' the long coming
together of the ships is the destruction of the country.'** Vessels were still
impressed for the transport of troops, but the cruising service was handed
over to contractors who undertook to keep the sea with a certain number of
ships and men for a specified time. Or course, the contractors desired to
obtain as much money and go to as little expense as possible ; their guardian-
ship was quite ineffective, and as early as 1429 the Commons petitioned
about the pirates who were again becoming numerous in the Channel.*'
Perhaps among the rovers referred to were the crews of the 'James of
Studland and Welfare of Swanage, who drove ashore a foreign ship and
then plundered her.'" Parliament, in 1442, expressed the general dissatis-
faction with the contract system, and prepared a scheme by which a
squadron was to be made up of selected ships from various ports. None
of the large ships came from Dorset, but a barge and a pinnace, belonging
to Harvey Russell of Weymouth, were chosen.'' All the vessels of this
squadron seem to have been picked ships with a reputation. Poole replaced
Melcombe as a customs port in 1433, and in view of its promotion obtained
a licence to fortify, but it seems to have been little, if at all, in advance of
Weymouth in maritime importance ; in 1454 the two places were joined for
a contribution of _^50 when certain nobles undertook to keep a fleet at sea.'*
The Bridport Harbour of 1385-95 can never have been a great success ; by
1447 it was in a ruinous condition, and the burgesses were too poor to restore
it. From the two archbishops and from thirteen bishops they procured
indulgences by the sale of which they hoped to gain sufficient money to pay
for the repairs. At the time politics were exciting more urgent interest
and there was no great demand for indulgences ; one of the collectors wrote
that to his ' great shame and anger ' he was not making enough to pay
his expenses ; another disappeared with all that he had received.'^ There
may also have been French raids checking coastal traffic and growth
generally. According to one writer Bexington, near Abbotsbury, was
burnt in such a descent in 1439 or 1440, after which it was deserted.'*
If this is true Bexington could hardly have been the only place in the
county which suffered, and it is certain that in other counties there were
similar attacks not recorded by the chroniclers.

There are extant several hsts of ships taken up for the transport of troops
in 1439, 1440, 1443, 1447, and 1452 ; '' of these expeditions those of 1439

" Rot. Franc. /<?//. *' Prcc. of P.C. (ist scr.), v. 102. ^ Rot. Pari. (Re-. Com.), iv, 350.

" Pat. 7 Hen. VI, pt. i, m. \6 d. ' S.indwich ' in the writ, but .is late as the eighteenth century
Svvan.igc was often called Sandwich. " Rot. Pari. (Rec. Com.), v, 59.

'"' Ibid. 244. Only sixteen towns were assessed, including London, Bristol, Southampton, &:c.
" Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vi, App. +95. " Coker, Surz\ of Dorset (cd. 1732), 29.

" Exch. Accts. K. R. bdle. 53, Nos. 23, 24, 25, 39 ; bdle. 54, Nos. 10, 14.

192

MARITIME HISTORY

and 1440 sailed from Poole. Seeing that the lists represent only a portion,
large or small, of the merchant marine, they show that notwithstanding war
and weak government it was still flourishing, a few of the vessels being of
300 and 400 tons. None of this size came from Dorset ; the largest, of 180
tons, belonged to Weymouth, and four others were also owned there, including
one of 100 and one of 120 tons. There were six Poole ships, of which the
largest was of 160 tons and the next of 120 tons ; Swanage sent one vessel of
26 tons.

Sea-power played no great part in the wars of the Roses, both parties
enjoying freedom of water transit. As a whole the ports were Yorkist in
their sympathies, and the Weymouth people had so far impressed Edward IV
with their affection for him that in 1461 he made them a grant of jTioo in
recompense of the losses they had sustained in supporting him.°' Almost
simultaneously there was a pardon to Lyme — which, as usual, was pleading
devastation by the sea — of arrears due to the crown, therefore that town also
may be assumed to have been Yorkist in inclination." Margaret, with the
Prince of Wales, landed at Weymouth, driven in by weather, on 14 April,
1 47 1, the day the battle of Barnet was fought, but she probably received
scant welcome for Weymouth was still in favour with Edward and receiving
benefits from him in 1467.'' There were several arrests of ships in 1475 for
the French war ; one of them, from Newcastle to Bristol, must be almost, if
not quite, the last example of a general arrest affecting the whole country.
In October, 1484, Henry Tudor sailed from Brittany to join the duke of
Buckingham, who had revolted against Richard III. Henry's fleet was
scattered by storm ; he made Poole in his own ship, but was too wary to be
enticed ashore among the enemies waiting for him. Neither Dorset nor any
other county has much maritime history during the reign of Henry VII.
The king was not ignorant of the value of sea-power, and he increased the
crown navy, but his reign was peaceful and he preferred, for political reasons,
to hire Spanish ships to act with his own where his predecessors would have
used English ones. In relation to Dorset the most important event of the
reign, although unrecognized at the time, was Cabot's Newfoundland voyage
which, as the first cause of the fishery, was to have a far-reaching influence
on the fortunes of Weymouth and Poole.

During these centuries there must have been many wrecks on the deadly
Chesil beach, on Portland, and in the scarcely less dangerous bay between
Portland and Durlstone Head. They do not appear in the records for, unless
a cargo was of more than ordinary value, the time and money necessary to set
in motion the cumbrous processes of the crown must have been prohibitive of
appeal when survivors had seen their property shared among the landowners
in the vicinity of the wreck. The right of wreck was coveted by manorial
lords and corporations, both for profit and as evidence of exemption from the
inquisition of the High Admiral. Legally, if man, dog, or cat escaped alive
from a ship it was no wreck, but if the cargo once came into the hands of
those ashore there was small chance of recovery. Every corporation used such
influence as it possessed to obtain local jurisdiction in admiralty matters, not
only as a question of dignity and profit but even more in order to escape the
arbitrary and expensive proceedings of the Lord Admiral's deputies, who

** Pat. I EJw. IV, pt. iv, m. 20. *' Ibid. pt. iii, m. 10. '' Ibid. 6 Edw. IV, pt. ii, m. 13.

2 193 25

A HISTORY OF DORSET

brought much odium upon their master. In Dorset the crown had, from
very early times, granted away much of its right of wreck ; we find from the
Hundred Rolls that in 1275 the abbey of St. Edward had such rights in the
manor of Studland, the abbey of Cerne at Bridport, the abbey of Bindon at
Waddon, the priory of Christchurch at Fleet, and, besides other private
owners, the earl of Gloucester in the manors of Wyke, Weymouth, Portland,
and Holwell.

In the reign of Edward II the abbey of Milton took wreck at ' Frome-
mouth,' Osmington, Holworth, and Ower." The reference to Fromemouth
is interesting because the corporation of Poole claimed to have enjoyed
admiralty rights, in a wide form, from time immemorial, although the legal
recognition of them was comparatively late. Wreck on Brownsea Island was
granted to the abbey of Cerne in 1 1 54,"° and at the dissolution this passed
to the earl of Oxford. In 1364 the Poole burgesses obtained a certificate
from the mayor and barons of Winchelsea on which they pretended to rely
in support of their claims, but the certificate only defines the extent of Poole
harbour, and in any case would have no more value as evidence about
admiralty rights than one from the town crier. The real recognition of
their freedom from the Lord Admiral's inquisition is contained in an in-
speximus of 4 September, 1526, by Viscount Lisle, on behalf of the Lord
Admiral, which placed their claim on a firm basis by confirming their
exemptions. This inspeximus does refer to early exemptions which may
have been exercised by prescription, and if such exercise had been tacitly
allowed it is evidence of the maritime importance of Poole, for the crown
only granted such rights by way of reward, or permitted them to be practised
when the ports were able to render services of value to the state. But the
Lord Admiral's deputies continued to act in Brownsea, possibly by succession
from the earl of Oxford, and the conflict of authority gave rise to much
friction."^ The Weymouth people insisted at one time that their admiralty
rights were held in virtue of a grant from King Ethelred,"' but it is more
likely that, as in the case of Poole, they had been permitted when Weymouth
and Melcombe seemed growing into first-rate ports. The Ethelred basis was
never admitted by the Lord Admiral, and there were frequent disputes between
his officers and those of the town during the reign of Elizabeth ; "' the
charter of i July, 161 6, at last gave Weymouth and Melcombe freedom from
the Lord Admiral's visitations.

With the reign of Henry VIII the era of arrests and impressment of
shipping may be said to have terminated. The port towns were still some-
times to be called upon to provide ships, but such towns were usually
associated in order to lessen the expense and, eventually, the county as a
whole contributed to the cost. Improvements in building and armament
were now differentiating the man-of-war from the merchantman ; the latter
was of little use in fleets except, as an Elizabethan seaman said, ' to make a
show,' and to have required the ports to furnish real men-of-war would have
ruined them. It was one of the purposes of Henry's life to create a national
navy, and there was not a year of his reign that did not witness some accre-
tion to its strength. Such merchantmen as he required were hired without

" Pat. 5 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 17. '" Sydenham, Hist, of Poole, 385.

"' Post, p. 198. "" Add. MSS. 12505, fol. 392. "» See tost, p. 198.

