A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



HOUSES OF BENEDICTINE MONKS 



i. THE PRIORY OF ST. SWITHUN, 

 WINCHESTER 



The history of this monastery has been 

 already so much dealt with in the Ecclesiasti- 

 cal History of the county that there is com- 

 paratively little to add. This monastery, 

 is said to have been founded in honour of 

 Sts. Peter and Paul, by Cenwalh, King of 

 Wessex, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 

 in 643,* and according to the Annals of Win- 

 chester in 639,' and was known after the 

 foundation of Newminster or Hyde as the 

 Old Minster. 



It was probably after the rebuilding of the 

 cathedral church by Bishop Athelwold in 971 

 that the church and the monastery received 

 the additional dedication in honour of St. 

 Swithun by which it was afterwards known, 

 though the joint dedication to Sts. Peter and 

 Paul and St. Swithun lingered on for some 

 time in official documents. 



There was apparently no distinction in 

 early times between the lands of the bishop 

 and the lands of the monastery. Grants 

 were made to the church generally, but the 

 lands granted appear to have been under the 

 control of the bishop. About the middle of 

 the tenth century certain lands seem to have 

 been allotted for the maintenance of the 

 monastery, but they remained still under the 

 management of the bishop. 3 At the time of 

 the Domesday Survey the lands allotted for 

 the support of the monks were mostly held 

 by the bishop, those in Hampshire being 

 Chilcomb, Nursling, Chilbolton, Avington, 

 Whitchurch, Freefolk, Witnal in Whitchurch, 

 Hurstbourne Priors, Clere, Crondal, Droxford, 

 Polhampton in Overton, Exton, Alverstoke, 

 Worthy, Wonston, Brainsbury in Barton 

 Stacy, South Stoneham, Milbrook, Hinton 

 Ampner, Fawley, Itchingswell, Hannington 

 and Hoddington in Upton Gray. 4 The 

 monks themselves held Boarhunt, Wootton 

 St. Laurence, Hayling Island, Brockhampton 

 and Havant. 8 The lands of the bishop and 

 prior formed a great fief for which the bishop 

 owed, at the end of the twelfth century, the 

 service of sixty knights. 8 



1 Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Rolls Series), i, 48, 49. 



Annalet Monastic} (Rolls Series), ii. 5. 



3 See Athelstan's charter to Winchester A.D. 

 938, enrolled on Charter Roll, 1 2 Edw. II. No. 48. 



4 V.C.H. Hampshire, i. 463. 



Ibid. 468. 



Red Book of the Exchequer (Rolls Series), i. 72, 

 91, etc. 



There are two chartularies in the British 

 Museum of the priory of St. Swithun, both 

 of which were unknown to the compilers of 

 Dugdale's Monasticon. 



The first of these, acquired in 1844 from 

 the dean and chapter of Winchester, con- 

 tains a large collection of royal and other 

 charters in Anglo-Saxon and Latin, from the 

 reign of Cenwalh of Wessex, 688, to the 

 time of Edward the Confessor, with the 

 addition of a few Norman charters granted 

 by William I., Henry I. and Stephen. It is 

 beautifully written and in good preservation 

 in the original stamped binding; it is sup- 

 posed to have been compiled between 1 1 30 

 and 1150.' 



The other chartulary, acquired in 1873, 

 opens with a brief history of the church to 

 the year 967, followed by a notice of the 

 bishops up to Egbald, 793. This is followed 

 by charters from the time of the Confessor 

 to 1242. Among the other entries are 

 agreements with the monasteries of Canter- 

 bury, Peterborough, Worcester, Gloucester, 

 Reading, Tewkesbury, Chertsey, Burton, Ely, 

 Abingdon, St. Albans, St. Pancras at Lewes, 

 Glastonbury, Durham, Merton, Malmesbury, 

 Bury St. Edmunds, Westminster, Wherwell, 

 Romsey, Bee (Normandy) and Battle, as to 

 mutual masses for the dead ; a list of plate 

 and vestments, the gifts of Bishop Henry de 

 Blois ; notices of the deaths and benefactions 

 of Bishop William de Raleigh (1243) and 

 Bishop John of Exeter (1262); copies of 

 charters and agreements between priors and 

 bishops, and as to pensions or oblations of 

 parochial clergy from 1284 to 1334; together 

 with the consuetudines elemosine and other cus- 

 toms of the church. The chartulary con- 

 tains eighty-three folios, and was compiled in 

 the thirteenth century, save that there are a 

 few fifteenth century entries towards the 

 end. 8 



The prior furnished Thomas Cromwell, 

 on his appointment as general visitor, with 

 a succinct account of the early history of their 

 house from the year 604, giving what 

 they termed the annals of their first, second, 

 third and fourth foundations. There is a 

 copy of this in the Harley manuscripts. 9 



In September, 1243, the monks of St. 

 Swithun obtained papal sanction to wear caps 

 (pilleis) in quire on account of the cold, pro- 



7 Add. MS. 15,350. 



8 Ibid. 29,436. 



8 Harl. MS. 358, fo. 600-64. 



108 



