SELBORNE HUNDRED 



SELBORNE 



Opposite the entries for 1728 comes a memorandum 

 that Rebecca White, widow of vicar Gilbert White, 

 granted the granary of the vicarage, a movable pos- 

 session, built by her husband, to the vicar and his 

 successors for ever. In 1730 it was certified that she 

 had expended the 40 left by her husband for 

 the repair of the church in building two large 

 buttresses towards the east wall, ' being the parts of 

 the church most decaying and dangerous.' Opposite 

 the entries for 1 766 is a note that the gallery at the 

 west end of the church was built in that year at a 

 cost of 31 4/., of which 10 was given by the will 

 of Dr. Bristow and the rest raised by public sub- 

 scription. 



The next register of burials begins in 1784 and 

 ends in 1812, and that of baptisms in 1783, ending 

 also in 1812. There is a gap in the register of 

 marriages between 1/17 and 1754, those after that 

 date being entered in two books dating from 1754 

 to 1798 and from 1798 to 1812. 



The churchwardens* accounts begin in 1687. 



In 1720 an entry was made that no churchwarden 

 was henceforth to give anything to travellers upon the 

 parish account ; if he did so he must refund it out of 

 his own pocket. A quarrel which had evidently been 

 brewing came to a head in 1832 over a question of 

 church repair. The parish had refused to elect their 

 churchwarden at Easter, and when a vestry meeting 

 was called in November, 1832, to consider the repair 

 of the church roof, which was in a very bad state, 

 ' they refused to agree to any suggestion or adopt any 

 plan until accounts were settled.' After several 

 attempts at peace the vicar referred the question to 

 the chancellor of the diocese, to whom the vicar's 

 churchwarden, Henry Earle, wrote : ' It would give 

 me the greatest pleasure to be on friendly terms with 

 the rest of the farmers. I have striven hard, much 

 harder than you have any notion, to be so. But all 

 to no purpose the more friendly I am the worse 

 they behave to Mr. Cobbold." Unfortunately the 

 result of the dispute is not given, but probably the 

 case was referred to the ecclesiastical court and the 

 parishioners forced to yield. 



Licence was granted to Adam de Gurdon and 

 Constance his wife in 1 262 to ' build an oratory in 

 their conn of Selborne which had formerly belonged 

 to Thomas Makerel.' They were to attend the 

 mother church on all solemn feast days, and the prior 

 and convent of Selborne reserved to themselves right 

 to suspend service in the oratory if it interfered with 

 any of their privileges. They also stipulated that 

 no heir of the said Adam should lay legal claim of 

 this licence. And if in time to come a dispute 

 should arise between the prior and convent and 

 the vicar of Selborne concerning the licence, Adam 

 and Constance were bound to defend the prior and 

 convent."* 



A chapel existed at BL4CKMOOR as early as 1 2 54, 

 when the vicarage of Selborne was endowed with all 

 small tithes and obventions belonging to the mother 

 church and to the chapels of Oakhanger and Black- 

 moor. 1 '" 1 The ' ecclesia de Seleburne cum capella ' of 



the taxation return of 1291 evidently included the 

 chapel of Blackmoor, 171 while in the agreement made 

 between the prior and convent and the vicar of 

 Selborne concerning the vicarial portion in 1352, the 

 prior and convent are stated to be ' the impropriators 

 of the parish church of Seleborne with the chapels of 

 Oakhanger and Blakemere.' 17S Thus an estimate of 

 the revenues and debts of the prior and convent 

 made in 1462 includes repairs to the chancel of 

 Blackmoor church in the expenditure of the priory. 174 

 Synodals from the chapel of Blackmoor were acknow- 

 ledged by the dean of Alton in 1489 at "j\ pence, 17 * 

 and were grouped with those of Oakhanger, Selborne, 

 and East Worldham in the Valor of 1535."* The 

 modern church is at the north end of the village street 

 just where the road bends to the left towards Oak- 

 hanger. A lych gate opens the way to the church- 

 yard and to the church, with its square white stone 

 tower roofed with red tiles built and dedicated in 

 honour of St. Matthew by the late Lord Selborne and 

 consecrated in Whitsun week, 1 8 May, 1 869. On the 

 north side of the church on the first pillar of the 

 chancel is a white marble monument to Lord Selborne 

 and his wife erected by the people of Blackmoor ' in 

 gratitude for all the good that under God has come 

 to this parish through their devotion to their Saviour 

 and their love to their fellow men.' 



A church existed at Selborne 

 jtDFOWSON at the time of Domesday, and it 

 was held by Radfred the priest, 

 to whom the king had given one yardland of the 

 manor as endowment. 177 The advowson belonged to 

 the abbey of Mont St. Michel at least as early as 

 1 1 5 6, when it was confirmed to them by Pope AdrianlV. 

 Godfrey de Lucy, bishop of Winchester, confirmed the 

 church to the monks of St. Michel in 1 1 94, as they 

 had held it in the times of his predecessors in con- 

 sideration of their labours and perils of the sea. 17 * In 

 1 197 Godfrey de Lucy, bishop of Winchester, granted 

 the church, ' with the assent and at the wish of Abbot 

 Jordan and the convent,' to Philip de Lucy, saving the 

 annual pension of three marks to the abbey. 17 * In 1 2 3 3 

 the abbot and convent of Mont St. Michel granted 

 the advowson of Selborne with whatever benefit they 

 had received from the same to Peter des Roches, 1 " 

 who in the next year granted the same to the prior 

 and convent of Selborne.' 51 In 1291, in the Taxation 

 of Pope Nicholas, the church of Selborne ' cum 

 capella ' is mentioned. 18 * Probably this is an error 

 for 'cum capellis,' since both the chapels of Oak- 

 hanger and Blackmoor were in existence in 1254, 

 when the small tithes from the same were appropriated 

 to the vicar of Selborne. 1 * In 1353 the prior and 

 convent, as the proprietors of the parish church of 

 Selborne with the chapels of Oakhanger and Black- 

 moor, made a compact with Adam Sinclair (Seynclar), 

 the perpetual vicar of the church, for the increase of his 

 insufficient stipend. On account of 'the present 

 pestilence and the scarcity of the times ' he was to 

 receive various rents and tithes in money and kind, 

 and of wool and of all mills in Selborne except those of 

 the convent, and of all hay except the hay of the 



StUorme Citrt. (Hants R. Soc.) i, 

 56. Ibid, i, 46. 



t" 1 ff* Nick. Tmx. (Rec. Com.) no. 



" SaMrm Ck*rt. (Huts Rtc. Soc.), i, 

 91. Ibid. 117. "-"* Ibid. 145. 



!.- ; j.> Bed. (Rec. Com.), ii, 2^4. 



W r.CJB. Htma, i, 45 w. 



U* Sdotne Cttrt. (Hints. Rcc. Soc.), 



o.a. 



'~ The original charter,uh the bishop's 

 seal is now in the Departmental ArchiTes 

 of La Manche (J. H. Road). 



15 



* &.'fcnr Chert. (Hints Rcc. Soc, 

 " 3- 



-'- H :. i. 



M Pf NidL I**. (Rec. Com.), no. 

 ScU~m Ctert. (Hants. Rec. Soc.), 



