RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



which belonged to the demesne of the monks, 

 and was assigned towards the expenses of their 

 living and clothing — and Piddletrenthide/ 

 Henry I, reciting the charter of i^Lthelstan, king 

 of England, the founder, confirmed to the 

 abbey of Milton and the monks serving God 

 there their possessions therein enumerated with 

 all liberties, free customs and acquittances, the 

 right of soc, sac, tol, team, and infangnetheof, 

 waif, assize of bread and ale, gallows, pillory, 

 and all other appurtenances.* From Henry III 

 the abbot and convent obtained a charter in 1252 

 for the right of free warren over all their 

 demesne lands in Dorset, provided they should 

 not be within the king's forest, with a licence to 

 hold a weekly market at the monastery within 

 the manor of Milton on Thursday, a yearly 

 fair there on the vigil, feast, and morrow of the 

 Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and a 

 yearly fair in their manor of Stockland on the 

 same three days.^ The Taxatio oi 1 291 gave 

 the abbey spiritualities amounting to ^Tg i8j. id. 

 from the churches of Sydling, Puddletown, 

 Tolpuddle, Dewlish, Whitcombe, and Hol- 

 worth, Stockland, Cattistock and Compton ; '" 

 and temporalities valued at £,i2b 9^." in the 

 deaneries of Bridport, Dorchester, and Whit- 

 church, the total income from both sources being 

 assessed at ;^I36 yj. id. 



The abbot was assessed for his holding at two 

 knights' fees in the reign of Henry 11;'^ in 

 1 155-6 he paid 40J. scutage." He certified 

 the king by charter in 1 166 that originally the 

 abbey owed no knights' fees either .of the old 

 or new feoffment, but that Roger, bishop of 

 Salisbury, on the occasion when he took the 

 abbey into custody on its voidance at the 

 command of Henry I, enfeoffed one knight of 

 a tenement, viz. 2 hides held by Robert de 

 Monasteriis, and another knight of another tene- 

 ment, viz. 2^ hides which William Fitz Walter 

 held. Afterwards R., the predecessor of the 

 present abbot, had returned these fees to their 

 original state, and the knights constituted by the 

 bishop had been made censunrii, and held thus in 

 the time of the aforesaid R., as did their heirs 

 at the present time : William de Monasteriis and 

 William Brito." In the year 11 84 Osbert de 

 Dorchester and Robert de Godmanston rendered 



' Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 78. 



' Dugdale, Mon., Chart, of Milton, No. 7, ii, 



350-1- 



' Chart. R. 37 Hen. Ill.m. 16. Edward II, in his 

 subsequent exemplification of the possessions and 

 liberties of the monks previous to their disastrous fire 

 of I 309, declared that these markets and fairs were 

 originally granted by their founder ^thelstan. Pat. 

 5 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 17. 



'"Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 179. 



" Ibid. 183-4. 



'' Red Bk. of the Exch. (Rolls Ser.), i, 15, 26, 



33. 54- 



"Ibid, ii, 678. " Ibid, i, 211. 



an account to the Exchequer of the farm of the 

 possessions of the abbey for half a year.^* An 

 account for three terms was rendered in 1213,^* 

 and on July of that year John intimated to the 

 custodians of the abbeys of Abbotsbury, Sher- 

 borne, and Milton that he was sending down 

 a number of sick horses to be placed in their 

 charge.'' Edward I, in the first year of his 

 reign, granted to the prior and convent on pay- 

 ment of a fine of fifty marks the custody of 

 their abbey, void by the death of Abbot William 

 de Taunton.'* The convent, in common with 

 other ecclesiastics, received in 1294 a grant of 

 protection for a year in consideration of the 

 money which they had contributed towards the 

 royal subsidy. '' 



A great misfortune befell the community in 

 1309 ; on the night of 2 September the wooden 

 belfry of their church was struck by lightning 

 in the midst of a violent thunderstorm and gale ; 

 the building took fire, and in its destruction 

 perished the bells, ornaments, and vestments of 

 the monks, together with all their books, char- 

 ters, and muniments.^" The bishop of Salisbury 

 immediately granted an indulgence of forty days 

 in aid of the restoration of the church ; -' and 

 with the object of replacing the title deeds 

 which had been lost Edward II ordered a com- 

 mission to inquire as to the lands and rents held 

 by the abbot and convent previous to the destruc- 

 tion of their charters,"' by his own charter two 

 years later reciting the return made by the in- 

 quisition and confirming to the brethren all gifts 

 and privileges granted to the abbey by King 

 jEthelstan, his predecessor, and all subsequent 

 benefactors.^' The abbot and convent received 

 a licence from the king in 131 5 for the appro- 

 priation of the church of Sydling to their own 

 uses, the issues being charged with a sum of 

 20 marks, to be paid yearly to the chapter of 

 Salisbury towards the maintenance of the chantry 

 and obit of Nicolas Longespde, sometime bishop 

 of Salisbury, in the cathedral;"'' and in 1332 

 Edward III gave permission for the convent to 

 appropriate the church of Stockland, 'said to be 



" Madox, Hist, of the Exch. i, 310. 



'Mbid. 312. 



" Close, I ; John, m. 4. 



■« Pat. I Edw. I, m. 1 7. 



" Ibid. 22 Edw. I, m. 8. 



" Sarum Epis. Reg. Simon of Ghent, i, fol. 86 ; 

 Txw&XX, Annah (Rolls Ser.), ii, 7 ; Walsingham \Htst. 

 Angl. (Rolls Sen), i, 126] erroneously dates this fire in 

 1311. 



"' Sarum Epis. Reg. Simon of Ghent, i, fol. 86. 



" Pat. 3 Edw. II, m. 32. 



■^ Ibid. 5 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 17. This confir- 

 mation was in 1393 inspected and confirmed again 

 to the monks by Richard II. Ibid. 17 Ric. II, 

 m. 27. 



■* Ibid. 8 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 31 ; Sarum Epis. 

 Reg. Mortival, ii, fol. 49 ; see Col. Pap. Letters, iv, 

 207 d. 



59 



