By the Rev. W. H. Jones. 17 
our town was the famous Abbot of Glastonbury. We are next to 
be introduced to the head of another religious house; this also being 
one of the best endowed in the kingdom. And our acquaintance 
with the Abbess of Shaftesbury is not to be a transient one like 
that with St. Dunstan, but one that is to last for more than five hun- 
dred years. Fuller tells us, in his Church History, that so wealthy 
were these two communities, that the country people had a proverb 
that “if the Abbot of Glastonbury might marry the Abbess of 
Shaftesbury, their heir would have more land than the King of 
_ England”. What was the history of Bradford Monastery during 
the fifty years that elapsed between Dunstan’s election here to the 
Bishopric of Worcester, and the commencement of the eleventh 
century, it is not easy to say. Probably the monks of St. Laurence 
at Bradford, like their brethen at Frome, (a monastery also founded 
by Aldhelm) were dispersed during the Danish wars, which raged 
fiercely in this part of the country, and were never afterwards re- 
assembled. At all events we find that in a.p. 1001 Ethelred ma- 
terially increased the possessions of the Abbess of Shaftesbury by 
bestowing upon her the Monastery and Vill (i.e. the Manor) of 
Bradford; such a gift implying that at this time the manor was 
in the hands of the king. It was given, to use Leland’s words, 
“for a recompence of the murderinge of 8. Edward his brother;”’ 
of which deed, though it was carried out by the orders of Elfrida, 
Ethelred was supposed not to be wholly guiltless. The Charter, 
by which he granted to the Abbess this addition to her reve- 
nues, is still in existence. It is to be found among the Harleian 
MSS. in the British Museum, and has been printed both by Dugdale! 
and Kemble.? 
The charter is an interesting document, as it gives us an account 
not only of the specific object for which Ethelred bestowed Bradford 
upon the Abbess, but also distinctly marks out (insomuch that we 
can for the most part trace them now) the boundaries of the Vill 
and Manor, or, as we should say, the Parish. On the former point 
Ethelred states that “he gave to the Church of St. Edward at - 
' Monast. Angl. ii., 471. 
2 Codex Diplom. iii. No. 706. 
