A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



parish and of the fabric of the church may be ob- 

 tained. 4 " The registers are not extant before 1751; 

 for a lengthened period before this the registrations were 

 made in the books of Holy Rood, with which church 

 the united parishes were held from 1660 to 1750. 



There are two bells, the treble by Pack and 

 Chapman of London, 1780, and the tenor by 

 Thomas Mears, 1 80 1. 



The plate consists of an undated chalice and paten, 

 with engraved ornament, two patens, also without a 

 date from the hall-marks, but having the names of 

 the churchwardens for 1844, a second chalice given 

 in 1847 by certain parishioners, a paten given in 1629 

 by Anne Baker, and a modern flagon of Sheffield make. 

 All the plate is inscribed as belonging to St. Lawrence's 

 church, only the paten of 1629 being of an earlier 

 date than the union of the two parishes. 



The parish owns a house on the west side of the 

 High Street, number 145 ; it formerly possessed one 

 on the opposite side of the street, number 25, but 

 this was alienated under the approval of the Charity 

 Commissioners in 1862. 



The old church was, as so commonly, disfigured by 

 various tenements built against it. A couple of shops 

 were attached to the west wall, one each side of the 

 porch, which in 1572 were rented at is. each. In 

 1727 they were pulled down by order of vestry, the 

 churchwardens being desired to fit up the front of the 

 church in a decent manner. The vestry room was 

 also leased out at least from 1586 to 1626. The 

 ancient parsonage adjoined the church on the south 

 side. This old rectory or priests' house became 

 latterly inhabited by the parish clerk, and was, with 

 the consent of the bishop, the patron, and rector, 

 pulled down in 1837, when the church itself, which 

 had become an incongruous and inconvenient mass of 

 patching, was removed ; the present church of white 

 brick being erected on its site, and consecrated 

 31 March, 1842. A good broach spire was added 

 to the tower in 1 86 1. 



The present rectory house is situated in St. Peter's 

 parish. The rector possesses in right of his rectory 

 a farm at Little Somborne. He also received the 

 dividend of 100 three per cent, consols standing in 

 the name of the corporation of Romsey, believed to 

 have been given by Brigadier Windsor" 8 for the ad- 

 ministration of a monthly sacrament in St. Lawrence's 

 Church. 



The following obits were settled here : ot Adam 

 March 4 ' 9 (bailiff in 1435) and Joane his wife yearly 

 orl the Sunday after St. Lawrence (10 August), prob- 

 ably worth Si. per annum ; of Robert Mylles, 450 

 who (probably early in the sixteenth century) be- 

 queathed property for an annual obit which seems to 

 have been worth 1 3*. \d. 



ST. MICHAEL'S. The church of this parish is 

 architecturally the most interesting in the town. Its 

 patronage was with the convent of St. Denys ; 4 " it 

 is now in the gift of the crown. It was valued in 

 the Taxation of Pope Nicholas (1291) at 4 6/. 8^., 



its tenth being 8/. 8^. ; a pension settled here was 

 worth $ and paid its tenth of 6/. In 1405 the 

 church was appropriated to the priory, when, as 

 compelled by law, a provision was made for the 

 vicar. 45 ' In the Valor Eccksiastuus the vicarage 

 appears worth 13 6s. or with deductions 

 12 us. 8J</., paying a tenth of i 5*. i\d. In 

 1723 it stood in the king's books at 12 1 u. lo^d., 

 and was said to be worth 20 per annum. It is 

 now worth about 133 per annum. The popula- 

 tion is about 1,820. 



This church suffered in the French invasion of 

 October, 1338, when part of the south-western 

 quarter of the town was burnt. The flames seized 

 upon certain wooden buildings attached to the church, 

 and the sacred edifice itself became a scene of terror, 

 violence, and bloodshed. The church having thus 

 become polluted was reconciled by the bishop of 

 Sarum under a faculty from Bishop Orlton, dated 

 II June, 1339.*" In 1351, the church becoming 

 similarly defiled, though under what circumstances 

 does not appear, Bishop Edendon issued a faculty to 

 the rector dated 27 November, empowering him to 

 get any bishop of the province or the archbishop of 

 Nazareth, suffragan of Canterbury, to perform the 

 needful office. 454 



Among the earliest notices of this church in the 

 town books, we find in 1456 455 and subsequent years 

 the parish clerk paid as a town official for keeping the 

 clock and chimes in order. Later on (1575) the 

 court leet presented the irregularity of the chimes, and 

 in 1594 one of the town gunners, who attended to 

 the callivers in the Audit House and had ' promised to 

 alter the chymes into so good a note and tone as shalbe 

 liked by all the towne, and into good harmonic,' was 

 employed to do so. 456 Afterwards the office fell to 

 the sexton, whose duties in the seventeenth century 

 were to provide and dress the church with boughs, to 

 wash the linen, scour the eagle, cleanse the plate, and, 

 somewhat disastrously, to write the church books and 

 registers. 457 



The controversies of the sixteenth century were not 

 unrepresented at St. Michael's. In 1548 Thomas 

 Hancock,' 58 who for an inflammatory sermon at Salis- 

 bury had, with certain of his friends, been bound over 

 for his good behaviour, came to Southampton with a 

 letter from the duke of Somerset to the Lord Chief 

 Justice, Sir Richard Lyster, begging the discharge of 

 the bonds. While he was with Sir Richard the bells 

 rang out for the sermon which it seems Hancock had 

 been asked to preach. This, however, Sir Richard 

 entirely forbade, and, after some altercation with 

 Hancock, sent for the mayor and his brethren, before 

 whom Hancock professed that he was as glad to hear 

 the word of God as to preach it himself. Whereupon 

 Mr. Griffith 459 preached, and to Hancock's delight 

 ' challenged ' Sir Richard, who was present, that he 

 being chief justice of the law did suffer the images in 

 the church, the idol hanging on a string over the 

 altar, candlesticks and tapers on them upon the altar, 



"7 Davies, op. cit. 372-8. 



448 Andrews Windsor, fourth son of 

 Thomas carl of Plymouth, born about 

 1679; brigadier-general II Feb. 1711 

 (see also below under All Saints'). 



449 Steward's Bk. 1486 ; Chant. Cert. 

 Edw. VI (58). 



450 Undated extract from will ; Davies, 

 op. cit. 377, 416. 



451 Sec above. 



493 In 1428 its annual value was de- 

 clared xij marks vjii. \\\}d. Feud. AiJi, 

 ii, 342. 



458 Winton. Epis. Reg. Orlton, i, fol. 

 70. 



454 Ibid. Edendon, ii, fol. 24. 



4 Stewards' Bk. (Corp. MSS.). 



456 Boke of Remembrances, fol. 177. 



53 



4S 7 Churchwardens' Accts. 



448 Suspended in 1546 by Bishop Gar- 

 diner for breaches of the Six Articles, but 

 licensed to preach by Cranmer in 1548 ; 

 Hancock, Autobiog. (Camden Soc.), 75, 

 tec. 



459 No doubt John Griffith, vicar of 

 Holy Rood. 



