Bij the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 39 



A.D. 1171. The Glastonbury estate here was let to farm at £8. 

 From the small quantity of stock upon it, 24 oxen, 11 heifers, 26 

 pigs and 250 sheep, it is evident that very little of the parish was 

 then enclosed. • 



About the year 1200 a violent commotion took place amongst 

 the monks of Grlastonbury, in consequence of an attempt on the 

 part of the Crown to unite that Abbacy with the See of Wells. 

 After a very long controversy, the matter was settled by the Pope's 

 delegates, who decreed that though the two offices should remain 

 distinct, a portion of the estates of the Abbey should be assigned to 

 the Bishop of Wells. In this Kington was included. The con- 

 troversy was revived on the succession of Bishop Jocelyn to the 

 See of Wells, and was finally settled in 1218 by the restoration of 

 Kington (with some others) to its former owners ; but the Advow- 

 son was to remain with the Bishop.^ 



A.D. 1235-53. After the recovery of the Manor, Glastonbury 

 Abbey being then under the government of one of its best Abbots, 

 Michael of Ambresbury, Kington partook of the benefits of his 

 administration. A fresh adjustment of Tithe, deranged during the 

 late dispute, gave satisfaction to the inhabitants : a new grange 

 was built, the Church restored, and Abbot Michael gave money to 

 found an obit for himself and a charity to the poor. The charity 

 and obit have of course long disappeared, but the village stQl un- 

 consciously retains a reminiscence of this benefactor in the name 

 which it bears : having selected from the calendar for its renovated 

 Church one that should be also complimentary to the renovator. 



The Historian of the Abbey, Adam of Domerham, says that about 

 this time it was much in debt ; an unfortunate predicament to 

 which the improvements at Kington had perhaps contributed. For 

 purpose of relief Abbot Robert of Pederton leased the Manor to 

 one Robert Pentone for his life. The name of the lessee, when 

 quiclcly pronounced, so nearly resembles that of the lessor as to 

 make the transaction likely to have been a little family afftiir ; for 

 whicli, confirmation by the Pope was necessary, and was granted by 

 Pope Alexander in 1258. 



1 Now Monast. I. p. 5. 