194

MARITIME HISTORY

the exercise of the prerogative, but the more effective the royal navy became
the less reason there w^as for the employment of armed merchantmen except
under especial circumstances. It is not until the reign of Elizabeth that we
find in force the further development of the right of impressment, the
demand for fully-armed ships at the cost of the ports, which was the imme-
diate legal precedent for the ship-money levies. The first war with France, of
I 5 12— 13, was fought almost entirely by men-of-war ; there were some hired
ships, as tenders and victuallers, with the fleets but none is known to have come
from Dorset. It need hardly be said that although impressment of ships had
practically ceased the impressment of men continued, and among the crews
of the 15 12— 13 fleets 126 men came from the Chideock district.^"* Ship-
wrights and caulkers were impressed at Poole at the same period to come to
the new dockyard at Woolwich to help in the building of the Henry Grace
de Dieu}^^ Bridport was encouraged in the conduct of its particular industry,
cables and cordage being bought there by the government; in 1530 a
statute was enacted intended to benefit the town by preventing local compe-
tition."' Melcombe was still impoverished, and even towards the end of the
reign obtained reductions in the farm and in taxation on account of the
destruction wrought so long ago by the French.

War with France and Scotland broke out again in 1522 but the ports
play little direct part in the naval warfare of Henry VIII nor, if they had
been called upon, were those of Dorset likely to have added any material
strength to the national armaments. Lyme obtained a grant, in 1535, of
_^2o yearly for ten years in consideration of the ruinous condition of the
Cobb, and petitioned again in the following year that the town was decay-
ing."' In 1543 a return of shipping, generally, was called for in view of
approaching war, from which we find that there were six vessels sailing from
Lyme, of which the largest was of 72 tons ; one of the owners lived at
Bridport and another at Chard."* Only 1 3 seamen were named, probably
those at home at the moment of registration. There were 19 men and one
vessel of 14 tons at Charmouth, 14 men and one vessel of 18 tons at Bridport,
two ships, of which the largest was of 60 tons, and 18 men at Weymouth
and Melcombe, and three vessels, of which the largest was of 70 tons, at
Poole, The biggest vessel owned in the county was the Mary and John, of
120 tons, belonging to Thomas Wade of Burton Bradstock ; upwards of 170
seafaring men lived in the villages along the coast.

About 1539 Henry feared that an alliance of the continental states would
be formed against the kingdom. The new navy, although a mightier
offensive weapon than any that England had hitherto possessed, was as yet an
untried weapon. The preceding centuries were fraught with the lesson that
the enemies of England were best met on the English seas, but there was a
natural inclination, especially in an age which was tending towards formalism
in military science, to fall back upon the orthodox defences of castles, sconces,
and bulwarks to prevent a landing or to support a defending force. As early
as 1535 the idea of fortifying the weak points round the coast was in the air,
for Cromwell then noted in his ' Remembrances ' that a small tax formerly
paid to Rome might well be diverted to such a purpose. However at that

'« Chap. Ho. Bks. ii, fol. 7. '"' Ibid, v, fol. 179. ""^ 21 Hen. VIII, cap. 12.

'»' L. and P. Hen. Fill, viii, 149 (12) ; ibiJ. x, 179. "" Ibid, xviii, 547.

A HISTORY OF DORSET

time Calais and Dover were the only places upon which money was being
spent lavishly, and the fortifications elsewhere were not commenced until
1539. It appears that, at first, Lyme was the only Dorset port set down for
defence,^"' but when commissioners to ' search and defend the coasts ' were
shortly afterwards appointed their recommendations caused a larger plan to
be framed."" Sir John Russell became a peer in the spring of 1539 ; in
April he surveyed the coast of Dorset and sent ' a plat ' of it to Cromwell.'"
This map is no doubt the one now in the British Museum Library,'" which
shows proposed works at Bournemouth, Brownsea, Poole, Portland, Sandsfoot,
the base of the Nothe at Weymouth, and at the end of Lyme Cobb. Fire
beacons are shown on the downs along the coast and at North Haven Point.
If the scheme was ever accepted in its entirety it was not carried out ; the
Bournemouth, Poole, and Lyme forts were dropped, and that at Brownsea
was built by the Poole burgesses for it is never, at any time, found among
the list of royal forts ; it was garrisoned by the Poole men, and the earliest
reference to it in 1545 shows that it was then under construction at their
expense."'

The French ambassador was closely watching the progress of Henry's
new defences and writing frequent reports about them to his sovereign.
Those intended to close the Solent and cover Portsmouth he went to see for
himself, for to know their strength or weakness was of vital importance to
the French government. He did not proceed to Dorset, which was of
secondary value militarily, and where the works were proceeding more slowly.
There is a reference, in the shape of a payment to the master gunner there,
to a block-house at Weymouth in 1543, presumably the one at the foot of
the Nothe."* Portland and Sandsfoot were of the same type, architecturally,
as the other large castles erected to the eastward, and were placed to cross
their fire over Portland Roads. The local seamen must have been consulted
about the position selected for Sandsfoot because, as it was placed, it leads in
line with the north-east point of the isle of Portland, over the Shambles in
four fathoms, thus affording a sailing mark for the navigation into the Roads
and to Weymouth. At first all the coast defences, except those within the
Cinque Ports, were placed under the control of the Lord Admiral, and regula-
tions were drawn up for their government,'" but they soon passed out of his
hands. Probably it was not considered advisable to entrust a subject with
so much power.

War with France and Scotland recommenced in i 543, but the contribu-
tion of Dorset to it lay in the supply of men rather than ships. In 1545 it
was calculated that 5,000 sailors would be required for the royal fleet in
the summer, 'in which there will be some difficulty.' The men preferred
privateering to the royal service, so that in August a circular letter was
addressed to the mayors and others of the western counties intimating that if
the seamen did not join the king's ships they would indulge their preference

'•" L. and P. Hin. Vlll, xiv (i), 655.

"" Ibid. 398. Among the commissioners were Sir John Russell, Sir Giles Strangeways, and Sir John
Horsey, for Dorset.

'" Ibid. 685. "• Cott. MSB. Aug. I, i, 31, 33.

'" Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset (3rd ed.), i, 649. In 1558 the Privy Council, in writing to the corponition
of Poole, speak of it as belonging to the town (ibid, i, 8).

'" Pat. 34 Hen. VIII, pt. iii, m. 26. "' Lansd. MSS. 170, fol. 303.

196

MARITIME HISTORY

at the risk of their lives. The west country was swept bare of men ; on
2 2 August Lord Russell wrote to the Privy Council that in Dorset and
Devon the fishing boats were ' manned ' by women ' which I think hath not
been seen.' West-country privateering was so successful, and so dangerous
to our relations with neutrals, that in April, 1546, Henry ordered that no
privateers should sail from Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall, and that all at
sea should be recalled."* Poole had its share of this success, judging from a
question relating to the payment of prize money which came before the
Council."^ In 1545 a French fleet was outside Portsmouth and the opera-
tions there are recorded in all local and general histories ; but it appears that
they were also on the Dorset coast in 1544, although that fact has escaped
notice. A witness giving evidence in 1580 mentioned that the French
attacked Lyme in 1544 but were beaten off;"' possibly the new defences
saved Weymouth a similar experience. It has been observed that the
burgesses of Lyme obtained a grant in 1535 to enable them to repair the
Cobb, which was then described as made ' with great timber pight and pyled
very deep in the ground, filled in with great rocks and stones between the
said timber.'"' Melcombe, in 1543, was again pardoned nearly the whole
of the money due for its tenths and fifteenths, and therefore was evidently
in no flourishing condition.

The occurrence of piracy and wrecking becomes more noticeable
during the reign of Henry VIII, not because the offences were more preva-
lent — there were probably fewer cases than during preceding centuries — but
because documentary evidence is more plentiful and because suppression was
attempted more seriously. Henry was no more likely to allow his authority
to be contemned at sea than on land ; and to make it felt at sea, even in time
of peace, was one way of enforcing the maritime supremacy of England he
had always in view. No single life could have been long enough to see
complete success, but the steps he took mark a great advance in the organiza-
tion of repressive measures, and only the application or extension of them
was left to his successors. It had been found that the existing system of
trial for piracy was nearly useless, the offender having to confess before he
could be sentenced, or his guilt having to be proved by disinterested witnesses
who, naturally, could seldom be present at sea. By two statutes, 27 Hen.
VIII, cap. 4, and 28 Hen. VIII, cap. 15, such crimes were in future to be
tried according to the forms of the common and not, as hitherto, the civil
law. Probably for the better administration of these statutes and for other
reasons — the execution of a treaty with France concerning depredations at
sea, the strict protection of the king's and Lord Admiral's rights in wreck and
other matters, the registration of the ships and men available and the levy of
seamen, the examination of ships going to sea touching their armed strength
and the peaceful nature of the voyage, the exaction of bonds from captains
and owners as security for good conduct, and the safe keeping of prizes and
prize goods — it was deemed advisable to have round the coast permanent
representatives of the Lord Admiral who should be of higher social rank and
armed with greater authority than the deputies who had hitherto visited each

'" Acts ofP.C. 13 April, 1546. '" Ibid. 14 Oct. 1546.

'" Exch. Spec. Com. 715.

'" Exch. Misc. ■^. This construction is shown in the Cottonian map of 1539.

197

A HISTORY OF DORSET

county or district collecting the Lord Admiral's profits or maintaining his
rights. The officers in question, the vice-admirals of the counties, were, in
their civil functions, the descendants historically of the keepers of the coast
and the conservators of truces of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and
there is not one of the duties of the vice-admirals which cannot be paralleled
among those performed by their predecessors. Now, instead of acting
temporarily, or subject to the hostile influence in Parliament of the mercantile
classes, they became a band of crown officials stationed round the whole
coast, supported by the power of the Tudor despotism and continued without
any interruption during which their authority might diminish by discon-
tinuance of action.^'" It was practically a new police measure and, on the
whole and under normal conditions, attained its object by rendering the
difficulties of preparation, the chances of detection, and the probabilities of
punishment greater so far as shipping set out with a criminal intent was con-
cerned ; while the vice-admirals' officers kept a close watch on the more
evilly-disposed inhabitants of the coast who had hitherto helped pirates or
indulged in wrecking with impunity.

