A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



already noted, and on the others an acanthus leaf and 

 a crowned rose respectively. 



The plate consists of a modern chalice and 

 paten. 



For the registers see Wymering. 



The earliest mention of a church 

 ADVQWSQN at Widley seems lo be in the year 

 1291, when the rectory of Widley 

 was assessed at 4 6/. 8/. 15 ; by 1 5 3 5 the value had 

 increased to j 4^. 86 The advowson of Widley was 

 granted to the prior and convent of Southwick by 

 Matthew de Scures, and was held by them until the 

 time of the Dissolution. 27 From 1538 down to the 

 year 1817 it followed the descent of the manor of 

 Southwick (q.v.). From 1817 to 1847 the advowson 

 .was held alternately by Thomas Thistlethwayte, the 

 lord of the manor, and Winchester College.' 8 In 

 1847 the advowson was bought by F. J. Nugee, and 

 has remained in his family until the present day. 89 



Since the beginning of the nineteenth century the 

 living has been a consolidated benefice, consisting of 

 the rectory of Widley and the vicarage of Wymering ; 

 joint net yearly value, 280.* 



In 1771 John Taylor, rector of 

 CHARITIES Widley and vicar of Wymering, by 

 deed gave 100 consols for the 

 benefit of the said two parishes, and declared that 

 out of the annual outcome 2 should be applied in 

 purchasing Bibles, Prayer Books, and other pious books, 

 to be distributed amongst the poor of the two parishes. 

 When that end had been fully answered, the 2 

 should be applied in instructing poor children of the 

 two parishes to read and write, and the residue of the 

 income towards repairing the almshouses at Wymering 

 founded by Honor Wayte. The income of the charity 

 has for some years, at the discretion of the trustees, 

 been applied for the benefit of the Cosham almshouses. 

 See parish of Wymering. 



THE LIBERTY OF PORTSMOUTH AND PORTSEA ISLAND 



The island of Portsea is separated from the main- 

 land by a narrow channel known as the Port Creek, 

 crossed by means of an iron bridge which replaces one 

 of stone. North of the island rise the grassy slopes of 

 Portsdown, while the Portsea side is fringed with the 

 loopholes of half-hidden forti- 

 fications. In 1831 part of the 

 island, viz. Hilsea, which is 

 now included in Cosham parish 

 (q.v.), and a portion of Portsea 

 parish known as the Gildable, 

 lay in the hundred of Ports- 

 down, while the rest of the 

 island was within the borough 

 of Portsmouth. Now (i.e. 

 since 1835) the whole of 

 Portsea is contained in the 

 borough, which includes that 

 part of the island south of 

 an irregular line crossing from 

 Langstone Harbour at a point north of Great Salterns 

 to Portsmouth Harbour, midway between Great 

 Horsea Island and Tipner. 



The district which is now Portsmouth borough was 

 sparsely inhabited in the eleventh century, for in 1086 

 there were only a few villeins, bordars, and serfs on 

 the demesne lands of the manors of Buckland, Copnor, 

 and Fratton, while the town of Portsmouth did not 

 then exist. 1 The island is, for the most part, un- 

 productive. The soil is either sand or gravel upon 

 Bagshot and Bracklesham beds in the south, and 

 London clay farther north. Vegetables only are 

 grown in any quantity, and all wheat is imported. In 

 the seventeenth century the inhabitants depended 

 almost entirely on the Isle of Wight for their supplies 

 of wheat and flour.* This fact doubtless accounts for 



BOROUGH OF PORTS- 

 MOUTH. Axurt a star 

 between the horns of a 

 crescent or. 



the scarcity of mills in the island. At present a wind- 

 mill stands in Fratton. It may have been built on the 

 site of the windmill which belonged to the Domus 

 Dei at the time of its dissolution.* There used also 

 to be a water-mill, known as Beeston's Mill, or the 

 King's Mill, since it was used for grinding wheat for 

 the garrison of the town. It stood on the Old Gun 

 Wharf, but has not been rebuilt since it was burnt 

 down about 1891. The mill-stream entered through 

 the Gun Wharf and reached as far as the site of the 

 Mill-Dam Barracks, where it terminated in the Mill 

 Pond. 4 The mill took its name from the Beeston 

 family, its former tenants. 6 In a map of the town 

 dated 1668 two fresh-water mills are marked near 

 each other at the head of the mill-pond. 6 They 

 appear to have been those granted to the abbey of 

 Fontevrault in 1 1 89.** It appears, from a papal con- 

 firmation in 1 20 1, that one of these mills was granted 

 to the abbey by Richard I. 7 A mill called ' le 

 Brendemulne ' at Portsmouth was in the custody of 

 Maud countess of Ulster in 1340, and was granted 

 for life to Stephen Lambyn of Winchelsea for his good 

 service to the king at sea. 8 



Late in the twelfth century the town of Portsmouth 

 grew up in the south-western corner of the island, 

 doubtless owing its origin to the increasing difficulty 

 of reaching Portchester by sea. When the docks, 

 which had been built on the peninsula to the north 

 of the town, came into importance in the seventeenth 

 and eighteenth centuries, the town of Portsea arose 

 round the dockyard to accommodate the workers 

 there ; and during the nineteenth century it has 

 grown until, at the present day, Portsmouth and 

 Portsea, with their members of Landport, Southsea, 

 Milton, and Eastney, form practically one town almost 

 co-extensive with the island. 



55 Pope N'tcb. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 24. 



Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), ii, 23. 



f Wykcbam's Reg liter ( Hants Rec. Soc.), 

 i, 76, 98, 109, 179, 238. Egerton MSS. 

 2031-4, iv, 69. 



Clerical Guide, 1817-36 ; Clergy List, 

 1841-7. 



89 Clergy List, 1847-1 904. 



80 Clerical Guide, 1817. 



1 In Buckland there were 6 villeins, 



2 bordars, and 2 serfs ; in Copnor 5 

 villeins, 2 bordars, and 2 serfs ; in Frat- 

 ton 4 villeins, 4 bordars and 4 serfs. 



3 Cal. S.P. Dom, 1629-31, p. 391. 



8 Mins. Accts. 31-2 Hen. VIII 

 (Hants), R. 139, m. 77. A windmill in 

 Portsmouth was granted to Edward Ferrers 

 and Francis Phelipps by James I. Pat. 

 7 Jas. I, pt. 16. 



4 Information kindly supplied by Mr. 



172 



W. H. Saunders. The position of the 

 mill is clearly shown on the plan of Ports- 

 mouth in 1762. 



* East, Extracts from the Portsmouth Rec. 

 (ed. 1891), 37. 



'Add. MS. 16371; Cal. Doc. France, 

 385. 



6a Cal. Rot. Chart. (Rec. Com.), 72*. 



7 Add. Chart. 17861. 



8 Pat. 14 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, 48. 



