22 CHAINED BOOKS IN DORSET AND ELSEWHERE. 



Presumably he was the son of another William Stone, who 

 like himself, was one of the three " Ministers," or 

 " Presbyters," who conjointly were in charge of the Minster 

 at Wimborne. He took the degree of B.C.L. when 18 years 

 of age, and was appointed one of the Ministers of Wimborne 

 in 1641. During the Civil War he appears to have attached 

 himself as Chaplain to the Royal Army, "where through 

 many labours, losses, and dangers he strenuously fulfilled 

 his duty." During the period of the Commonwealth he 

 travelled in foreign lands. Upon the Restoration he returned 

 to Wimborne, and in 1661 was restored to his position as one 

 of the Ministers of the Minster. Two years later he became 

 Principal of New Inn Hall, Oxford. The remainder of his 

 life he spent partly in academical work at the University, 

 partly in ministerial work at Wimborne. He died in Oxford 

 in July, 1685, in the 70th year of his age, and was buried at 

 St. Michael's Church, where his monumental tablet still 

 remains, though it has been removed from its original 

 place in the chancel to a position at the west end of the 

 church. 



Stone was not unmindful of the poor at both places of his 

 residence. At Oxford he founded the almshouses at St. 

 Clements. And by Will, bearing date 12th May, 1685, he 

 left all his lands, tenements, houses, and reversions, within 

 the parish of Wimborne, for the benefit, after the death of 

 his brothers and sisters, of the almsmen who should live in the 

 hospital of Saint Margaret's (the old leper hospital of St. 

 Margaret and St. Anthony, whose 13th century chapel still 

 remains). 



He left his books to Wimborne Minster. For the most part 

 they are theological ; though there are also some volumes 

 dealing with historical, scientific, or more general subjects. 

 They may be described as a collection such as would form 

 the library of the Head of one of the smaller Colleges in 

 Oxford in the 17th Century. 



The following extracts from the Wimborne Minster Church- 

 wardens' Account Books refer, the two first to the time of 



