RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Chamberlain ; that the plate and jewels 

 worth 42 31. 8< and ornaments worth 

 ^38 15*. 4</. were reserved for the king ; that 

 corn, stock and stores worth 6j us. \d. 

 had been delivered to the chamberlain ; that 

 the house owed 103 2s. ; was owed 

 ,2 131. 4^. ; and that the woods, etc., were 

 worth 106 131. 4*/. 1 



In 1529 John, prior of Mottisfont, was 

 duly summoned, with the heads of the other 

 Hampshire religious houses, to the Convoca- 

 tion of the province of Canterbury. 2 



The Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535 names 

 William Christchurch as prior, and gives the 

 clear annual value as 124. 31. 5^d. 



On 26 March, 1536, Harry Huttoft, a 

 Southampton customs official, when writing 

 to Cromwell about charges to be levied on 

 goods at the port, stated that there was much 

 talk there about the suppression of religious 

 houses, adding, with the assurance that was 

 characteristic of most of Cromwell's friends 

 and tools, ' Let me be a suitor for one, viz. 

 the house of Mottisfont, where there is a 

 good friend of mine with as good a master 

 and convent as is in the country. If none 

 are to be reserved, but all must pass one way, 

 please to let me have it towards my poor liv- 

 ing.' 3 The house was actually surrendered 

 on 22 May following. 4 



Huttoft did not however succeed in get- 

 ting his longed-for share of the monastic 

 plunder, for Mottisfont fell to the lot of a 

 much more influential person, William, Lord 

 Sandys, K.G., the king's chamberlain. The 

 grant, dated 14 July, 1536, conferred on 

 him and Lady Margery, his wife, the site and 

 the whole of the possessions and advowsons 

 of the late priory. 6 



The prior, William Shepperd, alias Christ- 

 church, who seems to have been entirely 

 complacent, obtained the large pension of 

 20." 



Lord Sandys speedily set about the work 

 of altering the priory for his own conven- 

 ience. A letter from Mottisfont of August, 

 1 538, says that the lord chamberlain had been 

 keeping house there since the beginning of 

 May and intended to continue there till 

 Allhallow-tide to oversee his works. The 

 writer expressed the opinion that he was 



1 Aug. Off., Certif. of Colleges and Chantries, 



I 12. 



1 Letters and Papers, Hen. Vlll. iv. 6047. 



3 Ibid. x. 557. 



4 Aug. Off., Misc. Books, cccc. 23. 

 6 Pat. Hen. VIII. pt. i. m. 9. 



6 Aug. Off., Misc. Books, 232, f. 17. 



making a goodly place of the priory and in- 

 tended to lie there most of his life. 7 



What had become of the seven poor 

 widows of Queen Eleanor's foundation, who 

 were to receive daily food at the house of 

 Mottisfont, is not stated. 



The pointed oval seal of thirteenth century 

 date (see illustration) affords an unusual method 

 of representing the Holy Trinity. The Father, 

 with nimbus, seated holds a half-length figure 

 of the Son in a cloth extended on His knees ; 

 overhead is the Holy Ghost in the form of a 

 dove. On the field is a sun and moon and 

 several groups of three annulets or stars. 



Legend : + L \ ECCLESIE | SANCTE 



TRINITATIS | DE MOTESFUNT. 



PRIORS OF MOTTISFONT 



Henry de Wynton, d. 1294 



Thomas de Barton, 8 1294 



William, 9 1300 



John de Dwineford, 10 131723 



Walter de Wallup, 11 1323 



Benedict de Wallup, resigned 1330 



John de Dernford, 12 elected 1330 



Robert de Bromore, 1349-50 



Richard de Caneford, 1350 



Ralph de Thorleston, 13 1352 



John Netherhavene, 14 1356 



William Marlynburgh, prior elect, 1456 



William Westkarre, 15 1456 



John Edmunds, 1501-29 



William Christchurch, alias Shepperd, 



1535-6 

 15. THE PRIORY OF SELBORNE 



The priory of St. Mary, Selborne, was 

 founded in 1233 by Bishop Peter des Roches 

 for Austin canons. The original foundation 

 charter of the bishop, with the confirmation 

 of the king, are still extant, together with a 

 vast store of other evidences pertaining to the 

 priory, among the muniments of Magdalen 

 College, Oxford. Selborne is one of the very 

 few cases in which the entire store of original 

 monastic muniments have come down to our 

 own times. They were transferred en bloc to 

 Magdalen College at the time of its founda- 

 tion, and are faithfully preserved in the Foun- 

 der's Tower. They were calendared some 



7 Letters and Papers, Hen. Vlll. xiii. 176. 



8 Pat. 22 Edw. I. mm. 24, 23. 



9 Dod's MS. Ixxvi. 4. 



10 Winton. Epis. Reg., Sandale, ff. pb, lob. 



11 Cant. Archiep. Reg., Reynolds, p. 301. 



12 Winton. Epis. Reg., Stratford, ff. izib, 122. 



13 Ibid. Edingdon, i. ff. 48b, 698, 74b. 



14 Ibid. i. f. I3ib. 



1!i Ibid. Waynflete, i. f. 13. 



175 