The scheme did not come into operation simultaneously over all
England but developed out of necessity and according to opportunity. The
first nomination known by precise date is that for Norfolk and Suffolk in
1536; within a few years other vice-admirals were acting in most of the
counties. Sir Hugh Paulet holding the appointment for Somerset and Dorset.
The two counties were soon separated, and during the remainder of the
century the Ashleys, the Howards of Bindon, Sir Christopher Hatton, and
Carew Ralegh held the office. Hatton obtained wreck rights in the
Isle of Purbeck for himself ; "^ Carew Ralegh filled the office between
1592 and 1603, when his appointment was revoked on account of some
arrangement he had made with his deputy, John Randall. This man,
Randall, was a thorn in the flesh for Poole ; the exemptions of the town
were too firmly based on the patent of 1526 to be really questioned, but
Randall was in control at Brownsea, and in many ways, there and ashore,
annoyed the corporation. The troubles of Weymouth have already been
referred to. In 1 570 the bailiffs withdrew all claim to admiralty jurisdic-
tion except in relation to such disputes as originated in the town between
burgesses ; "' subsequently the union of Weymouth and Melcombe under
charter may have infused fresh courage, for between 1590 and 1600 the
tension between the two towns and the Lord Admiral was acute. In 1593
the mayor and others were cited before the Admiralty Court in London ;
what they had to expect there may be inferred from the Lord Admiral's order
to the judge to arrest them as soon as they appeared on a charge of receiving
pirates' plunder.^*' In 1597, again, the town officers were in trouble for
neglecting press warrants ; in the same year 23 of the principal inhabitants
signed a protest complaining of the action of the previously mentioned
John Randall.^'* The Weymouth claim, if exercised, was never admitted
by the Lord Admiral or the Privy Council,"' but the attitude of the

"" The patents of appointment were from the Lord Admiral, sometimes for life and sometimes during
pleasure. I am indebted to Mr. R. G. Marsden, who has made a special study of the history of the evolution
of the vlce-admiralship (see Engl. Hist. Rev. July, 1907), for much information on this subject.

'■■ Pat. 14 Eliz. m. 9. '" Add. MSS. 12505, fol. 173. '" Ibid. fol. 392. '» Ibid. fol. 423, 441.
Cott. MSS. Vesp. F. ix, fol. 247 ; Jcls ofP.C. xvi, 406 ; 26 July, 26 Aug. 1565.

198

III

MARITIME HISTORY

latter body was largely due to the influence of the Lord Admiral, himself
a member of it. There is no doubt that the privileges of the exempted
towns were distinctly prejudicial to good government ; in the case of
Weymouth the notoriety attained by the joint towns in the matter of their
dealings with pirates may be ascribed, in great measure, to a civic execu-
tive always weak and often not disinterested.

In the reign of Charles I the earl of Suffolk, another Howard, was
vice-admiral both for Dorset and for the town and county of Poole ; there-
after the two districts were often under the same head. Stricter legislation,
the decline of piracy, and the increase of the navy, changed for the better
after the Civil War and the Restoration the conditions that had made the
vice-admirals useful, and their positions tended to become more and more
honorary. During the eighteenth century the Paulets, either as marquises of
Winchester or dukes of Bolton, with an occasional Trenchard or Strangeways,
held the titular rank of vice-admiral of Dorset.

There is a reference in 1550 to certain ' bulwarks in Purbeck,' probably
earthworks thrown up at Swanage and Studland to meet a temporary neces-
sity. By 1552 the Privy Council had decided to reduce or disestablish a
number of the permanent fortifications ' which stood the king's majesty in
very great charges and in no service at all ; ' among them were Sandsfoot
and Portland, of which the garrisons were reduced."' The uneasy political
conditions at home and abroad soon forced the important Dorset fortresses
into prominence again. In May, 1557, information was obtained that the
French were meditating an attack on Portland ; the care of the county
was entrusted to Lord St. John, who was told to watch especially Poole,
Weymouth, and Portland, soldiers being sent to the latter and the inhabitants
mustered and organized."^ Philip II had dragged England into war with
France, and it was necessary to reinforce the queen's fleets by hired merchant-
men. There was none from Dorset with the Lord Admiral in the Channel,
but there were two from Poole and Weymouth under Sir John Clere in the
North Sea."^ In 1558 many of the ports, encouraged by advantages offered
by the crown, sent privateers to sea, six sailing from Dorset as compared
with 22 from Devon."'

The reign of Mary sent many of the outlawed and the discontented to
the refuge of the sea, and the political unrest tempted others who were
criminals by opportunity to seek fortune there. Both classes were called
pirates, and after the failure of Wyatt's rising in February, 1554, the former
are frequently in evidence in the Council minutes. In August the lords of
the Council ordered the execution of certain pirates in Dorset, but there is
little doubt that they were rebels."" Henry Strangeways, belonging to the
well-known Dorset family, seems to have begun his career as a pirate without
such excuse of conscience, for in February, 1552-3, he was plying his trade
in Irish waters with such success that two men-of-war were prepared at
Portsmouth to seek him."^ Strangeways worked with the Cornish Killi-
grews, arch-pirates themselves,"^ and was on sufficiently good terms with

'" Acts ofP.C. 26 Feb., 4 May, 1552.

'" S.P. Foreign, II May, 1557 ; ibid. Dom. Mary, x, Nos. 61, 62.

•'' Ibid, xi, No. 38. "» Admir. Ct. Exemp. v, 288.

"» Act! ofP.C. 9, 13 Aug. 1554. •" Ibid. 21 Feb. 6 March, 1552-3.

"' See V.C.H. Cornwall, i, 488 et seq.

199

A HISTORY OF DORSET

officials to use Portland Castle as a storehouse for his plunder."' He is next
heard of on the coast of Suffolk, but in November, 1555, was in the Tower.
No harm came to him of this, and it is quite certain that many of these
adventurers, including Strangeways, were in secret communication with
dignitaries of State, who, sitting in council, offered rewards for their bodies."*
In one state paper or another Strangeways' name is seldom missing for a
month during these years. In September, 1559, he was taken with eighty
of his crew, tried in London and condemned to death, but reprieved
at the last moment."*^ After the accession of Elizabeth he seems to
have determined to go further afield, and, with a partner, planned to sail
from Plymouth ' to take an island of the king of Spain's.' "' A declaration
that they were only sailing as merchants brought permission to leave, but as.
he was in prison in December, 1560, we may suppose that Spanish merchant-
men were found easier to reach than one of Philip's islands."' That, after
his career, he was then liberated on promise of good conduct points to some
powerful protection and former political services. It is an interesting
example of heredity or family tendency to find, from 1587 onwards, a
Melchior Strangeways continually proclaimed for piracy, although he
was probably more of a privateersman. While Melchior was ' wanted,'
John Strangeways was a deputy-lieutenant for Dorset.

The plague of piracy was bad enough during the reign of Elizabeth,
but many of the cases which the sufferers so regarded were really seizures,
of enemy's goods in neutral ships and were questions for the judge of the
Admiralty Court. In 1561 general directions to watch the coast were
issued to the vice-admirals, for the great difficulty in extirpating the pirates
lay in the help and sympathy extended to them everywhere."^ The peace
of 1564 and the protests of the continental states forced Elizabeth to more
energetic action ; a circular letter to the vice-admirals called their attention
to the suggestive fact that although many pirates had been taken not one
had been executed."' A year later, recognizing that stronger measures were
necessary — ' the inconvenience not yet being removed,' in the placid language
of the commission — especial piracy commissioners with large powers were
nominated for each county, and they were to appoint deputies at every creek
and landing-place."' As the pirates had friends and receivers in nearly every
port these proceedings were not of much avail ; the business became still
more difficult to handle when the Prince of Orange issued letters of marque,
many of which were taken out by Englishmen, while many Dutch ships had
Englishmen on board. The Orange privateers were an element of high state
policy, and Elizabeth did not hold it advisable entirely to crush them even if
it had been in her power to do so. Subsequently the Spanish Netherlands
followed the example of the Dutch and sent out privateers, the beginning
of the affliction of ' Dunkirkers ' which plagued the coast for more than a
century, while Englishmen also obtained letters of marque from the Huguenot

leaders in France.

'^ Marsden, Selict Pleas of the Court of AJmiralfj, ii, 85. George Strangeways was captain of Port'and.
'» Ced/MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), i, 489. '"' Machyn's Diary (Camd. Soc), 206. 212, 213.

"» jicls of B.C. 28 April, 1559. "« Ibid. 2 May, 1559 ; S.P. Dom. Eliz. xiv. No. 60.

'" S.P. Dom. Eliz. xviii, No. 23. "» Jcti ofP.C. 23 Dec. 1564.

'" Ibid. 8 Nov. 1565 ; S.P. Dom. Eliz. xxxviii. No. 9. For Dorset, Sir Wm. Paulet, Sir Hen. Ashley,
Geo. Rogers, and Robert Coker.

