98 THE CHURCH BELLS OF DORSET. 



TRANSLATION. 



To his very gracious and very noble Lord, the Chancellor of 

 England 



Humbly beseecheth Robert Gildesburgh of London brass 

 founder that whereas Hugh Stokenynge vicar of the church 

 of Whitchurch in Marshwood Vale in the county of Dorset 

 recently bought of the said Robert a couple of bells for a certain 

 sum of money, which bells the said suppliant [left in] the 

 keeping of the said vicar for a whole year in order to test them, 

 whether they were suitable or not : and after the end of the said 

 year the said complainant came to the said vicar and demanded 

 his money : [at which] time the said vicar by his false imagin- 

 ation invented reasons for having deceived and kept the said 

 Robert out of part of his money, alleging that the said bells 

 were not suitable nor in accordance with his guarantee. Where- 

 fore the said suppliant offered to enter into a bond for forty 

 pounds with the said vicar under a condition that they should 

 submit them to the award [and] arbitrament of John Scory of 

 Taunton and Adam Buggeberd parson of the church of South 

 Perrott in the same county or, if the two could not attend, 

 then to the award of the said Adam Buggeberd alone, which 

 award was to be made within a certain time. And the vicar sent 

 for the said Adam and at that time he came to the said vicar and 

 asked to hear the said bells rung and found no defects in the 

 same bells ; and thereupon the said Adam gave judgment and 

 award for the said Robert. 



The will of John Barber, bell founder, has been discovered by 

 Dr. Tyssen, and will be published by the Wilts Record Society. 

 Mr. F. J. Pope, who has inspected the original document, has 

 kindly sent the following outline of its contents : 



It is dated on the Vigil of the Purification of the Virgin Mary, 

 1403, and the testator is described as " Johannis Barbo r Brasier 

 ciuis ciuitatis nove Sar." There are legacies to churches and 

 institutions in New Sarum and Winchester, and for prayers for 



