StiAFTESBURV. il 



inquisition taken at Pimpcrnc, 8th Oct., IG Richard II., 1392, 

 that it -would not be to the king's damage to make a more particular 

 grant, such as the ahbess required^a valualjle record inasmuch as 

 it mentions in detail the properties and privileges conveyed. Thus 

 the abbess held, it seems, one moiety of the royal manor from 1385 

 and obtained the other about 100 years later, in this way becoming 

 the sole mistress of the town. The later history of the manor is 

 that subsequent to the dissolution it passed into the hands of Sir 

 Thomas Arundell, Knt., executed 26th Feb., 1551-2, ancestor of 

 the present Lord Arundell of Wardour, and on his attainder was 

 granted anew by Edward VI., by letters patent, dated 27tli April, 

 1553, for £8,440 7s. 2|d., to William, Earl of Pembroke. The 

 Earl died 17th March, 1569-70, and the manor descended to his 

 son Henry, the second Earl, who by deed, dated 1st Dec, 1578, 

 conveyed it to the use of Mary, Countess of Pembroke, his third 

 wife, for her life, with remainder to himself and his heirs. She 

 long survived her husband, and on her death, 25th Sept., 1621, the 

 manor devolved upon her son William, the third Earl and then to 

 his brother Philip, fourth Earl, whose grandson Philip, seventh 

 Earl, sold it (says Hutvhins, but the statement is probably not 

 quite accurate), about 1680, to Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of 

 Shaftesbury. The facts above marshalled are worked up from 

 documents in the municipal chest. 



THE ABBEY. 

 It has already been stated that this monastery was founded Ijy 

 Alfred in 888. It was dedicated toB.V.M., but on the translation 

 of S. Edward hither it received an additional dedication, and was 

 sulxsequently known as the Al)bey of S. ^NFary and 8. I" l\v;ird. 

 His body was translated to another .site in tlu' cliurch, 20lli .luin-, 

 21 years after his removal hither. The original building, .siLuattd 

 to the south of Holy Trinity Churchyard, gave place to another in 

 Norman times, as .shown by the excavations made in 1801, wlu'ii 

 the foundations of a semicircular apsidal choir and an ajisidal mnlli 

 aisle were brought to light, together with a suptposed crypt on tlie 



