350 



►ii m Agreement, 



BETWEEN THE ABBESS JOHANNA DE MONTEFORT, AND THE CONVENT OP 

 LACOCK, AND SIR JOHN BLUET, LORD OF LACKHAM, CONCERNING THE 

 ERECTION OF A CHAPEL OP OUR LADY ADJOINING THE ABBEY CHURCH 

 OF LACOCKj A.D. 1315, 



By C. H. Talbot, Esq. 



^HROUGH the courtesy o£ Mr. Job Edwarclsj of Amesburj, 

 the possessor of the original, I am enabled to lay before the 

 readers of the Wiltshire Archseolog'ical and Natural History Maga- 

 zine a very interesting document relating to the Abbey of Lacoek. 

 It is an agreement between the abbess Johanna de Montefort and 

 the convent of Lacoek and Sir John Bluet lord of the manor of 

 Lackham in the same parish, whereby the former bind themselves 

 to erect a chapel of Our Lady adjoining the abbey church. It is 

 dated in the last week of August, 1315. It is probable that the 

 building of this chapel was consequent on the appropriation to the 

 Abbey of Bluet's interest in the rectory of Lacoek, in 1310 or 1311. 

 Originally, the two lords of Lacoek and Lackham had the alternate 

 presentation to the rectory, and the parish appears practically to 

 have been formed by the coalescence of those manors. The foundress 

 of the Abbey, Ela Countess of Salisbury bestowed her advowson 

 or alternate right of presentation on the Abbey. The probability is 

 that this chapel contained the tomb of Sir John Bluet. The fol- 

 lowing item occurs among the Anmial and perpetual Rents, and 

 Burdens paid annually of the Abbey contained in the " Valor Ec- 

 clesiasticus" (survey of 1535) : — ' 



" For 30 lb. of wax, bought for the maintenance of four candles daily about 

 the tomb of Sir John Blewett, Knt. generally costing "id. alb. £0 17s. 6d." 



^ Vide Annals and Antiquities of Lacoek Abbey, by the Hev. "W. L, Bowles 

 and John Gough Kiuhols, pp. 287, 288, 299 and 300. 



