BOROUGH OF SOUTHAMPTON 



and the people honouring the idol, contrary to the 

 law, with much other good doctrine. 460 



The court leet book of 1576 shows that the vicars 

 of St. Michael's and St. Lawrence" and the rector of All 

 Saints' at least were slow to adopt recent changes. 

 They were presented for habitually administering the 

 sacrament ' with wafer or singing bread,' contrary to 

 the statute and Book of Common Prayer, which ' for 

 the avoiding and taking away of superstition,' the 

 court urges, prescribed the finest ' white bread ' that 

 may be gotten, and ' such as is usually accustomed 

 to be eaten at men's table.' 



During the Puritan time St. Michael's con- 

 tinued to be held by the vicar, John Toms, M.A., 

 who was instituted 4 October, 1628, and was buried 

 as minister of the parish on 2 July, i652. 461 On 

 his death Giles Say, a Presbyterian, seems to have 

 been intruded, who not being a member of the 

 Church of England, much less in episcopal orders, 

 and unwilling to receive ordination, was ejected in 

 1662."' 



The registers commence with 8 April, 1552. In 

 the first year the burial of Sir Richard Lyster (see 

 above), who had a ' very fair ' 46S house in the parish, 

 is recorded on 17 March, 1552-3. 



Against 1560 a royal visit is recorded. The queen 

 came from Netley Castle to Southampton on 

 1 3 August and left for Winchester on the sixteenth of 

 that month. 



In September, 1603, King James and his queen had 

 sought the town as the healthiest refuge from the 

 plague ; the books of St. Michael's, however, under 

 1604 record an abnormal number of burials, very 

 many being notified as from plague. 



Under 1791 (16 November), the vicar notes the 

 total destruction by fire of Bugle or Bull Hall, formerly 

 the residence of the earls of Southampton, a building 

 of great interest and quadrangular in form, with an 

 extensive front along Bugle Street, and bounded on 

 the north by West Gate. The hall was adorned with 

 wainscoting and stained glass. 



The churchwardens' accounts, commencing in 1686, 

 contain an account of houses which formerly belonged 

 to the parish, some of which still do so. The earliest 

 document relating to these is a lease of 1575. 



The church consists of a shallow chancel, a central 

 tower with stone spire and a nave, with north and 

 south aisles, running the whole length of the church 

 from east to west, the general plan being a rectangle 

 measuring 113 ft. by 66 ft. The earliest part of the 

 building is the tower, which is probably not later than 

 the year lioo. The church to which it belonged 

 was cruciform, but from the evidence of the masonry 

 it would seem that the rest of the building must at 

 first have been of a temporary character, as there 

 are no traces of bonding at the angles of the tower, 

 as far as they are exposed. But, as the south-east 

 angle of the chancel proves, the construction of a 

 permanent building must have been undertaken after 

 no great interval, probably before 1 1 20, and the pre- 

 sumption of the existence of an earlier chancel is 

 strengthened by the fact that the internal width of the 



present chancel is within a few inches equal to the 

 external width of the tower ; that is to say, it would 

 seem to have been built round an earlier chancel of 

 the same width as the tower, the normal plan in a 

 cruciform church. The building of the transepts and 

 nave must have followed, perhaps without a break, on 

 that of the chancel, and the dimensions of the twelfth- 

 century church, which was probably complete about 

 1 140, can be laid down from the existing remains in 

 the north and south walls of the transepts and the 

 west wall of the nave. The nave had aisles in the 

 twelfth century, 4631 and the building as a whole was of 

 considerable size, its greatest length and breadth being 

 those of the present building, though its area was less, 

 and from what is left of its old masonry it seems to 

 have been faced throughout with wrought stone. The 

 first alteration to its plan seems to have been made in 

 the second half of the thirteenth century, when chapels 

 were added on both sides of the chancel, probably of 

 the same dimensions as those now existing, and open- 

 ing to the chancel by the arches which still remain. 

 The east walls of the transepts must have been either 

 pierced with arches or completely taken down at this 

 period. At the same time a large east window was 

 inserted in the chancel, the rear arch and inner jambs 

 of which are still in place. 



Towards the end of the fourteenth century the 

 eastern two-thirds of the north aisle were built, of the 

 same projection as the north transept, the west wall 

 of the transept being pulled down. At the same 

 time the three-light windows in both transept-ends 

 were inserted. 



The south aisle, though now much altered, seems 

 to belong to the fifteenth century, and the eastern 

 chapels were probably remodelled at the same time, 

 the tracery of the three east windows of the church 

 being originally of this date. The upper story of the 

 tower seems to have been rebuilt and a stone spire 

 added in the fifteenth century ; the spire again was 

 rebuilt in 1745 and heightened in 1877 ; at the 

 latter date the present belfry windows were also added. 

 In the early part of the sixteenth century a chantry 

 chapel was added on the south side of the south chapel. 

 It is now destroyed, but the arch by which it opened 

 to the south chapel remains. 



Disastrous structural alterations to the church took 

 place in 1828, when the nave arcades were destroyed 

 and replaced by the present flimsy pillars and arches ; 

 the aisle walls were also raised and the north aisle 

 lengthened westward. The three-light windows in 

 the south aisle belong to this time. 



These extensive alterations were not destined to 

 last. With the coming of a new vicar in 1870 it was 

 found that serious repairs were needed, and it was 

 determined again to restore the church. In 1872 

 roof and fabric were made firm, the pewing and the 

 galleries were turned out, and the walls cleaned down. 

 The church was re-seated with open oak benches, the 

 font removed from the tower to the west end, the 

 chancel renovated, and quire seats placed under the 

 arches of the tower. The mayor's or north chancel 

 was fitted up as a morning chapel ; the canopied tomb 



4W Hancock, Autobiog. 76. Hancock 

 was bound over by the mayor of Salisbury 

 under I Edw. VI, cap. I, ' an act against 

 such as shall unreverently speak against 

 the Sacrament,' &c. A proclamation 

 founded on the above and dated Dec. 

 1547 threatened anyone who should 



' revile," &c. the ' said Sacrament by call- 

 ing it an idol 1 as Hancock had done, and 

 as Griffith did here. Unfortunately Sir 

 Richard Lyster' s comments on this sermon 

 do not appear. 



" Winton. Epis. Reg. Neile ; Par. 

 Reg. St. Michael's. 



53' 



<M See further on his work in the 

 town, &c., Davies. op. cit. 385. 



<68 Leland, Itin. (ed. Hearne), 93. 



< raa Sir H. Englefield mentions the 

 ' Saxon Columns ' in 1801, showing that 

 the twelfth-century nave arcades existed 

 till then. 



