RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



custody, and after making a reasonable allowance to 

 the inmates at the rate of 5 marks a year each, and 

 defraying the expenses of its ministers, to apply 

 the remainder of its revenues towards relieving 

 it of debt.*' The decrees forwarded by the 

 bishop after a visitation in July of that year laid 

 stress again on the discords in the abbey and the 

 fact that the inmates were too many for its pre- 

 sent financial condition.^' The abbot and con- 

 vent were ordered to adhere rigidly to the scheme 

 of retrenchment laid down by the bishop, though 

 they were warned about the same time not to 

 withdraw the chaplains serving various chantries, 

 or to neglect the needs of the sick. The bishop 

 also desired them to re-admit Brother Walter de 

 Sherborne, who had left the abbey with the 

 object of attaching himself to a severer rule, but 

 after joining the Brothers Preachers for some 

 time had apostatized to the world, and now, re- 

 penting of his excesses, with tears desired to 

 return.^^ The visitation report of 1378, con- 

 taining various suggestions for matters in need of 

 correction, makes no special reference to poverty. 

 The attention of the abbot — who was enjoined to 

 bear himself modestly and benignantly towards his 

 fellow monks — was directed towards the quality 

 of the bread and ale served out to the house- 

 hold and to the condition of the drains, ' which 

 corrupt the air and are the cause of various in- 

 firmities.' The usual prohibition against the 

 entrance of women was coupled with an injunction 

 forbidding the admission of certain ladies men- 

 tioned by name within the precincts of the 

 monastery.^' 



Save for the appointment of abbots references 

 to Milton are rare in the century preceding the 

 Dissolution. A report issued after a visitation in 

 1425 comments severely on various details of the 

 management of the then abbot, Richard Cley ; 

 and he was ordered, under penalty of suspension 

 from choir and deprivation for forty days of the 

 pastoral staff, to appoint a receiver of moneys 

 retained by him without rendering of any 

 account, and to redeem the jewels and silver 

 vessels which he had sold.^'' In 1438 the 

 number of the community seems to have 

 fallen to fifteen if we may accept the count 



obtained exemption from the jurisdiction of his 

 superiors, by grant of Pope Clement VI, with indult 

 to retain the goods which lawfully belonged to him and 

 to convert them to his own use, and licence to choose 

 one of the monks to say the canonical hours with him 

 and serve him in other ways ; Cal. Pap. Letters, iii, 

 432. 



'"Pat. 18 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 3. 



*' The community consisted at this time, it is said, 

 ■of twenty-one monks, the number being increased by 

 the return of two absent brethren to twenty-three, as 

 was notified to the bishop by letter shortly after his 

 visit. 



" Sarum Epis. Reg. Wyville, fol. 130-1. 



" Ibid. Erghum, fol. i;. 



" Ibid. Chandler, fol. 51. 



of those monks who assembled on 10 June of 

 that year for the election of John Breweton or 

 Bruton." 



The abbot and convent obtained from 

 Henry VIII in 15 12 a licence to hold the 

 yearly fair in their manor of Stockland on the 

 eve, day, and morrow of St. Barnabas, instead of 

 St. Michael, as was granted by Henry VI," on 

 account of the injury to other fairs in the neigh- 

 bourhood.''' Among the benefactions of Abbot 

 William de Middleton, 1482-1523, must be 

 mentioned the erection of a free school within 

 the town of Milton, for the maintenance of 

 which the abbot, by deed dated 10 February, 

 152 1, and sealed with the common seal of the 

 abbey, made over the manor of Little Mayne, 

 &c., to Giles Strangeways, knt., Thomas Arun- 

 del, knt., and other trustees.''^ 



The Valor of 153S gives the abbey a clear 

 income of ;^665 3J. 3^15^. from the parsonages of 

 Milton, Stockland, Sydling, and Osmington,^' 

 and the manors of Milton, Stockland, 'Huysshe,' 

 Sydling, Compton Abbas, Holway, Cattistock, 

 Hillfield, Knowle, Osmington, Whitcombe and 

 Dorchester, Frome and Stafford, Burleston, 

 Lyscombe, Winterborne Stickland, La Lee, and 

 other lands.'" Among the annual charges was 

 a sum of ^51 i6j., set down under the head of 

 almsgiving, assigned towards the observance of 

 the anniversaries of founders, including King 

 iEthelstan." 



The appointment of John Bradley, last abbot 

 of Milton, as bishop suffragan of Shaftesbury, 

 February, 1539/^ preceded the suppression of 

 the abbey by a few days only. The abbot, who 

 surrendered the house with twelve of the monks 

 on II March, 1539, received a pension of 

 ;^I33 6j. id., the prior ^^13 bs. Sd., the sub- 

 prior ^^8, and the ten remaining brethren 

 jCb 1 31. 4d. each.'' 



" Ibid. Beauchamp. 



'^ Pat. 25 Hen. VI, pt. 2, m. 26. 



*' L. and P. Hen. Fill, i, 3529. 



" Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iv. 396. The chantry 

 commissioners of Edward VI found that the rent of 

 the lands thus assigned amounted to £% a year, which 

 was paid yearly to the ' scolemaster ' for his stipend ; 

 Chant. Cert. 16, No. 81. An inquisition in 1600 

 under Elizabeth reported the school ' to be of good 

 regard and in former times much frequented ' ; Hut- 

 chins, op. cit. 



*' Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 248. 



'" Ibid. 249. The sum contributed by Milton 

 towards the king's expenses for the recovery of the 

 crown of France was ^^ 100, as against j^200 by Cerne 

 and /l 1 8 Ss. id. by Abbotsbury ; L. and P. Hen. Vlll, 

 iii, 2483. 



" Of this sum j^30 represented the cost of provid- 

 ing the daily necessaries of thirteen poor men of the 

 town of Milton nominated yearly by the convent ; 

 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 151. 



" Pat. 30 Hen. VIII, pt. 2, m. 20. 



=" L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xiv (i), 500. 



61 