200

MARITIME HISTORY

Although foreign courts protested loudly it must not be supposed that
England alone produced pirates. In June, 1574, the vice-admiral of Dorset
wrote that ' there lies at this present so many pirates upon this coast, being
Frenchmen, that no English ship is able to pass to any place without great
danger.'^*" However, the English were undeniably the worst ; in 1577 new
commissioners were appointed, and still more stringent methods of repression
adopted, an attempt being made to strike at the root of the evil by reaching
the aiders and abettors ashore. Persons who helped pirates, or dealt with
them, were now to be prosecuted and fined, and the fines were to go towards
compensating the victims ; the takers of pirates were to have a proportion of
the goods found on board, and commissions were to be granted to private
persons to set out ships pirate-hunting.^" The new commissioners made
many interesting discoveries in Dorset, not the least being the difficulty in
obtaining disinterested jurymen ; in one case a member of a Weymouth
jury confessed himself a dealer with pirates, and there were no doubt many
others from whom no avowal was forced."" Three notorious pirates,
Robert Hicks,'** Court, and John Callis, haunted the Dorset coast, and the
reason for their preference is to be found in the long list of receivers with
whom they did business. Their 'chief boatmen,' i.e. carriers, were 21 in
number divided between Weymouth, Melcombe, and the villages along the
coast east of Weymouth. There were six carriers with carts going inland
and 75 other persons were named as buying from them or supplying them.'**
One of the obstacles the government had to surmount lay in the fact that
the pirates were often helped by men of higher social rank than those who
consorted with them merely for a profit. When Court's ship was driven
ashore Sir Richard Rogers of West Lulworth got her afloat again for the
man he should have arrested. Callis, this same year, proposed to Walsingham
to clear the Channel of pirates ; he said that he knew enough about their
habits to do more by himself than Elizabeth could if she spent ;r20,ooo, and
he inclosed a list of receivers.'*"

Notwithstanding the energetic proceedings of the commissioners con-
ditions remained much the same. In 1580 a proclamation declared that the
pirates ' at this day commit more spoils and robberies on all sides than have
been heard of in former times.' '*^ There must have been still many receivers
left in Dorset, for in the same year the plunderers of two vessels off Orford-
ness brought their spoil round to Swanage and Studland for sale.'*^ In fact,
after their first blow, the commissioners of 1577 seem quite to have failed, for
in 1582 an official in the Isle of Purbeck complained that pirates swarmed
there, ' the common infamy of this poor island and me . . . the place of their
repair is here where in truth they are my masters . . . and when they choose
to come on land, they are so strong and well-appointed as they cannot be on
the sudden repulsed.' '*' At the same time the burgesses of Poole petitioned

'*» S.P. Dom. Eliz. xcvii, No. 7.

'" Add. MSS. 34150, fol. 61, 64. In 1559 the judge of the Admiralty Court held th.it all goods
must be restored to the owners (S.P. Dom. Eliz. vi. No. 1*9) ; therefore the new regulation must have referred
to property belonging to the pirates or uncl.iimed. There had been some doubt whether accessories ashore
could legally be prosecuted {^cts of P.C. 6 June, 1577), and the opinion of the law officers of the crown
was obtained (Harl. MSS. 168, fol. 1 14). '" S.P. Dom. Eliz. cxiii. No. 9.

'" For more about Hicks, see F.C.H. Cornwall, i, 489. '" S.P. Dom. Eliz. cxiii. No. 24.

'" Ibid. Add. XXV, No. 60. '« Ibid, cxlvi, No. II.

'«■ Acts oj P.C. 15 July, 1580. "» S.P. Dom. Eliz. clvi. No. I (Fr. Hawley to W.alsingham).

2 201 26

A HISTORY OF DORSET

for protection against the same gangs who haunted Studland Bay ' to the
utter undoing ' of their trade, and who threatened to pull down the prisons
and burn the town.^*^ Another noted pirate, Thomas Purser, was simul-
taneously threatening to burn Weymouth.'^" In 1582 the jurisdiction of the
privileged towns in matters of piracy was suspended for three years, in order
to avoid the conflict of authority with the piracy commissioners which
occurred in such places ; and also, perhaps, because in some cases private
interests interfered with the execution of justice. The latter cause was not
likely to be an impediment at Poole. The outbreak of formal war with Spain
in 1585 legalized much of the mischievous activity of the sea-rovers; and
thenceforward, although there were many complaints from neutrals, there were
fewer domestic outcries about piracy. Towards the end of the reign the
* Dunkirkers,' which name included the privateers from all the ports of
Flanders, took the place of the English pirates.

The bounty system, inaugurated by Henry VII, by which an occasional
tonnage allowance was made to the builders of new ships suitable for service in
war, had under Elizabeth settled into a grant of 5J. a ton on all vessels of 100
tons and upwards. The expansion of trade and the attractions of privateering
stimulated shipbuilding in all places where there was any maritime commerce,
while the bounty conduced to an increase of size in new vessels. Dorset was
never one of the leading maritime counties, but towards the end of the six-
teenth century there began a new era of prosperity for it based on its share in
the great Newfoundland fishery, and that prosperity was reflected in the capital
sunk in shipping, and the number of seamen the shipping employed. We
have seen that from at least the reign of John it had been usual to call upon
the officials of the ports for returns of the ships and men available for service ;
most of the earlier ones are lost, but several, complete or fragmentary, remain
for the Elizabethan period. Usually the details only deal with vessels of
100 tons and upwards, as smaller ones were not considered useful for fighting
purposes, but there is evidence that Dorset was fairly supplied with ships of
under 100 tons of a size sufficient for the sea traffic particular to the county.
War with France and Scotland existed in 1560, which was the cause of the
first Elizabethan list of that year. It was a return of vessels of 100 tons and
upwards, but there is none for Dorset ; of ' mariners and sailors ' there were
255, but this is evidently only the number of men at home at the moment. '°^
The piracy commissioners of 1565 remarked, in their report on Dorset, that
there was no harbour at Charmouth, but that, ' as at Bridport,' vessels were
drawn up on the shore.^^'' Part of this paper is missing ; but belonging to
Charmouth, Chideock, and the neighbourhood there were only ten vessels,
used for fishing and coasting, of which the largest was of 18 tons. Poole
possessed two vessels of 50 tons each and other smaller ones ; at Wey-
mouth and Melcombe one of 80 tons was the largest, and at Lyme one of
24 tons. By 1568 there was an improvement, for Poole then possessed two
ships of 100 tons and Lyme one.'^°^

"' C(d/ MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), ii, 538. They found the existence of gallows at Studland in bad
taste, and cut them down no doubt amid much good fellowship (Moule, Charters ofH'eymoutk, 154).

'^° Moule, op. cit. 154.

'" S.P. Dom. Eliz. xi, No. 27. The distinction between mariners and sailors is obscure and unnecessary
to discuss here.

'" Ibid, xxxviii, 9, 9 (i). Leland notices that the harbour at Bridport had ceased to exist when he visited
the county {Itin. iii, 60). '"" Harl. MSS. 1 68, fol. 248.

202

MARITIME HISTORY

In July, 1570,3 general embargo was ordered, and the vice-admiral
reported that he had stayed nine ships of 30 tons and upwards, and 435 ship-
masters and men ; many others, he said, were abroad. Here, three vessels
of Lyme Regis, of which one was of 50 tons, are scheduled, one of 100 tons
belonging to Melcombe, and one of 90 tons owned at Poole ; interesting
details of the number of seamen and fishermen living in the villages along the
coast are also given/" In 1572 Thomas Colshill, surveyor of customs at
London, compiled a register of coasting traders belonging to the ports.^^* The
Dorset section may be thus arranged : —

Poole

Weymouth

Melcombe

100 tons

From

20 tons

and

50 to 100

20 to 50

and

upwards

tons

under

—

Charmouth

Lyme

Chideock

From

20 to 50

tons

20 tons

and
under

In 1576 a list was prepared of ships of 100 tons and upwards built since
1 57 1, in which no Dorset port appears. A year later there was another
survey of 100-ton ships, from which we find that Poole possessed two and
Weymouth one, just reaching the limit ; they must, therefore, have been
older than 1571.'^^ The agents here of Philip II reported, almost with
alarm, the rapid increase of shipbuilding in England, and the next return of
1582 supports the information they sent to Spain. ^'^ Poole possessed six
vessels of 100 tons and upwards, of which one was of 140 tons and another of
130 tons, and Weymouth and Melcombe three, of which one was of 150
tons. Of between 80 and 100 tons there was one at Poole ; of between 20
and 80 tons there were ten at Poole, 15 at Weymouth and Melcombe, and
14 at Lyme. Those belonging to other places in the county were of
under 20 tons. Of men there were 85 shipmasters and 560 seamen, com-
paring with 150 and 1,913, respectively, in Devon. Allowing for the smaller
craft omitted in this enumeration, the number for Lyme is in substantial
correspondence with a return of 1586, which gives it 23 vessels of all kinds,
while 18 masters and 108 men lived in the town, and 80 others dwelling
within a radius of four miles were employed in Lyme ships. ^" The last
Elizabethan list is for Poole in 1591 ; there were then 21 vessels, of which
the largest was of 70 tons, but this is probably only of ships then at home.'^^

The recovery of Weymouth and Melcombe, and the continued progress
of Poole, were mainly due to their share of the Newfoundland fishery, which
for many of the western coast towns was replacing the mediaeval over-sea
trade soon to be engrossed by London and other of the great ports. It would
be impossible to overrate the national value of this new school for the pro-
duction and training of seamen which, with the previously existent North
Sea and Iceland fisheries, largely created the marine which overwhelmed Spain
in the sixteenth and the Dutch in the seventeenth centuries, thus clearing the
way for trans-oceanic expansion. The Newfoundland trade not only employed

"' S.P. Dom. Eliz. Ixxi, Nos. 56, 56 (i).

