A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



was promised to Wriothesley. The commis- 

 sioners wrote to him on 22 December, 1537, 

 saying they had made careful inquiries of the 

 state of the monastery and how many grants 

 had been passed under the convent seal. They 

 described the church as being most naked and 

 barren, being of such antiquity, saying that 

 40* . would buy all except the vestment Wriot- 

 hesley had given and two old chalices. Evi- 

 dently the canons had had plenty of warning, 

 and had before this stripped their church of 

 its valuables. It would be interesting to know 

 what became of their library. At Michaelmas 

 last there were two team of oxen, but now 

 not one ox. They found a dozen rusty plat- 

 ters and hangings worth 2OJ., and described 

 the lands as very ruinous. The abbot and 

 convent confessed to having granted pensions 

 to the old abbot and others to the extent of 

 50 per annum. The debts amounted to 

 200 ; the abbot and convent expected to 

 be assured of 135 a year for their lives, 100 

 marks to the abbot, jT6 135. 4^. to each of 

 eight priests and ^5 each to three novices. 

 The house owed the king above 200 marks 

 for first fruits, and the expense of alterations 

 would be at least 300 marks ; so the commis- 

 sioners were right in assuring their patron that 

 his first entry would be expensive. 1 



Though Crawford and Lathum wrote on 

 22 December of Titchfield as ' the late mona- 

 stery,' the formal surrender by John, 'perpetual 

 commendatory of the abbey ' and the convent, 

 of the house, with all its possessions in Hants, 

 Berks and elsewhere, was not signed until 28 

 December. 3 Thomas Wriothesley at once 

 obtained a grant in fee simple of the site, 

 church and the whole of the possessions of 

 the abbey in Hampshire, including the advow- 

 sons of the churches of Titchfield, Lomer 

 and Corhampton, as well as of the manor and 

 lands of Inkpen in Berkshire. 3 



On 2 January, 1538, the commissioners, 

 Crawford and Lathum, wrote to Wriothesley 

 thanking him for his new year's gift, mention- 

 ing the sale of marble stones, altars, etc., from 

 the conventual church, and making light of 

 the plucking down of the church in a scanda- 

 lous letter already cited. Later in the same 

 month Wriothesley received news from Titch- 

 field that the carpenter had stayed in his work 

 of pulling down the church because he was 

 'loath to adventure with him before the change 

 of the moon, and that the pavement of the 

 nave was taken up, but scarce the tenth tile 

 saved because they were so worn.'* Two 



1 Letters and Papers, Hen. Fill. xii. (2) 1245. 

 Ibid. 1274. 3 Ibid. 1311 (40). 



4 Ibid. iii. (l), 151. 



more letters were written by Crawford to 

 Wriothesley in the following April, wherein 

 he described the alterations in progress at 

 Titchfield, and stated that he had offered 

 the bells to one Mr. Myls for 6o. 6 



At the time of the dissolution the posses- 

 sions of the monastery were the manor of 

 Wyker in Porchester, the manors of Titch- 

 field, Abshot, ' Posbroke,' ' Newcourt Parva,' 

 Fontley, Swanwick, Crofton, Mirables, New- 

 land, Walsworth, Portsea, Copner, Cadlands, 

 Corhampton ; various lands, etc., in Wickham, 

 ' Warishassefeld,' Brooke, Porchester and else- 

 where ; the rectories of Titchfield, Lomer 

 and Corhampton, and the manor of Inkpen in 

 Berkshire. 6 



When Leland visited Titchfield he wrote 

 in his Itinerary : ' Mr. Wriothesley hath 

 builded a right stately House embatelid, and 

 having a goodely Gate, and a conducte caste- 

 lid in the Midle of the Court of it, yn the 

 very same Place wher the late Monasterie of 

 Premostratences stoode caullyd Tichefelde.' ' 



ABBOTS OF TITCHFIELD 



Richard, 8 1222 



Isaac 



Henry de Branewyk 



Henry de Spersholte 



Yvo 



Adam 



William de Byketon 



John Sydemanton 



Roger de Candever 



John de Combe 



Peter de Wynton, elected about 1340 



William de Wallup 



John de Thorny, elected about 1360 



John de Ramsey, elected about 1379* 



Richard Aubrey, 1420 



Thomas Bensteade 



William Winchestour, alias Fryer 



William Auyten 



Thomas Coyk 



Thomas Blankpage 



John Maxey, Bishop of Elphin, about 



1535-6 

 John Simpson, 1536, resigned in the same 



year 10 

 John Salisbury, 1536-7 



6 Ibid. 749-50. 



6 The first Mins. Acct. after the dissolution, 

 noted in Dugdale's Monasticon, vi. 935. 



7 Leland's Itinerary, iii. in. 



8 Most of the names of the abbots are taken 

 from the transcripts of the registers in Harl. MSS. 

 1602, 1603. 



9 Winton Epis. Reg., Wykeham, i. ff. 208, 209. 

 10 Cole's MS. xxvii. f. 88. He received a 



1 86 



