THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES 

 OF DORSET 



INTRODUCTION 



Dorset enjoyed a unique pre-eminence for the number and importance 

 of its religious houses founded during the Saxon period. No fewer than nine 

 monastic establishments are known to have existed in the county prior to the 

 Norman Conquest ; of these the great houses of Sherborne, Shaftesbury, 

 Abbotsbury, Cerne, and Milton continued after that epoch to rank as Bene- 

 dictine abbeys ; the two abbeys of Cranborne and Horton survived as priories, 

 dependent respectively upon the abbeys of Tewkesbury and Sherborne ; the 

 famous early nunnery of Wimborne was converted into a college of secular 

 canons, while at Wareham, where an early house of nuns is said to have been 

 destroyed by the Danes in 876, a small priory sprang up as a cell to the 

 Norman abbey of Lire. 



The reformed Benedictines of the order of Cluny had a small priory at 

 East Holme, and the Cistercians an abbey at Bindon, both founded before the 

 end of the twelfth century. The Cistercians had also a house of nuns of 

 much celebrity at Tarrant Kaines ; and it is probable that the ' Camesterne,' 

 where, according to the Mappa Mundi^ compiled at the close of the twelfth 

 century, certain ' white nuns ' were established, is a corruption of Kaines 

 Tarrant. 



It is remarkable that the canons of the Austin and Premonstratensian ! 

 rules, so numerous elsewhere, had no foundations within this county, unless 

 perhaps the obscure ' priory ' or ' chantry ' of Wilcheswood in Langton Wallis 

 belonged to the canons regular. It seems, however, more probable that 

 Wilcheswood should be considered as a small collegiate church, of which 

 class the other example in Dorset was Wimborne Minster. 



The Templars were unrepresented, but the Knights Hospitallers had a 

 preceptory at Friar Mayne. The Dominican Friars are mentioned at Gil- 

 lingham in 1267; their other settlement, at Melcombe Regis, was of far 

 greater importance, and is remarkable as being the last house of the order 

 established in England. The Franciscans settled at Dorchester, and the 

 Carmelites had a short-lived settlement at Bridport. During the fourteenth 

 century unsuccessful attempts appear to have been made to introduce Car- 

 melites at Lyme, and Austin Friars at Sherborne. A remarkable ' priory 



' Gervase of Cant. Op. Hist. (Rolls Sen), ii, 422. On the other hand, it has been suggested 

 (Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 289) that this was a settlement at VVinterborne Came. Leland's statement that 

 .the nuns were Benedictines (Jtin. viii (2), 62) is presumably a slip, as the latter wore black. 



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