OLD PORTLAND. 239 



from one cause or another, became too impoverished to 

 continue to support the parochial chaplain, and they sank 

 into disuse. It may be worth noting that at Portland in 

 the year 139G John Bernard, " chaplain," was instituted 

 as rector ; so was William Whithing, or Whitlyng, 

 " chaplain ," in 1414 ; and Robert Alston, " chaplain," in 

 1473. The " chaplains " of these ecclesiolce were some- 

 times in addition called " perpetual vicars." They were 

 quite distinct, at first at any rate, from the " chantry priests" 

 of later times attached to parochial churches, and ihey 

 were not infrequent!} 7 promoted to full parochial cures, in 

 some cases holding their " chaplaincies " as well, owing to 

 a dearth of clergy at the time. 



Soon after (or possibly even before) Henry VIII. cut the 

 Pope adrift, the " chapel " at Portland was converted into 

 and was called the " Parsonage." It was also popularly 

 known as " the Vicar's House," or Vicarage. It was never 

 known as the " Rectory," though the rectors of old S. 

 Andrew's Church* or the resident curate lived in it. There 

 is a record (1784) that during the Civil War it was " demol- 

 ished and burnt down by the usurper Oliver Cromwell, and 

 hant been rebuilded ever since." In 1626 there were two 

 tithe-barns belonging to the " Parsonage," but in 1784 

 only one, of which all trace has now disappeared. It is 

 thought that the rectors, or resident curate (the rectors of 

 Portland had a -penchant for non-residence), after the 

 " Parsonage " was destroyed as a habitation, lived at what 

 is now the last house at the bottom of Wakeham Street 

 (numbered 219), which has the initials of Bartholomew 

 Mitchell thereon and date (" 1640. B. M.") a Carolean 

 house immortalised in Thomas Hardy's The Well- Beloved as 

 A vice's cottage, but, alas ! falling into dilapidation. 



* The most distinguished rector was the well-known Royalist 

 Humphrey Henchman, D.D., who after the Restoration became Bishop 

 of Salisbury, and of London. 



