156 YETMINSTER CHURCH. 



Yetminster seems to have rejoiced in the possession of three 

 churchwardens. Three names occur in 1550, and again on the 

 bells dated 1610 and 1655. A churchwarden and two sidesmen 

 signed the presentment in 1635, and three names also appeared on 

 the Commandments, formerly painted on the church wall, and on 

 the cover of the parish register, 1677. This may be accounted for 

 on the supposition that one was elected for the mother church and 

 one each for the two chapelries, following the lines laid down for 

 the election of the Eeeve at the Michaelmas Manorial Court, when 

 three names were submitted by the Homage to the Steward, 

 whereof one must dwell at Leigh, the second in Chetnoll, and the 

 third in Yetminster, from whom the Steward chose one to serve in 

 the said office. 



This parish has produced, so far as I am aware, no distinguished 

 native or resident, unless we except Benjamin Jesty, who, having 

 discovered in his own person the prophylactic effects of cow-pox 

 taken direct from the animal, had the fortitude to vaccinate his 

 wife and children, in the year 1774, some 22 years before Jenner 

 had made similar observations and experiments. The latter, 

 however, received the tribute of fame and the Parliamentary 

 Grant. Jesty was buried at Worth Matravers, in the Isle of 

 Purbeck, and his tombstone there records that " He was born at 

 Yetminster, in this county, and was an upright, honest man, 

 particularly noted for having been the first person known that 

 introduced Cowpox by Inoculation, and who, from his great strength 

 of mind, made the experiment from the cow on his wife and two 

 sons in the year 1774." He died 16th April, 1816. One famous 

 man, though not a resident in Yetminster, is connected with it as 

 the charitable founder of a boys' school. I mean the Hon. Robert 

 Boyle, of Stalbridge, one of the original members of the Royal 

 Society, who, by his will in 1691, bequeathed the funds from 

 which a school was built for the free education of 10 boys of 

 Yetminster, 6 of Leigh, and 4 of Chetnole. A new scheme, 

 converting it into an ordinary elementary boys' school, was made 

 on 10th April, 1873. 



