MEONSTOKE HUNDRED 



SOBERTON 



inscribed ' Prayes ye the Lord.' The sixth and 

 seventh bear identical inscriptions in black letter capitals 

 and smalls : 



ORATE PRO AlABUS IOHIS NEWPORT ET ELIZABET 

 UXORIS EIUS. 



They date presumably after Elizabeth Newport's death 

 in 1527, and probably were set here soon after the 

 completion of the tower. They bear no cross or 

 founder's mark by which their origin might be 

 traced. Grooves made by the bell-ropes are to be 

 seen not only on the west face of the middle of the 

 three arches under the east wall of the tower, but 

 also in the north face of the thirteenth-century arch 

 across the south end of the western aisle. As they do 

 not show in the sixteenth-century arch above, they 

 must belong to a time before it was built, and point 

 to the fact that a bell must have hung outside the 

 former tower on the south, presumably in a small 

 bell-cote over the western aisle. 



The plate is an interesting set of 1706, consisting 

 of communion cup and cover paten, two flagons, an 

 alms dish, and a standing paten. 



Among the church possessions is a seventeenth- 

 century white damask table-cloth, with the story of 

 the Good Samaritan and the inscription LUCAE x, 

 i.e. the tenth chapter of St. Luke's gospel, and 

 there are also some white diaper towels found in 1880 

 in the church roof, together with some leaves of late 

 sixteenth-century printing. 



The registers begin in 1538, the first book, which 

 is of paper, being of more than usual interest from 

 the fact that it was written by the parish clerk, William 

 Middleton, from its commencement to 1588, and 

 contains a number of additional details. He notes, 

 on 12 May, 1549, 'this tyme began the Ingles 

 s'vice,' and mentions outbreaks of plague in 1546 

 and 1564. An entry in 1580 shows that there was 

 a priest's house near the church, not occupied by the 

 parson, and there are several notes of marriages ' at 

 iiij y e cloke in y c morning,' or ' an oure before day 

 breke by licence fro the chancelar.' In 1580 and 

 1589 are instances of the christening of sick children 

 by the midwife, and twins are noted as ' halfe a child 

 and the other halfe chylld." This book contains 

 burials to 1627, and baptisms 1547-1623. The 

 second book has baptisms 1623-1775, and marriages 

 1 540-1660, the entries from 1621 to 1654 being 

 lost. The third book begins in 1662, and has bap- 

 tisms to 1680, marriages to 1665, and burials to 

 1670. The next has baptisms 1695-1767, marriages 

 1696-1754, and burials 1678-1775 ; the next bap- 

 tisms from 1756, and burials from 1775 up to 1812, 

 and the next marriages 1754-1812. 



The church of the HOLT TRIN1TT, NEW- 

 TOITN, erected in 1850, is a building of flint and 

 stone in the Early English style. The registers date 

 from the year of erection. 



Soberton was a chapelry depen- 



JDfOlTSONS dent upon theparish church of Meon- 



stoke until quite modern times. 1 " 



The living is at the present day a rectory in the gift 



of the bishop of Winchester. 



In the reign of Henry III, Thomas de Windsor 

 granted to the prior and convent of Southwick, in 

 free alms, the tithes of all his lordship of Soberton from 



corn, sheep, pigs, cheese, and wool. This he did for the 

 soul of his lord and father Gervase, who was buried 

 at the church of Southwick, for his own salvation 

 and that of Lady Amice his mother and Agnes 

 his wife. 170 



In 1262 the abbot and convent of Beaulieu agreed 

 to pay Geoffrey de Faring, rector of the church of 

 Meonstoke, and his successors every year on the 

 day of St. Peter ad Vincula in the church of 

 Soberton 3, instead of tithes of milk, wool, lambs, 

 calves, and pigs from their property in the parish of 

 Soberton." 1 



At an early date there was a chapel in Hoe depen- 

 dent on the parish church of Meonstoke, and in the 

 reign of Edward I a dispute arose between the parish- 

 ioners of the chapel on the one side, and Walter de 

 Cumba, rector of the church of Meonstoke, and Roger, 

 lord of Hoe, on the other, respecting a chantry in the 

 chapel. The question was referred to the bishop of 

 Winchester, who in 1282 decided that the chaplain 

 who for the time being administered divine service in 

 the chapel should receive all the oblations, obventions, 

 and small tithes of every description appertaining to 

 the altar of that chapel, reserving to the rector of 

 Meonstoke and his successors all the great tithes of 

 corn and the chief bequests or mortuaries within the 

 manor of Hoe and his jurisdiction among the said 

 parishioners. The chaplain was to have a manse 

 with a garden adjacent, the whole of the land which 

 William de Hoe, father of Roger, assigned to the 

 chantry, the land which belonged to Herbert Pollard 

 assigned by the same, fifty sheep in pasture with the 

 sheep of Roger on the north side of the chapel, twelve 

 pigs of his own rearing in pannage with the pigs of 

 Roger, and six cart-loads of wood annually in the wood 

 of Roger, and was to celebrate mass and the service 

 for the dead three times a week for the souls of Roger, 

 his successors and heirs. The bishop also decided 

 that the chaplain should defray all the ordinary ex- 

 penses of the chapel, viz. ornaments, books, vest- 

 ments, covering of the chancel, &c., and ordered 

 that the parishioners of Hoe once a year, viz. on 

 the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin 

 Mary, should hear divine service and make their 

 offerings personally at their mother church of Meon- 

 stoke. 1 " 



The living of Newtown is a vicarage, net yearly 

 value .140, with 10 acres of glebe, in the gift of the 

 bishop of Winchester. 



There is a Free Methodist chapel in the parish, re- 

 built in 1902, and situated a little to the north of 

 Soberton Heath. 



In 1759 William Mourn by his 

 CHARITIES will, proved in the peculiar court of 

 Hambledon, gave to the poor of the 

 parish 100 to be placed out at interest. The 

 legacy (with accumulations) is now represented by 

 117 15^. 1 1 d. consols with the official trustees, 

 by whom the dividends are remitted to the governing 

 body, of which, by an order under the Local Govern- 

 ment Act, 1894, two are elected by the parish 

 council. 



In 1867, by an award made upon the inclosure of 

 Soberton Heath and other open lands in the parish, 

 three pieces of land, each containing 2 acres, were 

 allotted unto the churchwardens and overseers in 



169 Pofe Nick. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 211. 

 W Add. MS. 33285, fol. 177. 



Harl. MS. 6603, fol. 148. 

 267 



17" Add. MS. 33285, fol. 175. 



