A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



HOUSES OF AUSTIN CANONS 



10. PRIORY OF CHRISTCHURCH, 



TWYNEHAM 



The secular canons of the Church of the 

 Holy Trinity, Twyneham, had large holdings 

 in Hampshire at the time of the Survey, 

 which they held in the time of Edward the 

 Confessor. These possessions consisted of 5 

 hides and a virgate in Christchurch Twyne- 

 ham, a hide in the Isle of Wight, Bortel 

 Bashley in Milton, and 8 acres in Audret in 

 the New Forest Hundred, together with cer- 

 tain tithes in Christchurch, Twyneham, and 

 Holdenhurst. 1 The establishment consisted 

 of twenty-four canons, who served their own 

 minster as well as the churches of Herne, 

 Burton and Preston. One of them, by name 

 Godric, was regarded as their head ; but, like 

 Southwell Minster throughout its history, 

 the canons did not recognize any one as 

 dean (of which name even, as the chronicle 

 says, they were ignorant), but regarded 

 Godric as the elder and father of their house- 

 hold. They were accustomed to divide the 

 mass offerings and the profits from the churches 

 under their control after an approved and 

 equitable manner. Meanwhile, Ranulph 

 Flambard, of infamous memory, obtained 

 from the king a grant of the church and 

 town, coveting the possession, as the chronicler 

 states, because the minster was so prolific in 

 miracles, and hence abounded in treasures 

 and relics. He beguiled the canons into 

 allowing him to appropriate all their incomes, 

 saving a bare sustenance, in order to build a 

 greater church. He pulled down the old 

 church (primitivam ecclesiam), and nine other 

 churches, or rather chapels, that stood within 

 the surrounding churchyard. As Godric and 

 ten of the other canons successively died, 

 Ranulph suppressed their prebends, and is 

 said to have applied the income to the church 

 building. 



With the death of the Red King came the 

 downfall of Ranulph Flambard, who was 

 imprisoned, and, escaping, fled the kingdom. 

 He died on 5 September, 1128. The min- 

 ster of Twyneham, with its poor remnant of 

 five canons, was granted to Gilbert de Dous- 

 gunels on the overthrow of Ranulph. He 

 restored, as much as was possible, the old 

 order of services, and continued the building 

 of the church and canonical houses. When 

 all was finished, Gilbert set out for Rome to 

 obtain licence for the due refounding of the 

 house, but died on the return journey. 



1 r. C.H.Hants, \. 476. 



152 



Meanwhile Henry I. gave the manor, 

 town and church of Twyneham to his 

 cousin, Richard de Redvers, and Richard 

 persuaded one of his barons, Roger del Estre, 

 to give to the canons his manor of Apse in 

 the Isle of Wight. A clerk, Peter de Oglander, 

 about the same time gave the manor of King- 

 wood, and the parishioners of Twyneham 

 agreed to pay their tithes to the canons. 

 Then Richard de Redvers appointed Peter 

 de Oglander dean over the canons, and gave 

 him the church of Twyneham and all its 

 privileges, which Ranulph and Gilbert, the 

 deans, had held, with all the possessions, to 

 wit, the towns of Herne, the land of Bortel, 

 Stanpit, Huborne, Stroud and Duslecompa,' 

 and the two Prestons, Apse, Hampstead, 

 Ningwood in the Isle of Wight, and certain 

 churches and chapels. 2 



Ralph was the next dean of Twyneham, 

 and he was succeeded by Hilary, a clerk of 

 Henry de Blois, Bishop of Winchester. 



Baldwin de Redvers, Earl of Devon, con- 

 firmed to Dean Hilary and the canons, in a 

 long charter, all "the lands and liberties, and 

 all the privileges they enjoyed, which in- 

 cluded the town school. They were to have 

 tithe of wreck happening in the de Redvers 

 fee except great fish, a fishery for their ser- 

 vants, save the salmon fishing at the junction 

 of the Avon and Stour, and were entitled to 

 the first salmon of the season. They could 

 also claim two cartloads of fuel daily, and a 

 hundred cartloads of peat annually for use in 

 the kitchen, provided they had not a sufficient 

 supply in their own lands, and certain rights 

 in the market at Christchurch. 8 



2 Cott. MS. Tib. D. vi. (printed in Dugdale's 

 Monasticon, vi. 304). This first chartulary of the 

 Priory of Twyneham, compiled in 1312, was 

 much injured in the fire that destroyed so much 

 of the Cotton library, but has been cunningly re- 

 stored and mounted, and is now for the most part 

 legible. It consists of 310 large folios bound in 

 two volumes. Some charters of a later date have 

 been inserted, the latest being of the year 1459. 

 The account of the foundation of the priory, and 

 of the canonical church which preceded it (ff. 193, 

 194), has been printed in Dugdale. Strange to 

 say, the larger Dugdale (1830) states that this 

 chartulary was lost in the Cottonian fire of 1731. 

 Richard de Redvers' charter is copied on f. 1 33. 

 There are five pages of excerpts from another 

 chartulary of this priory in Cott. MS. Claud. A. 

 viii., but they are of no special importance. 



3 Cited in Pat. 3 Hen. V. pt. 2, m. 3 (printed 

 in Dugdale's Monasticon, vi. 304). 



