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By Rev. C. 8S. Ruddie, 31 
It seems to me impossible that a man living in Amesbury should 
make such a will, full of references to his Parish Church services, 
if the Church itself were being monstrously dilapidated. 
Look again at this: in the account of the Abbey Church mention 
is made of only two chapels—the Chapel of our Lady and St. 
John’s Chapel. There is no Jesus Chapel. But in 1549 Michael 
Skotte, mercer of Amesbury, desires to be buried in Jesus Chapel 
in the Parish Church of Amesbury. Apparently it was a family 
burying-place, for seven years later John Skott, yeo., desires to be 
buried in the same Jesus Chapel. 
I am bold enough to suggest that the Abbey Church was Christ 
Church: and on this ground. A parishioner of Durrington, 
probably the chief tenant of Winchester College—Robt. Matyn— 
made his will in 1509. He was on good terms with the Convent 
‘of Amesbury, for he bequeathed to my lady prioress 3s. 4d., and to 
every lady householder of the same place 8d., and to every lady 
veiled 4d. To every Church in this bourne from Upavon to 
Salisbury he left two sheep. But he heads his bequest to Churches 
“JT bequethe to Christ’s Churche, 3s. 4d. Also I bequeth to 
the Pisshe Churche of Ambresbury 4 sheepe.” If Christchurch, 
Hants, had been intended, the county would have been given. It 
could not: be Christ Church, Oxford, for it had not been founded. 
I submit that it was the Priory Church. 
There was, it seems to me, a Parish Church here at a very early 
date. There is nothing unreasonable in supposing that when the 
King met his witan here at Easter, 995, and chose the Bishop of 
Wiltshire to be Archbishop of Canterbury, it was because it was a 
comparatively populous place, as well as because the King’s manor 
was great. It was at Domesday twelve times as big as the other 
_ four manors of Amesbury put together. 
And the seven thanes, eight millers, eighty-five Villetitd fifty-six 
bordars, with their families, to say nothing of their serfs, must have 
_ required a good-sized Parish Church. Apparently the Abbey then 
had no land in the parish: the only ecclesiastical holding was a 
small one of the Abbess of Wilton. 
How came the dedication to St. Melore, a Welsh or British saint 
