RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



had rescued distraints made for these ; and 

 when the prior and his bailiffs and servants 

 would have taken other distraints had rescued 

 them with armed force. Commissioners were 

 thereupon appointed to take an inquisition at 

 Hayling as to all the particulars. 



Nor had the inundations come to an end 

 with the winter storms of 13245. The sea 

 continued to encroach on Hayling throughout 

 the fourteenth century. In 1340 there was 

 a further grievous incroach of the water to 

 such an extent that men then living officially 

 testified that they had known the first church 

 of Hayling (which was originally all in the 

 centre of the island) standing in good preserva- 

 tion by the sea shore, and that it was then two 

 miles (leucas) from the shore, and so deep in 

 the water that an English vessel of the larger 

 class could pass over it. 1 Jurors in 1341 

 testified to the greatly diminished value of the 

 priory and the church, so much having been 

 destroyed by the sea. 2 



In 1391, Simon Dubosc, abbot of Jumieges, 

 retired from the abbey to Hayling, having 

 obtained a restoration of the priory through 

 the Duke of Lancaster, while he was in France 

 as an ambassador endeavouring to arrange 

 terms of peace. Three monks accompanied 

 him from the mother abbey to re-establish 

 discipline at Hayling Priory. 3 The abbey 

 continued to enjoy a considerable share of the 

 revenues of the priory until 1413, when the 

 general dissolution of the alien priories came 

 about, and Henry V. granted Hayling to the 

 monastery of Sheen in Surrey. 



A chartulary of Sheen in the British Museum 

 contains a catalogue, covering many folios, of 

 the various evidences and charters of the 

 suppressed house of Hayling that had come 

 into their keeping. 4 Among the long list of 

 muniments were indentures binding the prior 

 to find life corrodies for two men at the king's 

 mandate ; a charter of free- warren from Henry 

 I., the titles to the churches of Hayling, 

 Winterborne Stoke and Chewton, 'a byll of 

 supplication made by the tenantys of Hayling 

 to the priour and convent of Shene,' also ' a 

 byll of supplication made by the tenantys of 

 Hayling to the Comons in the Parlyament of 

 ther sume of dymes to be diminished," and a 

 bull of Pope Innocent as to the appropriation 

 of the church of Hayling and the chapel of 

 North wood. 



1 Longcroft's Hundred of Brosmere, p. 220. 

 3 Inqwsittmes Nonarum, f. 120. 

 8 Deshayes' Histoire de FAbbaye de Jumiiges, pp. 

 87, 88. 



* Cott. MS., Otho B. xiv. ff. 53-68. 



36. THE PRIORY OF ANDOVER 



Among the various English gifts that the 

 Conqueror bestowed on the Benedictine abbey 

 of St. Florent, Saumur, was the church of 

 Andover, with a hide and 14 acres of land, 

 tithes of all the demesne lands in the parish, 

 and extensive pasture rights, with wood for 

 fuel, for fencing and for building purposes. 8 

 In noo William Rufus renewed the gift to 

 St. Florent of the church of Andover, with its 

 tithes and all its appurtenances, and directed, 

 with characteristic fierceness, that all churches 

 built under the mother church of Andover 

 should be utterly destroyed, or should be held 

 by the monks of St. Florent. 6 In 1 146 Pope 

 Eugenius III. confirmed to the abbey the 

 church of St. Mary of Andover, with the 

 chapel of Foxcote, and this confirmation was 

 repeated ten years later by Pope Adrian IV., 

 and by Pope Urban III. in n86. 7 



The abbey of St. Florent placed a colony 

 of monks at Andover, and established there a 

 priory or cell directly after the church was 

 given them. The homes of the monks are 

 described as being juxta ecc/esiam. In the 

 present large churchyard, a little to the north 

 of the parish church, a piece of trim ivy- 

 covered walling is still standing, which is said 

 to be the only remnant of the old priory. 



Between 1160 and 1173 an agreement 

 was made and confirmed at Andover between 

 the monks of St. Florent and Philip Croch, 

 in the presence of Froger, abbot of St. 

 Florent, concerning three virgates and two 

 acres of land held by the church of Andover 

 at Easton, of the fee of Matthew Croch. 

 Philip was to pay the prior of Andover half a 

 mark of silver annually for that land as long 

 as he lived. The prior was to do no service 

 to the king nor any one, but Philip was to 

 acquit it in everything. On the day of 

 Philip's death the monks were to have the 

 land freely. Philip swore, with his hand on 

 the four gospels, that he would never seek 

 directly nor indirectly to deprive the priory of 

 that land or rent. 8 



In the time of Pope Urban IV. there is a 

 curious instance of papal interference, when 

 the prior of Andover was Master Berard of 

 Naples, papal subdeacon and notary. On 

 29 May, 1264, a papal letter was addressed 

 to him, reciting that by custom he had, as 



6 Pat. 8 Edw. II. pt. 2, m. I. The charter of 

 William the Conqueror is cited in an inspection 

 and confirmation of Edward II. 



8 Round's Cal. of French Documents, i. 415. 



7 Ibid. p. 403, 404. 



8 Ibid. p. 415. 



219 



