A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



40. THE PRIORY OF MONK 

 SHERBORNE 



The largest of the alien priories established 

 in Hampshire was that founded by Henry de 

 Port, in the time of Henry I., at Monk Sher- 

 borne, otherwise called West Sherborne, which 

 pertained to the Benedictine abbey of St. 



with small additional gifts by himself and his 

 mother Hadwise. His confirmation is granted 

 to the monks of Sherborne (among whom he 

 desired to be buried) and not to the abbey of 

 St. Vigor. John de Port was living as late 

 as 1167. His son Adam, who succeeded 

 him, granted to the Sherborne monks the 



Vigor, at Cerisy in Normandy, now Cerisy-la- tithes of all his mills at Sherborne in ex- 



Foret (Manche). His selection of this abbey 



for his gift was doubtless due to the fact that 



it lay only some twelve miles from his Norman 



home at Port-en-Bessin, while its priory of 



Deux-Jumeaux was half way between the 



change for the possession of the mill granted by 

 his grandfather as above ; the first witness to 

 his charter is his wife Sibyl, who is styled 

 comithsa. William de St. John, son and heir 

 of Adam de Port, who took the name of St. 



charter of confirmation of certain lands which 

 had been bestowed on William Fitz-William 

 by Adam de Port in conjunction with the prior 

 and convent of Sherborne. 2 There is another 



two. Though subject to St. Vigor and send- John from his mother Mabel, granted a short 



ing doubtless from the earliest times its apport 



or tribute to the parent house, Sherborne was 



in the exceptional position of being an alien 



priory or cell which had its true conventual 



life and a certain degree of genuine independ- charter of this William de St. John extant, 



wherein he makes mention of William, prior 

 of Sherborne ; it is witnessed by Gervase, prior 

 of Andwell. 



The charter of Bishop Henry de Blois con- 

 firming those of Henry and John de Port to 

 the monks of Sherborne is amongst the Queen's 

 College muniments ; it is witnessed by Ralph, 

 archdeacon of Winchester and Robert de 

 Inglesham, archdeacon of Surrey, and dates 

 therefore between the years 1130 and 1140. 



Amongst the same muniments is a grant, 

 probably of the time of Henry II., to the priory 

 of St. Fromond, Normandy, of the church of 

 Shaw (Berks), a grant to the same prior of a 

 ' pension ' of 40;. out of the rectory of that 

 church made by Herbert, Bishop of Salisbury, 

 in 1 207, and also a notification by James, prior 

 of St. Fromond to R., Bishop of Salisbury (pro- 

 bably Richard Poore, 1217-28), of the grant 

 of the church of Shaw by his house to the prior 



ence. The prior and convent of Sherborne, 

 not the abbot and convent of St. Vigor, were 

 accepted by the Bishops of Winchester as 

 patrons of such livings as Bramley and Church 

 Oakley, whilst the later priors received episco- 

 pal institution. It is on this account, we 

 suppose, that Bishop Wykeham paid no atten- 

 tion to Sherborne when drawing up for the 

 crown, in 1401, the list of institutions to alien 

 priories that were to be found in the various 

 episcopal registers of the diocese. Neverthe- 

 less, as will be noted, Sherborne was regarded 

 throughout as an alien priory by the civil 

 authorities. 



Hugh de Port, at the Domesday Survey, was 

 possessed of a great barony, of which Basing 

 was the head. He had too a son and heir, 

 Henry, who, in his foundation charter, gave to 

 God and St. Vigor of Cerisy the whole of 

 West Sherborne with its woods and church 



and tithes. To this he added the meadow of an( ^ convent of Sherborne, together with the 



Longbridge and the mill and meadows of ' the 

 other Sherborne ' (Sherborne St. John), all his 



t_j 



grant itself from the one priory to the other. 3 

 Among the Sherborne evidences now at 



iiiwi W*1VJ U\Jl 11V, I kjlltl UU1 11C Ol. I 1)111 1 ). HI! lllS & *** u"w WL 11 v V. 1\JV,1H_VO 11W W CLL 



tithes in Basing and certain other lordships, Oxford, is an interesting deed from a social 

 and the churches of Bramley, Newnham, point of view, whereby Baldwin de Portsea, a 

 and Upton (Grey). 1 These gifts were con- knightly tenant of John de Port in n 66, con- 

 firmed by John de Port, Henry's son, together veyed a virgate of land at 'Froditonia' (Fratton 



in Portsea) to the monks of Sherborne, and 



1 Dugdale's Monasticon, VI. 1013-4. The 

 originals of this and the other De Port charters given 

 by Dugdale are preserved at Queen's College, Ox- 

 ford. The series of charters quoted in this and the 

 following pages are all to be found among the muni- 

 ments of Queen's College (see Hist. MSS. Com- 

 mission Appendix to Fourth Report, pp. 451-5). 

 In his Baronage (i. 465) Dugdale cites a charter, as 

 at Queen's College, in which Adam de Port, of the 



mesne at Littleton, Wilts, to the priory of Deux 

 Jumeaux, which gift was confirmed, at a later date, 

 as to the monks of St. Vigor. 



2 Mr. Round's papers on 'The families of St. 

 John and of Port ' and on ' The Ports of Basing 

 and their Priory ' in Geneakgist, n.s. xvi. pp. i et 

 seq. ; xviii. 1379. 



8 St. Fromond had been colonized by monks from 



Mapledurwell line, gave the chapel and tithes of St. Vigor. The church of ' Sagie ' or ' Sageys ' as 



"NTi.T.r., U ,. . . il J _ /* . 1 . 1 1 1 - " * * 



Newnham, on the day of that chapel's dedication, 

 with the tithes of Mapledurwell to the monks. 

 This Adam, who (probably later) founded the 

 priory of Andwell, also gave the tithe of his de- 



226 



O / 7 



it is styled in these documents, is identified through- 

 out in the Historical MSS. Report as that of Seez 

 (a cathedral) in Normandy ; but Mr. Round has 

 identified it in the Genea&gist as that of Shaw. 



