254 Death of the Enrl of Srdisbvry : Gilhertines at St. Margaret's. 



Upavon, and Avebuiy, Martin Hospital in Bedwyn, and perhaps 

 some others — Marlborough itself was rich in such institutions. In 

 fact it stood next to Salisbury or Wilton in this county in respect 

 of the variety of its own religious houses, although it may not have 

 equalled such places in the number of their inmates living under 

 religious rule. Marlborough had its 12th or 13th century foun- 

 dations of Gilbertines at St. Margaret's, just outside the town, and 

 its Whitefriars (Carmelites) at the Priory, just ofi' the south side of 

 the High Street, founded between 1309 and 1316, near the Kennet. 

 There was the earlier hospital for " Brethren and Sisters serving 

 God " under the title of " the Hospital of St. John the Baptist, by 

 Marlborough," founded in 1215 (just this side of Sempringham, or 

 St. Margaret's), and now the site of the new secondary school for 

 boys and girls — ntinam sint etiam Deo servientes ! Here for three 

 hundred and fifty years was the Tree Grammar School which 

 bought for itself the name of " Royal " : K. Edward the Sixth's " Dear 

 uncle," (whom he subsequently beheaded,) having sold it to the 

 corporation (who had to part with their valuable pewter, to defray 

 the cost) when the foundation had been wrested from the religious 

 and beneficent object of its original establishment. 



There had been also a Hospital of St. Thomas of Canterbury, 

 which in 1393 or 1394 was merged in St. Margaret's Priory. We 

 had also one Hermit of the Order of St. Paul the Hermit in 1523, 

 which adopted the Augustinian rule. I suppose he lived in an 

 old house built by John Burdesey where Dr. Penny's house now 

 stands. As early as King John's time there was a female hermit 

 or anchoress named Eve of Preshute. There were five or six secular 

 priests attached to St. Peter's and St, Mary's ; and one, at least, at 

 St. Martin's Church (now destroyed) . But this (at least in the 

 latter part of the 15 th century) was served — or, as it was said, 

 neglected — by the friars.^ 



But the Priory of St. Margaret's is even more interesting than 

 the rest in respect of its order. It was a house of the Gilhertines. 



' J. Millbiirn, The Two Marlboroughs (M. Coll. N. H. Report, xlii., 1894), 

 p. 44, " Master W. Athilbrigge, one of the Friars " (? a Cluniac White Friar). 