'" Ihid. AJd. xxii. He excluded fishing craft, and, inferentially, vessels engaged in over-sea trade.
'" S.P. Dom. Ellz. xcvi, fol. 267. '=« Ibid, clvi, No. 45.

'" Harl. MSS. 368, fol. 124. "» S.P. Dom. Eliz. cxxxviii,No. 142.

203

A HISTORY OF DORSET

sailors, but necessarily required a certain number of ' green ' hands, or lands-
men, of whom a proportion became seamen by profession. There are no
statistics for the early years of the fishery, but there are occasional indications
of its increasing importance. During the first half of the sixteenth century it
grew at the expense of the Iceland trade, and by 1542 was of sufficient size
to be the subject of a section in an Act of Parliament ; in 1548 there was a
' great ' Newfoundland fishing fleet causing anxiety for its safety, and the statute
2 and 3 Edward VI, cap. 6, forbids exactions from owners in the Newfound-
land as well as in other fisheries. In i 578 there is for the first time a state-
ment of the number of vessels actually present in Newfoundland waters, and
a note of their increase ; the municipal archives of Poole show that in 1583
there were ten or twelve Newfoundland ships sailing thence. ^^' The Eliza-
bethan war put an end to the Spanish and Portuguese fishery, and greatly
diminished that from France ; the indirect result was to the advantage of
English merchants from whom neutrals had to buy to supply the Catholic
powers. The fishing fleet of 1585 was large enough to make it worth while
to send out a warning that Philip had seized all the English ships in Spanish
ports, and by 1592 Englishmen enjoyed so much reputation as experts that
the Dutch were offisring high pay for their services. The business had grown
big enough to have rules and regulations drawn up for its management ; in
1583 a Poole owner was fined for sailing without the consent of the mayor
and burgesses.'^" In 1588 the Primrose, 120 tons, of Poole, sailed notwith-
standing the embargo of 3 i March ; the Council ordered the imprisonment
of Peter Cox, a part owner, and promised to deal with the master and others
when the vessel returned.'" In 1594 there were 100 sail due home in
August ; to join this fleet six Poole and five Weymouth ships had been
released from embargo earlier in the year.""

In the reign of James I Lyme is included among the ports interested in
the trade,"' but under that king England soon lost the unstable maritime
superiority won under Elizabeth, and the western fishery was one branch of
sea traffic which felt the effiscts. In 1622 the mayor of Weymouth wrote to
the Council that in that year only 1 1 ships had been sent to the fishery instead
of 39 as before.'" If 39 was the high-water mark of one year, and the
average was much less, it still shows of what vast importance to the prosperity
of the Dorset ports the trade had become. Again, in 1627, the Poole men
wrote that two years previously they had had 22 Newfoundland ships work-
ing, but that the number had fallen to four ; "^ a year later they stated that
their average had been 20 ships each season."^ Dorset was by no means
the leading county in the Newfoundland trade ; allowing a crew of only
25 men to a ship we may get some idea of the supreme influence the fishery
must have had in the evolution of a new sea-faring population in the
crucial years when the future of England depended on its success at sea. No
other towns in Dorset than the four here mentioned seem ever to have sent
out fishing ships, but no doubt men came, as in Devon and Cornwall, not
only from along the coast but from inland. A paper, assigned to 1634, gives

'" Svdenham, Hist. ofPcok, 395-6. "■•" Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset (3rd cd.), i, +0.

'" ActsofP.C. 12 May, 15S8. '"-' S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxlviii, No. i.

'" Hist. MSS Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 271. '" S.P. Dom. Jas. I, c.xxx, No. 22.

'" S.P. Dom. Ch.is. I, li, No. 56. "' Ibid, ciii, No. 43.

204

MARITIME HISTORY

the recent yearly average from the western ports at 26,700 tons of shipping
and 10,680 men, which was the highest point of prosperity the trade reached
for the time. In 1640 Weymouth had 1,000 tons of shipping engaged in
the fishery, but in 1670 the amount had fallen to 350 tons ; "' probably the
deterioration of the harbour had much to do with this decline.

In the spring of 1585 Philip II, breaking a promise of safe conduct,
ordered the seizure of all English ships then in the Spanish ports. This
act was answered here by the issue of letters of reprisal, which were only to
be given to persons who could prove that they had suffered by the seizure ;
this event, with Drake's expedition of the same year, marks the commence-
ment of the Spanish War. Merchants of Lyme had suffered loss to the
amount of _^2,ooo, and those of Melcombe to )ri,ooo ; Poole is in the list
but the amount is destroyed.^^' One of the vessels thus set out was the
Susan of Lyme of 100 tons.

The strained relations that had long existed between England and Spain
had led to the exercise of precautions, in the years preceding 1585, in the
way of training the county levies and the repair of the coast fortifications.
From the accession of Edward VI the latter had been neglected everywhere ;
a report of 1574 described Sandsfoot Castle as going to ruin, the walls
cracked by frost and in some places nearly falling into the sea.^'' There were
five dismounted guns, but the wooden platforms were too rotten to bear them
if mounted, and there was no ammunition. Portland Castle was found to be in
as bad a condition, and Brownsea, it was said, had never been really completed.
A silence of nine years follows; then there was another survey in 1583
from which it appears that both castles were in a much worse state, and
that the sea was undermining Portland.'™ In this paper the batteries at
Handfast Point and Peverel Point are again referred to,'" but they of course
were in a very dilapidated condition. In 1582 the corporation of Poole had
lamented the weakness of Brownsea Castle, and the report of 1583 empha-
sized this ; it seems never quite to have been decided whether the town or
the government was responsible for its upkeep."^ What was certain was
that in none of these fortifications had there been any repairs done, or any
necessaries and ammunition provided, for many years except at the expense
of their commandants. In October, 1583, the question was at last dealt
with, >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 </. ; Red Bk. of Exch. (Rolls Ser.), 546-7 ; Feud. Aids, ii, 9.
' Feud. Aids, ii, 1. ' Assize R. 201, m. \d.

• Chin. Inq. p.m. Ecw. I, file 14, No. I. '° Ibid, file 51, No. 9 ; file 8, No. I.

" Ibid. 8 Edw. II, file 43, No. 25. A simi'ar preponderance of customary tenants is noticeable
at Cranborne, Pimperne, and Tarrant Gunville. But contrast Po tland and Wyke ; ibid. No. z6.
" Hi.tchins, Hist, of Dorset (3rd ed.), iv, 383, 501, quoting Milton Abbey Custumal.
" e.g. Chan. Inq. p.m. Edw. I, file 51, No. 9 ; Little Piddle and Edmondsham.
" Harl. MS. 61, fol. 89^.

230

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

existence ; he is merely a member of the villeinage, as a sheep might be a
member of the flock.

That the villein was rightless as against his lord is one of the first
axioms of the thirteenth-century law^yers, but in the ordinary course of
manorial history a good tenant, even though unfree, seems to have possessed
a de facto if not a legal security of tenure. An instance, however, upon a
Dorset manor about the year i 240 shows how utterly defenceless his position
might be if his lord chose to exercise his full rights. On the feast of
St. Luke in that year Thomas Cusin, Hugh de Aula, and James de Ludinton
came to the house of Gunilda de Stokes, carried her out into the fields, and
took away all her goods. Whether Gunilda appealed to the manorial or
local courts does not appear, but four years elapsed without her obtaining
any redress. In the summer of 1 244 the justices of assize came to Sher-
borne. What hope the unfortunate woman cherished of obtaining abstract
justice at their hands is open to question. She brought her case before them,
however, and Thomas was summoned. He acknowledged all her charges,
and did not even seek to prove that he had any moral justification on account
of her bad tenancy or default in rent, merely replying that he certainly ' took
her goods as of his villein, and could eject her from her tenement as from
his villeinage.' The case being put to the jurors they acknowledged that it
was as Thomas said, and Gunilda was apparently dismissed without redress. '^
In a society regulated by a code of justice of which this is an instance, it is
hardly surprising to find an innocent man flying from his lord for fear ; ^^ it
would be interesting to know more of the case of Walter Middewynter, who
was presented by the jurors at the same eyre for having done so. It is at
least satisfactory to know that the justices merely decided that as he had done
no ill he might return if he would, but imposed no fine upon him, and gave
his master no assistance towards forcing him to come back.

That there was probably very little real distinction in economic rank
between the smaller freeman and the more wealthy villein is obvious ; but
any freedom of intercourse must have been strained by the risk of degrada-
tion to the free tenant. A case is recorded which occurred in the year
1232, when Isabella de Frome brought a suit against Gregory de Turri and
Emma his wife for half of two parts of a knight's fee in Frome. Emma
and Isabel were at least half-sisters, if they were not more nearly related,
yet Emma and Gregory declared that they were not bound to answer the
plea as Isabel was a villein, and that she certainly could lay no claim to the
free inheritance. The land in dispute they stated should have passed from
William le Fitzsamere their uncle to his sister and coheiress Christina,
who, however, married a villein William Muc, and thus forfeited her claim
to her moiety of her brother's inheritance. Isabel was the daughter of this
villein marriage, and sister to Hugh Muc, a villein, still hving. After the
death of her first husband Christina married ' a certain knight,' and con-
sequently received her inheritance, which had now descended to Emma the
issue of the free marriage. Isabel, however, successfully repudiated all
relationship with Hugh Muc and was awarded half the land in dispute with
the exception of the capital messuage ^^ — probably a wise provision in view
of the relations between the half-sisters.

