I 88 BROWNSEA ISLAND. 



as far as I can trace it, is derived from Bruno, into whose 

 possession it came in Danish times ("ea" Icelandic for Island), 

 for in the reign of Edward the Confessor Bruno was Lord of the 

 Manor of Studland, which includes Brownsea, and so it was 

 often called Brunei Insula. From that, I imagine, came the 

 name of Branksea, with which Brownsea has been interchanged 

 from time immemorial. Henry the Second's great charter 

 granted to the Abbot of Cerne the right to all wreck of the sea 

 at " Brunkery," as he called it by way of a change, and in the 

 third year of Edward the First a similar patent was granted, and 

 confirmed by Henry the Eighth, before he dispossessed the 

 religious orders. 



It was to the Blue Beard King that we are indebted for the 

 square tower, which was built as a blockhouse for the protection 

 of Poole and its shipping. At that time the town of Poole 

 agreed to appoint six men to watch and ward in it. In 1543 

 Henry, after destroying the monasteries, made a grant of it to 

 John Vere, Earl of Oxford, who disposed of it to John Duke. 

 The lower part of it was made of rubble, and in 1545 from an 

 old document we find that it was repaired with chalk and stone, 

 and also that a disbursement was re-made to Rychard Welsted 

 for 8 Payre of Whelyse to Castell of Brownsea. Another 

 document from the Poole Archives is an inventory of ordnance, 

 shot, and gunpowder received towards the defence of the 

 castle : "Received from Portsmouth loth August 1547 by the 

 commandment of Lord Seymour, Admiral of England, one 

 piece of iron named a Demi-Culverin with the sponge and 

 ladle for same, and 50 shot of iron and two half barrels of 

 gunpowder;" and there are many similar receipts in this and 

 the following reigns. 



In 1552 a commission Avas appointed to examine and report 

 upon the state of the defences of the west coast, the members of 

 Avhich were Sir John Rogers, George De La Lynde, Richard 

 Phelippe, and they reported, amongst other things, on Brownsea. 

 They said " The square of the great tower 44ft., which 

 amounteth to i76ft., and that after the rate of isft. to the perch 



