A HISTORY OF DORSET 



la Garderobe, deceased,^' and in his turn was 

 succeeded by John Serle in 1347.'* In accord- 

 ance with the usual custom in connexion with 

 • houses of the royal patronage the Close Rolls 

 record the appointment of a clerk to receive 

 a pension in 1312 on the election of a new 

 abbot/' and again in the year 1324.'"' In the 

 reign of Henry VIII William Bonde, yeo- 

 man of the guard, in 1337 received a grant of 

 a corrody in the monastery void by the death 

 of Richard March.*^ The contribution by the 

 abbey to the grant raised by the spirituality in 

 aid of the expenses incurred by Henry VIII ' in 

 recovering the crown of France ' is set down at 

 ^200.^^ 



Many of the grants to the abbey were made 

 with the object of founding chantries and estab- 

 lishing anniversaries for the benefit of the 

 grantors. In 1335 William de Whitefield gave 

 his manor of Milborne Michelstone to the abbot 

 and convent for the provision of two chaplains 

 to celebrate daily in the abbey church for 

 his soul and the souls of his ancestors and 

 heirs/' 



Roger Manyngford and John his son in 

 1382 obtained from Richard II a licence per- 

 mitting them to grant the convent the advowson 

 of the church and, on the death of the chaplain, 

 the reversion of the manor of Stoke by Bindon 

 for daily celebration for the good estate of the 

 said Roger while living, and for his soul after 

 death, and the souls of his wives, children and 

 ancestors, and for the performance of other 

 works of charity.** Edward IV in 1482 per- 

 mitted the appropriation of a third part of the 

 manor of Maiden Newton to the monastery for 

 the sustenance of a chaplain to celebrate daily at 

 the altar of St. John Baptist for the good estate 

 of the king and Elizabeth his consort.*" Among 

 the few references to this abbey in the episcopal 

 registers may be found the record of the estab- 

 lishment of the Stafford chantry by an indenture 

 dated Trinity Sunday, 1403, between the abbot 

 and Humphrey Stafford, knt., whereby, in return 

 for the grant of the manor of Milborne St. 

 Andrew, the convent agreed to provide a chap- 

 lain to celebrate a daily mass to be called ' the 

 Stafford masse ' at the altar of Holy Cross in 



" Close, 12 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 32 a'. 



'* Ibid. 21 Edw. Ill, pt. I, in. 231/. 



'Mbid. 6 Edw. II, m. 26^. 



" Ibid. 17 Edw. II, m. ii</. 



" L. and P. Hen. Fill, xii (2), 1008 (24). The 

 Falor of 1535 estimates this corrody or pension in 

 the gift of the crown ' in the name of the janitor or 

 warden of the gate of the monastery ' at 66a ^d. 

 There was another corrody or pension also at the 

 king's disposal valued at 66/. 8^. Falor Eccl. (Rec. 

 Com.), i, 256. 



« L. and P. Hen. Fill, ili, 2483. 



" Pat. 9 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. lb. 



*' Pat. 5 Ric. II, pt. 2, m. 16. 



" Ibid. 21 Edw. I\', pt. I, m. 8. 



the nave of the church or of St. Michael near,** 

 for the good estate of the said Humphrey and 

 Elizabeth his wife, and for their souls after death, 

 together with the soul of the abbot, and of 

 various other members of the Stafford family, 

 who, it was stipulated, should be admitted as 

 participants in all the spiritual benefits of the 

 house, vigils, sacraments, almsgiving, and in the 

 masses of the monks. An anniversary was to 

 be fixed on which certain doles and distributions 

 should be made, and a poor man or bedemarj 

 yearly appointed whose special duty it was to be 

 present at the founders' mass, and to pray con- 

 tinually for their souls, in return for which he 

 should receive the sum of 1 71. ^d. yearly, and 

 five yards of cloth for a gown." In the Falor 

 of 1535 the charges on the monastery in- 

 clude the sum of 46?. id. in a yearly distri- 

 bution to the poor on 14 December for the 

 soul of Ailmer, ' sometime duke of Cornwall, 

 founder of the monastery ; ' 66s. 2id. assigned 

 for the provision of food, clothing, beds and 

 other necessaries in the abbey for two poor 

 men for the soul of the said founder, and a 

 weekly distribution of bread and ale to thirteen 

 poor men ' called freers ' at a yearly cost of 

 £1 1 5/. 4^.*^ The total annual expenditure of 

 the house under the head of almsgiving and in 

 commemoration of the souls of founders and 

 benefactors came to ;^34 6x. 3^.*' 



Articles containing charges of a serious 

 character were brought up on the eve of the 

 dissolution against the last abbot, Thomas Cotton, 

 wherein he was denounced (i) for gross immo- 

 rality, (2) for letting the church and abbey lands 

 go to ruin, (3) for wasting the goods of the house 

 on his mistresses and natural children, and 

 bestowing gifts out of the conventual funds or» 

 the former on their marriage." William Christ- 

 church, monk of the house, came forward also 

 with complaints that the abbot did not maintain 

 constituted obits and doles, and permitted some 

 of his monks to be proprietors, that he allowed 

 two of them ' who daily haunt queans ' to cele- 

 brate mass without confession, to play at dice 

 and cards all night and celebrate in the morn- 



" Hutchins cites an MS. 'in the public library at 

 Cambridge,' which gives the dedication of various 

 altars in the abbey church. In 1311 an altar in the 

 abbot's chapel was dedicated in honour of St. Stephen 

 and St. Katharine by an Irish bishop of Annadown 

 {Enachdunensis), who granted an indulgence of 20 

 d.iys to those who should visit it. The same bishop 

 dedicated the chapel of the infirmary in honour of 

 the Virgin, St. Margaret, andSt. Apollonia, and granted 

 an indulgence of 30 days. In 1318 the bishop of 

 Salisbury dedicated the high altar in honour of the 

 Virgin and St. Peter with a similar grant of 40 days' 

 indulgence. Hist, of Dorset, iv, 20. 



" Sarum Epis. Reg. Campegio, fol. ult. 



*" Falor EccL (Rec. Com.), i, 256. 



''Ibid. 257. 



"" L. and P. Hen. Fill, viii, 148. 



56 