" Assize R. 201, m. 4. '" Ibid. m. 5 d. " Maitland, Bracton's Note Bk. Case 70Z.

231

A HISTORY OF DORSET

There was, however, another side to the question — a plea of villeinage
might occasionally prove a convenient escape from an awkward suit, and it
was perhaps as well that a man who had once acknowledged himself to be
a villein before the justices could not subsequently repudiate the confession.
The policy of a certain Hamlin son of Ralph well illustrates this point.
In or before the year 1220 he won his case in an assize of novel disseisin
against Hugh de Gundeville, who had apparently ejected him from his
tenement. Hugh thereupon brought a counter-plea that Hamlin had no
power to sue him, as being his villein. He stated that in the reign of
King John, before the justices in eyre, Hamlin had confessed himself to be
a villein and to hold in villeinage. This assertion Hamlin denied, but when
the records of the eyre were examined it was found that one Osbert Crede
had brought an assize of mort (f ancestor against him, touching a carucate
of land in Pimperne [Pimpre], and that he had refused to answer on the plea
that he was a villein, and as such could neither acquire nor lose land.
Hamlin, apparently finding that the suit was likely to go against him,
absented himself, and after several vain attempts had been made to find
him, it was decreed that Hugh should have him sicut inllanum suum con-
victum, that the assize of novel disseisin which he had instituted should be
quashed, and that Hugh should be quit of the fine which had been
imposed upon him on the finding of the first assize.^*

Hamlin's case further illustrates the fact that it was no impossible
thing for a Dorset villein to be quite a substantial landowner ; whether
Hamlin himself was really a villein, or had only used the plea in the first
instance as a subterfuge, neither the justices nor the jurors seem to have
found any difficulty in the fact that he held as much as a carucate of land.
Further evidence in the same direction can be obtained from the Shaftesbury
Register where, in a survey of Cheselbourne, presumably of the reign of
Edward I, or at least early in the fourteenth century, one of the villeins
held an entire hide, and four others held half a hide each.^' There was a
marked tendency in the county to indulge in minute classifications of the
villein population, however ; at Kingston Lacy they were known as carters,
daywyns, forehors, akermen, and smalemen respectively. It seems clear that
the carter held normally one virgate of land, and the daywyn, owing very
similar services, may be supposed to have held nearly as much ; the forehors
and akermen appear to be classed together, but there is no definite statement
as to the size of any of their holdings.'" Elsewhere the distinctions are
somewhat different ; thus at Spettisbury in 1324—5 there were sixteen virga-
tarii, three holders of half a virgate, four fardelli holding 8 acres each, and
eleven cottars." At Sydling St. Nicholas and Hillfield the classification was
similar,^' but at Hinton (St. Mary) a distinction was made between cotsetti

'* Maitland, Bracton's Note Bk. Case 1 4 1 1 .

" Harl. MS. 61, fol. 44 'j'. It is most unfortunate that these surveys are only preserved in a poor
fifteenth-century transcript, with no reliable indication of their date. From the fact that thev reler frequently
to King Henrv as the predecessor of the present king, and show evident signs of unsuccessful administration,
it is tempting to refer them to the close of the thirteenth or early years of the fourteenth rentur\-. Cf.
' Religious Houses.' Cf. also the 2 virgate holdings at Broadwinsor in Chan. Inq. p.m. Edw. I, file 34,
No. 3.

*" Mins. Accts. (Duchy of Lane), 11040 and 11 192, and ibid. (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 832, No. 13.

•' Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iii, 517, quoting a survey.

" Ibid, iv, 497, 501, quoting Milton Abbey Custumal.

232

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

and cotariv — the cotset's holding was 4 acres, that of the cottar consisted
only of a house and curtilage/'*

The real distinction between the various ranks of customary tenants,
however, was probably between the comparatively substantial holder of
from 1 5 to 30 acres of land and the variously classified tenants of 8 acres
or less. The virgatarii and semi-virgatarii were probably very near the
borderland of freedom and practically on the same footing as the village
priest — he indeed was free by virtue of his orders, but in the Shaftesbury
Abbey Custumal, quoted above, he occurs certainly once among the list of
virgate-holders, who owed three days' work a week in winter, and heavy
August work.''*

The virgatarii and semi-virgatarii^ moreover, were probably in some
cases at least employers of labour, for at Wyke, Kingston Lacy, and Shap-
wick, though their holdings were larger than those of thefardelli, akermen, or
coterells, and must have employed more labour, they nevertheless were bound
to do more work on the lord's demesne, so that they must have required to
hire men either for the cultivation of their own holdings, or to perform
their customary services. Thus at Shapwick, while the larger tenants owed
three works a week from Michaelmas to the Feast of the Nativity of
St. John the Baptist, the coterells were only required to do six winter
works in the year,^^ the summer works being alike for all the tenants on
this manor as elsewhere in the county. ^° Similarly at Kingston Lacy the
carters and daywyns owed one work each week throughout the autumn and
winter, whereas the forehors, akermen, and smalemen apparently owed summer
works only," and at Wyke the virgate-holders had to send four men each,
the half-virgate holders two men each, and the fardelli one man each to
the three annual ' Bedereppes.' ^'

The very small holders on the other hand were probably themselves
labourers, their own land being cultivated in their spare time much as the
modern labourer may cultivate his allotment. On the Shaftesbury manors
it was certainly from the ranks of the cottars and cotsets that the shepherd,
cowherds, dairyman, and blacksmith were drawn." At Cheselbourne each
of these servants had 5 acres quit of all dues except the royal geld, and was
entitled to keep one animal in the pasture. Both here and at Iwerne Minster
they appear to have been allowed a whole holiday on Saturday '° in the
ploughing season until their own land was ploughed, and at Handley the

" Harl. MS. 61, fol. 651^., Sd. A distinction between the cotset and cottar seems to be made also
in the Domesday Survey of the county — the former being of higher rank than the latter ; cf. Maitland,
Domesday Bk. and Beyond, 39.

" Harl. MS. 61, fol. \\d. " Mins. Accts. (Duchy of Lane), 1 1045, 1 1049.

"> 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 </., 06, m. \\d^, though these may very probably have been
regarded as occasions of festivity. This can hardly have been the case with the sessions of the justices in
eyre (cf Assize R. 206, m. lo,/.), but possibly the jurors did not object to sacrificing their holiday in order
to bring the seneschal of the earl of Lincoln to justice.

2 233 30

A HISTORY OF DORSET

shepherd had the use of the lord's plough.'^ This being the case with the
demesne servants, it seems probable that the 5-acre tenant also served as
farm labourer on the 30-acre villein holding, or had some trade such as
carpentering or thatching in addition to farming his own land.

Wages in Dorset prior to the Black Death appear to have been
rather low. For while in Oxfordshire in the early years of the fourteenth
century the ploughman received 5J. bd. and in Buckinghamshire from 5J.
to 6j.,^* in this county he appears to have received only 4^. bd}^ Similarly
in Dorset between 1320 and 1327 carters, drivers Q'ugatores), and shep-
herds received 4^. 6d. or 5J. a year each, while at about the same time in
both Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire the first shepherd earned 6s. and in
Sussex he received 5J. 6d., 4J-. being the wage of his junior ; in Buckingham-
shire the carter received 5J. 6d. or 6^. 8^., in Sussex he received 6^. 6d., and
in Oxfordshire \.he. fugator received 6j.^* The Dorset cowherd in 1327
apparently received 3J. as compared with 4J. in Oxfordshire, and the dairy-
man 3^. as compared with a possible 4;-. in Buckinghamshire.'' At Cran-
borne the more responsible servants, such as the park keeper and messor,
on the other hand, were paid at the rate of \id. or 2d. a day, which
compares favourably with Sussex.'^

On the Shaftesbury Abbey lands the manorial servants seem to have
been paid in kind. The shepherd of Handley held 5 acres for keeping the
sheep, and had a lamb and a fleece and one sheep at Martinmas, and the milk
of sixteen sheep until lambing season, together with a measure of corn and
another of oats ; the ploughmen had one sheaf of ' rengo ' during the reaping
season and two sheaves when the corn was carried ; the smith was bound
to do certain repairs, in return for which he held 2 acres of land at a rent of
bd. and was entitled to the old iron and 'a cheese on a Sunday.'" At
Iwerne Minster the men who led the ploughs had 3d', and a cheese, while the
herdsman was entitled to have two animals freely in the pasture and a sheaf
in August, the swineherd had a pig, and the shepherd a sheep, a fleece, and
the milk of one sheep.'' At Cheselbourne the payments were chiefly in corn —
2 acres in August — and flour — one bushel (ambrd) for six weeks, or in the case
of Elietis qui servit in aula, one bushel for four weeks. In addition the
herdsmen all received milk from the demesne from Hockday to Michaelmas,"
and the oxherd, according to another survey, was entitled to have two
animals freely in the pasture and twenty sheep in the sheep-fold, together
with the ploughing of 4 acres with the demesne plough.*"

With these may be compared the ' liveries of seven servants ' accounted
for at Spettisbury in 1324, when each had a quarter of barley for twelve
weeks, while the dairyman, ' hogherd, and porter ' had a bushel for two
weeks." A similar system was also pursued at Steeple in the thirteenth

'' Harl. MS. 61, fol. 56; cf. also fol. 59.

" I'.C.H. Oxon. ii, 182, note i ; ibid. Bucks, ii, ' Soc. and Econ. Hist.'

" Mins. Accts. (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 832, No. 26, and bdle. 834, No. 28.

