SHAFTESliUUY. 30 



dissolution. On 23i\l March, 30 Henry VIIT., 1539, tlic Abbey, 

 with its property, valued at from £1,1GG to £1,329 per annum, 

 was surrendered by Elizabeth Zouche, there being then Hi nuns in 

 residence. From that day Shaftesbury went down. Persistent 

 litigation between the town and the grantees of the Abbey 

 possessions in Shaftesbury soon followed, and continued for 50 

 years, reducing the town to poverty and indebtedness. Then some 

 taste of the commotions of the civil war ensued, when Waller was 

 (juartered here and in the neighbourhood, and when the clubmen, 

 assembling in 1645, entrenched themselves on the Castle Hill. 

 So time rolled on. At last, in lieu of the state of a princely 

 abbess, and the frequent assembly of pilgrims journeying to St. 

 Edward's tomb — in lieu of coining money and being the resting- 

 place of kings and queens, Shaftc-^bury had to content herself with 

 the humble though useful rnle of a manufacturer of -shirt buttons, 

 and even the shirt buttons are now made by other hands. The 

 monotony of Shastonian life was broken only by the pleasures of 

 a contested election, which contributed to the pecuniary advantage 

 of the free and independent voter. That source of revenue has 

 also departed, and now that the iron horse, as he rushes from east 

 to west and from west to east, has left Shaftesbury high and dry 

 upon her ancient hill, she can have little hope of regaining her 

 former glories. This is a slight sketch (jf tlie general history of 

 the town, which other gentlemen may fill in and anqilify to-day, 

 and I will now turn to matters of more detail, among which I may 

 haTe some points to lay before you from my own investigations- 

 I begin with 



THE DESCENT OF THE ^lANoK. 



This subject is not a little confusing and dillicull to unravel, 

 partly from the dearth of early documentary evidence. The 

 position seems to be as follows : — Shaftesbury was a portion of the 

 royal demesnes, ami the inhabitants held their lands ..f tlu' king 

 by free burgage. Un the creation of tlie Alibcy a certain puition 

 of the demesne land must have been a.ssigned as an eu'lowmi'iit, so 



