238 OLD PORTLAND. 



IV. The pre- Reformation Chapel, 



The ecclesiastical building in Wake ham Street shown in 

 this picture appears to have been begun in the 13th century 

 and finished in the 14th century ; but as far as can be traced 

 there are no records of or direct references to it before the 

 16th century. 



Leland, who came to Portland some time between the 

 years 1534-43, may unconsciously be referring to it Avhen 

 he wrote " Sum say that in tj-mes past ther was a nother 

 paroch chirch in the isle, but I there lernid no certente of 

 it." He saw " the personage " (i.e., the Parsonage), and 

 describes it as " the best building in the isle." 



Grose, in his Antiquities (1773-87), writes of the same 

 building : "It is pretended to have been the Parsonage 

 House, and although the living is a Rectory is vulgarly 

 called the Vicarage House . . . From the form of 

 what remains of this edifice it is more probable that it 

 was an oratory or small chapel." In his list of " Antiquities 

 in this County worthy notice " he includes " Vicar's Chapel 

 at Portland." 



The latest editors of Hulchins casually but without any 

 authority or detail refer to the building as a " religious house," 

 and other later writers have also seized hold of the suggestion 

 that it might have been some kind of monastic establish- 

 ment. But there is a more likely solution, and the Clare 

 family may be connected with it. It is well known that 

 in the 13th century buildings called oratories, chantries, or 

 chapels sprang up not annexed to the parish church, for the 

 use of private persons, their households, and guests, served 

 by a resident perpetual chaplain, \\ith the consent of the 

 incumbent of the parish. These separate yet dependent 

 chapels, in time, however, were almost bound to and indeed 

 frequently did impinge on parochial rights, and were the 

 cause of many ecclesiastical disputes. Some of these chapels 

 received such substantial benefactions in the way of endow- 

 ment as to be constituted parish churches ; many others, 