^ Ibid. bJle. 832, Nos. 3, 5, 26 ; bdle. 834, No. 28 ; y.C.H. Oxon. ii, 182 note ; Bucks, ii, 'Soc. and
Econ. Hist.' ; and Sussex, ii, 83, note 95.

'^ Mins. Accts. (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 833, No. 5. There seems to have been some doubt as to what
was really due to them ; it was, however, certainly not more than 3/. ; F.C.H. Oxon and Bucks, loc. cit.

' Mins. Accts. (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 832, No. 3 ; cf. bdle. 1027, No. 22, and bdle. 1 147, No. 14.

" Harl. MS. 61, fol. 56. '" ILid. iol. 45 d. &c. " Ibid. fol. 44 d. &c. *" Ibid. fol. 59.

*' A deed quoted by Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iii, 517. Pcrhap'i this should be shepherd and swineherd.

234

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

or early fourteenth century, the allowance being very much the same in
amount as at Spettisbury.*^

But in addition to these regularly employed servants on the Dorset
manors, a large amount of day labour was required, both for harvest work,
such as threshing, mowing, reaping, and tossing, and for repairs about the
farm buildings and houses. Upon these occasions a carpenter usually
received id. a day, though for elaborate building works, such as the repairs
of Corfe Castle in 1 280-1, as much as dd. might be paid,*^ while work could
be found for less skilled workmen who only received z\dy' A thatcher
{coopterius) as a rule received 3^. a day between himself and his boy, though oc-
casionally an extra \d. or \d. was allowed for the lad." Mowing was paid at
5(/. or 51^. an acre, and tossing at '2.\d. or 3^. the day.*' In 1282 a sawyer at
Corfe received ^d. a day, an unskilled labourer carrying stones, &c., id. or
21^., and a woman making mortar \d. ; the overseers of the works themselves
only received \s. a week each.*^ These wages were apparently in addition to
food, for when the carpenters and sawyers were employed in the woods, Ralph
received \d. for going to the wood with fish and a pennyworth of bread.*'

It is difficult to form any very clear idea of prices in Dorset at this
period. At Wyke in 1327 — apparently a year of plenty — wheat was
sold at \s. the quarter, barley at 5^. the bushel, pulse at 6^., vetch at 6^.,
and oats at 4^^.;*^ and in 1321— 2 wheat was at (^d. a bushel, barley at 6^., and
oats at \d. the bushel.'" The following year, however, wheat rose to about
I OJ-. the quarter and barley was bought for yj. \d. or even 8j. 'id. the quarter ;
while at Cranborne in 1325-6 the price of wheat was but little less," though
other kinds of grain had fallen considerably. In 1325—6 cheese was sold at
I5J-. the wey, and butter at %d. the stone," and in 1327 the reeve of
Steeple sold a rennet cheese for ioj., and other cheese at \\s. lod. the
wey, and received is. the stone for butter." Of the live-stock on a Dorset
farm at this period oxen were the most expensive, ranging from 6^. to
i8j. bd. each, but usually being sold for over loj." ; cows were worth from
3 J-, to 5 J-., sheep about lod. or is. or even is. ^d. a head, hoggerels %d., and
lambs bd. ; pigs varied from 6s. to 2^., and geese from 2d. to 4^. each."

All this would seem to imply a rather low economic standard in Dorset
up to about the middle of the fourteenth century. There can, moreover, be

" Mins. Accts. (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 833, No. 1.

" Ibid. bdle. 834, No. 26 ; bdle. 833, No. 16 ; Exch. Accts. Works, bdle. 460, No. 27.

" Exch. Accts. Works, bdle. 460, No. 27.

" Mins. Accts. (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 833, Nos. I, 5 ; 832, Nos. 3, 26, 28 ; 834, No. 28.

"^ Ibid. bdle. 832, Nos. 3, 28 ; 833, No. 4 ; 834, No. 28 (mowing) ; 832, No. 26 ; and 833, No. 5
(tossing).

" Exch. Accts. Works, bdle. 460, No. 27. " Ibid.

" Mins. Accts. (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 834, No. 28.

'"Ibid. bdle. 832, No. 26.

" Wheat, 8/. ?,ii. and 9/. ^J. the quarter ; barley, 4/. and 4/. \d. the quarter ; pulse, vetch, and
dragget, 40/. the quarter (pulse at midsummer, 6s. 8a'.) ; oats, is. 6d. the quarter ; Mins. Accts (Gen. Ser.),
bdle. 832, No. 3.

" Mins. Accts. (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 832, No. 3 ; Assize R. 206, m. 20, values cheeses at Ss. 'per pond'—
eight cheeses making one ' pond.'

" Ibid, bdle 833, No. 5.

" Ibid. (Duchy of Lane), No. 1 125, and (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 833, No. 17, &c.

" Ibid. No. 5 ; ibid. (Duchy of Lane), No. 1 125, and (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 832, No. 3 ; bdle. 834,
No. 28 ; bdle. 833, Nos. I, 5. The fact that the customary allowance for the workers in the harvest field
at Wyke was two bushels of corn or l6i/., one sheep or 12/, and one cheese or 5<2'., would seem to point to
these as being average prices about the year 1314 (Chan. Inq. p.m. 8 Edw. II, file 43, No. 26).

235

A HISTORY OF DORSET

little doubt that there was a considerable poor and potentially criminal class
throughout the county. These were, in part, strangers who had wan-
dered from other counties, and were beyond the reach of that local police
organization which should normally have kept them in check." But out
of a total of some seventy criminals presented and convicted before thejustices
in eyre at Sherborne in 1244, about sixty were Dorset men, of whom
twenty-one owned chattels of under 10s. in value, and twenty-four others
had no chattels at all." Out of these forty-five, thirty were convicted of
theft, and the other fifteen of manslaughter, usually arising from a quarrel.

These figures, together with the fact that in all only five freemen of
independent position were convicted at this eyre, and of these only one, whose
chattels were valued at i 3J. 4^. and a house, was charged with theft,"* suggest
that crime of this nature was generally the outcome of poverty, and that the
criminal class was chiefly recruited from the lower ranks of the villeins, on
whom hard times would naturally press with the greatest severity. That
the 5-acre tenant lived at no great distance from the verge of destitution is
implied in an entry in the survey of the Shaftesbury Abbey manor of Chesel-
bourne, to the effect that the cottars used to owe service in the brew-house,
but had been excused for some time on account of their poverty."

Theft, burglary, cattle stealing, murder, and manslaughter seem alike to have
been punishable with outlawry or hanging,^" and as the former either implied
exile or the liability to pursuit and death at the hands of the first comer, the
death rate must have been considerably raised by this means. The prevalence
of epilepsy, constantly ending fatally," must also have tended to check the
increase in population, while death by drowning under a mill-wheel, by being
burnt alive, or by other accident seems to have been of common occurrence.**

The presentment of all these offences and accidents before the justices
itinerant implies a degree of common action which it is difficult to realize;**
but the whole of the local government and police administration of an English
county in the Middle Ages was based upon a system of joint responsibility,
starting at the narrow apex of the tithing or mainpast, and broadening down
through the vill and the hundred to the wide basis of the county, which
appeared collectively in the monthly county court, or at rare intervals in yet
more representative form before the justices in eyre.**

The tithing was sometimes a unit within the vill, and sometimes was
commensurate with the vill itself, as in the case of Hooke, where the reaper '°
was attached by the tithingman, and the whole tithing for breach of the

" E.g. Assize R. 201, m. I, &c. " Ihid. passim.

** Ibid. m. 7. Possibly some of the criminals who were in mainpast were free, but from the context
in most case.s this seems doubtful. They were, however, for the most part charged with brawling rather
than theft, and do not affect the argument.

"Harl. MS. 61, fol. 59.

^ Assize R. 201 m. 1, l d. ; 206, m. 3, 7, 8, 14.

" Ibid. 206, m. 8, 9</. &c. ; 212 m. 7, &c.

" Ibid. 201, m. 2 /, 51/., 212 passim.

^ It extended beyond the sphere of mere police duties ; upon one occasion the * community of the vill '
of Fordington went so far in collective action as to sue a m.in who had offended it, by attorney, in the
manorial court [P.R.O Ct. R. (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 169, No. 26, m. 6, 7].

" Cf. Pollock and Maitland, Hist, of Engl. Law, i, 202, 529, &c.

" The Dorset reaper, messor, was apparently sometimes a person of considerable importance. At
Cranborne he was highly paid (see above), and elsewhere he acted as rent collector [Mins. Accts. (Gen. Sen),
bdle. 834, No. 31] and keeper of the manor [Mins. Accts. (Duchy of Lane), 11 192]. Possibly in this instance
his position had afforded an excuse for extortion and violence.

