258 Death uf thr Earl of Salish'ri/ : Grilhertines at St. Maryarei's. 



Eichard I. or John ; but I think it more likely to have been 

 founded by Henry II. very shortly before his death in July, 1189, 

 and just after the death of the founder (in Feb. of the same year), 

 for whom he had a singular regard, notwithstanding St. Gilbert's 

 advocacy of St. Thomas Becket.^ The founder's — or his general 

 chapter's — idea of the proper number for a priory of canons or 

 brethren ranged from ten to seventy. I should think that 

 Marlborough numbered at most from thirteen to sixteen inclusive 

 of the prior. We may picture them in oiir streets, vested in black 

 tunic, mantle, and hood, the latter lined with lamb's wool,- with 

 shoes and shaven crowns.^ The chapel of St. Nicholas, East Grafton, 

 belonged to St. Margaret's. Stained glass, pavement tiles, and a very 

 interesting pax (of the crucifixion) have been discovered there.* 

 According to the ministers' accounts in 1536, taken just after the 

 suppression of the convent, St. Margaret's priory had possessed 

 property also at East Kennet, mill, &c., at Manton, by Clatford, 

 Yatesbury, "Lockeridge" manor farm. West Grafton ditto. East 

 Grafton farm, portion of tithes in Grafton, Monketon, Burbage, 

 Alington, and a toft in Mildenhall.^ 



A list of charters and documents is appended to this paper. 



About 1220 there was a hospital for a master or warden and 

 some poor sick brethren, dedicated in honour of St. Thomas of 

 Canterbury, Abp., M. This was annexed to St. Margaret's in 1393. 

 It had previously been in the Bishop's patronage. In 1346 Byndus 

 de Bandinell had been master, and was then allowed to exchange 

 with Philip de Weston. St. Thomas's, like St. Margaret's itself, 

 was not within the borough, but "juxta Maleberg." I have been 

 half inclined to identify this house with the Trinitarian Hospital 

 or Priory of brethren associated for the redemption of captives, 

 which was built at Easton lioyal. I was on the point of abandoning 



' Life of St. Gilbert by Lockhart and J. D. Dalgairns (1844) in Newman's 

 Lives of the J£nglish Saints, pp. 124 — 5. 



- Ecclesiastical Vestments, E. A. S., Macalister (1896), p. 249. 

 ^Gas([uet, English Monastic Life, p. 229. 

 ^ Wilts Arch. Mag., vi., 271. 

 ^ Dugd., vii., 981. 



