RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Chilworth with all its appurtenances. William 

 Musard, about 1290 gave 3;. rents in the 

 village of Eldon on condition of the canons 

 always burning a wax taper before the Lady 

 altar of their conventual church, where his 

 wife Isabel was buried. There were also 

 numerous bequests of houses, tenements and 

 messuages in the town of Southampton during 

 the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. 1 



The taxation of 1291 gives the total an- 

 nual value of the priory in Hampshire at 

 13 i6s. 8d. In the archdeaconry of Sarum 

 they held temporalities yielding an annual 

 income of jCj 4.5. 8d. ; in the deanery of 

 Marlborough, the rectory of Chiselbury was 

 entered at jCz 13*. 4^. ; and there was a 

 holding at Burbage worth an annual rent of 

 I or. 



Henry de Hamelton held the office of prior 

 for fourteen years. On 18 August, 1294, the 

 bishop sanctioned his resignation on the 

 grounds of infirmity of both mind and body. 2 

 On 2 1 August the king's assent to the election 

 of Richard de Chacombe, one of the canons, 

 was sent to the bishop, and on the morrow 

 the bishop's mandate to the archdeacon to 

 induct, and to the sub-prior and convent to 

 obey their new prior were sent forth. 3 At 

 the beginning of the year 1298 Prior Richard 

 was in poor health, and by reason of his 

 weakness obtained leave from the Crown to 

 nominate brother Robert de Stanham and 

 Roger de Preselande his attorneys for two 

 years.* In 1300 the prior, by reason of his 

 continued feebleness, was allowed to renew 

 the nomination of the same two attorneys for 

 another two years. 8 Bishop Woodlock had 

 to interfere with the rule of this house on 

 several occasions, whilst the feeble Richard de 

 Chacombe was prior. In March, 1307, the 

 selling of corrodies without episcopal licence 

 was forbidden ; in September of the same year 

 the bishop wrote about the internal manage- 

 ment of the house ; in April, 1300, he held a 

 visitation of the priory and promulgated certain 

 statutes for its better regulation, and he 

 caused the house to be again visited by com- 

 mission in May, 1309.* 



Prior Richard resigned at the close of the 



1 A large number of these grants are among the 

 Ancient Deeds of the Public Record Office, which 

 have been recently calendared. 



1 Winton. Epis. Reg., Pontoise, f. 14. 



3 Pat. 22 Edw. I. m. 1 1, and Winton. Epis. 

 Reg., Pontoise, f. 14. 



4 Pat. 26 Edw. I. m. 28. 

 6 Ibid. 28 Edw. I. m. 5. 



8 Winton. Epis. Reg., Woodlock, (F. 56, 64^ 



year 1313, and on 23 January the king noti- 

 fied the bishop of his assent to the election of 

 Robert de Stonham, cellarer, and the tempo- 

 ralities were restored to him on 22 Febru- 

 ary. 7 



In 1318, Edward II. sent Walter de la 

 Marche, who had long served him and his 

 father, to the priory to provide him with the 

 necessaries of life in food and clothing. 8 A 

 return of the same year as to the value and 

 stock of the episcopal manors at the death of 

 Bishop Sandale, mentions, under Bitterne, 

 that the jury reported brother William Fymarc, 

 a young canon of St. Denis, who had been 

 ordained deacon in 1316, for breaking into 

 the lord's warren with four others, and taking 

 young rabbits. 8 



In January, 1328, Bishop Stratford wrote to 

 the priory stating that as he was about to 

 attend the meeting of parliament at York, he 

 could not give immediate attention to the 

 reformation of the defects he noticed at his 

 recent visitation, but that, God willing, he 

 would speedily do so on his return ; mean- 

 while he enjoined that none be permitted to 

 leave the house without the express sanction 

 of the prior or sub-prior. 10 John de Vienne, 

 clerk, was sent to the priory by the king on 

 4 March to have such maintenance there as 

 John de Ash, deceased, had at the request of 

 Edward I. ; a year later John atte Lane, 

 yeoman of the king's kitchen, was sent to fill 

 the same vacancy, so that apparently John de 

 Vienne 11 went elsewhere. 



On 9 March, 1328, the sub-prior and con- 

 vent obtained licence to elect, on the resigna- 

 tion of Robert de Stonham, and their choice 

 fell on Thomas de Newton ; the royal assent 

 was signified on 12 April. 12 The bishop 

 however declined to confirm this election for 

 some irregularity of procedure. It was a 

 serious matter for a small convent to have a 

 prolonged voidance, for during that time the 

 revenues went to the Crown ; but on the 

 petition of the priory the king granted to them 

 on 13 May, in consideration of their poverty 

 and debt, the custody of their temporalities, 

 save the knights' fees, advowsons and escheats, 

 yielding to the king for this privilege eight 

 marks until the feast of the Assumption, and 

 if the voidance should last longer, then at the 



7 Pat. 7 Edward II. pt. 2, m. 25, 24, 21. 



8 Close, 12 Edw. II. m. igd. 



9 Hants Record Society, Sandale's Register, p. 

 244. 



10 Winton. Epis. Reg., Stratford, f. 34b. 



11 Close, 2 Edw. III. m. 14^; 3 Edw. III. 

 m. 27d. 



12 Pat. 2 Edw. III. pt. i,m. 16, 13. 



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