236

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

peace and robbery/' The vills were responsible for the pursuit of malefactors,
and were constantly amerced for default in this duty." When a suspected
criminal was captured and placed in custody, pending the institution of
proceedings against him before the sheriff, it was again the vill that was fined
if he escaped** from the prison to which he had been assigned. Thus when
Nicholas Bird was imprisoned in Kingston Lacy prison on suspicion of theft,
and escaped, the men of the vill of Barnsley [Bernardsleigh] were charged
with his flight, because he was in their custody. Moreover, if a prisoner
escaped, and the jurors attempted to conceal the fact, they were liable to
another fine.*^

Returned outlaws were the cause of considerable trouble both to the
vills collectively and to individuals. It happened occasionally that after a
man had been outlawed he returned to the county, either with a view to
revenge, as apparently in the case of one John Furet who, after having been
outlawed on account of a murder which he had committed, returned to
Swyre, and was about to burn the parson's house, when he was fortunately
discovered by Reginald Dylle, the parson's servant,^" or because he had
found someone who was willing to harbour him," or apparently from sheer
bravado, as did William le Curt, who returned to Milton and Blandford and
wandered begging from town to town without molestation." When this was
the case it was the duty of the first person who discovered the returned criminal
to raise the hue and cry and to pursue and kill him summarily.''^ As a
matter of fact this seems generally to have been accomplished fairly speedily,
but in one case an outlaw returned to Wareham by night, and betook himself
to sanctuary in the church of St. Mary, whence he subsequently escaped, for
which escape the borough was fined by the justices at the next eyre.''*

On more than one occasion, however, such pursuit ended disastrously for
the pursuer. In one instance an outlaw, who had been harboured for three
weeks by the bailiff of Hyde, attempted to return to his house at ' Whit-
clyve ' (in Rowbarrow Hundred) and was met by William son of Thomas,
who raised the hue and cry, and in company with Helyas le Bercher pur-
sued him and cut off his head. Thereupon Helyas, for some reason un-
specified — possibly for fear of the bailiff, who had befriended his victim — took
fright and iied. It was probably well for him that he did so, for the coroner
came and viewed the body of the dead man and gave William son of Thomas
over to the sheriff as a felon, whereupon he was detained in prison nearly a
year," and it was not until the justices in eyre visited the county again that
full justice was done upon the bailiff, and Helyas was given leave to return
from his voluntary exile if he chose. On another occasion several men lay in
wait for an outlaw whom they knew to be concealed in the house of a
certain Robert le Melliere of Stafford, but their victim showed fight and
slew one of his would-be captors. Subsequently he was captured elsewhere
and hanged, and Robert fled because he had concealed him."

The presentment of crimes and accidents at the county court lay with
the vills," but before the justices presentments were made by the jurors of the

'* Assize R. 201, m. 4. " Ibid. 201, m. i, &c.

^ Ibid. 206, m. 3, 4. " Ibid. 201, m. I.

™ Ibid. 212 m. 7. " Ibid. m. I. " Ibid. m. 10 d-. " Ibid. m. 7.

■* Ibid. 201, m. 5 </.; cf. R. 206, m. 7, where the vill of Shaftesbury was fined for receiving outlaws.

" Ibid. 212, m. I. " Ibid. 206, m. 14. " Ibid. 201, m. i, 5.

237

A HISTORY OF DORSET

hundred. Any neglect in this respect was punished by a fine," but on one
occasion when the jurors concealed a theft before the justices they were
actually committed to gaol." On the other hand if the jurors of a hundred
presented pleas that were not within their competence they were again sub-
jected to a fine. They were probably not often sufficiently zealous to incur
this penalty, but in 1244 the justices amerced the hundred of Halstock on
this account, and again for having taken and detained without warrant a
chaplain who had been guilty of house-breaking.*"

The verdict of the jurors at the eyre was checked by the presence of the
coroner. When the jurors presented the death of a woman whom they called
Isabel de Blandford, the coroner bore witness that her name was really Sibil, and a
general fine was exacted for a false presentment," and upon the same occasion
an amercement was levied because the jurors declared that the vill of Poor-
ton had presented a certain case in the county court, and the coroner denied
that it was so.*^ It was the coroner's duty also to view the body of anyone
who had met with a violent or accidental death, and all the vills of the neigh-
bourhood were expected to be present at the view on pain of a fine, which
was very frequently incurred.*' Upon one occasion the prior of Wareham
was charged with having buried Nicholas Miller who had been drowned in
the mill-stream at Westholme without this view. He was sentenced to
amercement, but denied the charge and put himself on the county, where-
upon the jurors found that he was not guilty, and proceedings were taken
against the original jury for concealing the truth in their presentment." At
the same eyre the vill of Winterborne Steeple was charged with having
buried a suicide before the coroner had arrived.*'

The coroner himself was occasionally fined for default in his duty. It
was incumbent upon him when any accident occurred to attach the person,
and value the chattels of everyone who was even remotely connected with
the scene or instrument of the disaster. Thus, when Walter le Frere left his
cart outside the door of a house while he went inside, and in his absence the
mare which drew it ran over Matilda the daughter of John Forke, Walter
ought to have been arrested, instead of which he ran away, and the coroner,
who apparently made no attempt to recover him, was fined in consequence.*'

In view of all these possibilities of amercement it is hardly surprising
that the profits of justice were a valuable source of crown revenue in the
Middle Ages. The sum, moreover, was swelled by the fact that suit of court
was a burden of which the more wealthy citizen was glad to rid himself by a
fine. Two instances of this occurred in 1 244. The first was the case of
the manor of Mayne Hospital, which did not appear by itself or in any
hundred before the justices in eyre ; it was subsequently testified that the
men of the manor were all freemen, and one Nicholas de Mayne appeared
and compounded for their collective default *' with a fine of i mark. The
second case was the yet more important one of the knights and Serjeants of

" Assize R. 201, m. i, 5.

" Ibid. 212, m. 1. Cf. also the ominous order to the sheriff in the case of Hamlin son of Ralph,

quoted above, to inquire diligently who were the jurors in the first assize, ' and to have them on such
a day ' &c.

"Ibid. 201, m. 3. »' Ibid. 201, m. 6</. *'Ibid. m. 5.

"' Ibid. 2 1 2, m. 1 , 2, 4. " Ibid. 212, m. 6. " Ibid. m. 7 .

'* Ibid. 212, m. 2 ; cf. m. 5 ; R. 206, m. 4. " Ibid. 201, m. 4</.

238

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

the county, who all failed to appear before the justices and were consequently
fined/'

At the same time there were certain limitations which hampered even
the king's justice. The first of these was the benefit of clergy. Curtailed
to a large extent by the Constitutions of Clarendon, it yet played an important
part in the administration of the law. In Dorset it was used as a refuge by
a variety of criminals such as poachers, murderers, and counterfeiters of the
king's seal *' — in the last case apparently without avail, as no one claimed the
so-called clerk for the church, and he was consequently committed to gaol,
whence he escaped, only to be outlawed by command of the justices in eyre.
The second and more serious limitation was created by the existence of
numerous private franchises, such as the broad liberty of Cranborne to which
the sheriff had no entry,'" and where the right to hang thieves taken in the
act was occasionally construed to cover thieves taken on suspicion only, and
without formal indictment." Yet the very presentment of these facts before
the justices is, from one point of view, additional evidence of the strength of
the central government, and of the alliance between it and the ' commonalty
of the realm.' Vills might be subtracted from the hundred court by some
powerful overlord, courts might be unjustly multiplied in Eggerton Hundred,
the sherifFs tourn might be neglected in the hundred of Hasilor,'^ pleas of
vert and venison might be wrongfully held by the earl of Gloucester in the
hundred of Pimperne beyond the borders of the forest, poor men might be
distrained for debt by their wainage,'^ foresters, bailiffs, and seneschals might
make false exactions and purveyances,'* but when the justices arrived in the
county upon their eyre, the jurors of the hundreds set forth all their
grievances and all encroachments on the royal justice, which were thereupon
examined, and, where necessary, fines were imposed upon the culprits'* or re-
dress was ordered. '° Upon one occasion the jurors were fined for not having
mentioned a wrongful exaction which had been made by the constable of
Corfe Castle."

What event or series of events really marks the transition from the early
to the later Middle Ages in Dorset it seems impossible to determine. There
is but little evidence of the extent of the ravages of the plague in the middle
of the fourteenth century,'' and although there can be no doubt that Dorset
and its neighbour counties were involved in the disturbances of 1381," there
appears to be no evidence to show that the rising had any economic effect,
though socially no doubt the presence in the county of ' homicides, robbers,
and insurgents ' in unusual numbers was a real evil. Nevertheless, here as
elsewhere, the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries certainly saw the transi-
tion from a feudal to a commercial basis of society. The process was, how-
ever, in some respects a slow one ; for instance, in the matter of commuta-
tion, while the virgate-holding customary tenants of Tarrant Gunville paid

" Assize R. 201, m. (> d. "' Ibid. 206, m. 6, 9 ; R. 212, m. 7, 13.

"" Ibid. 206, m. 4. " Ibid. m. 3.

" Ibid. 201, m. 3</. ; R. 206, m. 16 a'., 20. '' Ibid. 206, m. 4, 5.

" Ibid. 201, in. 5 d.; R. 206, m. 4, 6, 8, 18, 20 ; R. 212, m. 3, 4, 1 1.

" e.g. Ibid. 206, m. 4, 5, 6, 8. '' Ibid. m. iS d., 20. " Ibid. m. 20.

" See, however, Hist. MSS. Com. Refi. vi, App. 475 ; Rot. Purl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 129(7. A complaint
of the abbess and convent of Shaftesbury dated 1 38 1-2 stating that nearly all their tenants were dead of the
plague.

" Cal. of Pat. 1381-S, pp. 73, 136.

A HISTORY OF DORSET

14;'. for all services in 13 14, the half-virgate holders yj., and the yet smaller
tenants 4^.,'°" and the tenants of Wyke occasionally commuted some few of their
works as early as the year 1327,^°' yet on the latter manor services were still
only in part commuted as late as 1458—9,"* customary tenants still worked at
Waterson in 1446-7,"' and at Kingston Lacy as late as 1485 the tenants still
performed their winter works according to custom ; and out of a total of
seventy-eight villeins of all classes owing daily services from 24 June until
Michaelmas, the only commutations recorded are those of three carters, one
daywyn, one forehors,