34 UNRECORDED DEANS OF WIMBORNE MINSTER. 



The following lists of the Deans of Wimborne are known to 

 me : 



1. That given by Hutchins, which he states was " com- 

 municated by Browne Willis, Esq., collected by him from 

 divers ancient records and Wharton's MSS." 16 



2. The list in Dugdale's Monasticon. 17 



3. A MS. list in the British Museum, which is stated to 

 be " taken from a blank leaf at the beginning of Mr. Willis's 

 2nd vol. of his Hist, of Abbeys in his own hand. W.C." 18 

 (These are the initials of the Rev. Wm. Cole, Cambridge, 

 May 24, 1787.) After the names are some short notes by 

 Mr. Cole. 



4. A MS. in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, entitled 

 " Monastic Collections. Lives of Abbots, Priors, and 

 Bishops." 19 



5 Another MS. in the Bodleian, the list of Browne Willis 

 himself, which he states was " collected from the Patents, 

 Registers of Salisbury, and several other authorities." to 



Although they differ slightly amongst themselves, these 

 lists all give evidence of a common origin. There is little 

 doubt that in the first instance they were all derived from 

 Browne Willis's list. 



Willis prefaces his list of the Deans of Wimborne with the 

 following note : " I cannot learn the foundation. I take 

 it the Salisbury Registers will not help us. I take it this 

 was made a College of Regulars about Edward the Confessor's 

 time. No mention as I remember in Domesday Book of 

 it, and so I suppose (the Deanery originated) about Henry 

 III. time." 



He thus seems to imply that, in his opinion, it was re- 

 founded as a Monastic institution in the time of Edward 



1C. Hutchins's History of Dorset, 3rd Edition, Vol. III., pp. 186-8. 



17. Dugdale's Monasticon, Vol. VIII., p. 1452. 

 18. BritiBh Museum. Add. MS. 5829, fol. 64 (6). 

 19. Bodleian Library. Monastic Collections MS. Top eccl. b. 1. 

 20. Bodleian Lib. Willis MS. XII., p. 139. 



