A HISTORY OF DORSET 



The green pointed oval seal of William the 

 prior, attached by a woven cord of red silk strands 

 to a document dated 1242,^°' represents the prior 

 full length, holding in his right hand a pastoral 

 staff, in his left hand a book. The legend 

 runs : — 



li« SIGILLVM • WIl'i • PRIORIS : SIREBURNE 



5. THE PRIORY OF CRANBORNE 



The monastery of Cranborne is said to have 

 been founded as an abbey for Benedictine monks 

 about the year 980.' The chronicle of Tewkes- 

 bury describes its foundation and early connexion 

 with the more widely-famous abbey in Glou- 

 cestershire in the following manner : 



About the year 930, in the reign of King Athelstan, 

 flourished a certain noble knight sprung of the 

 illustrious stock of Edward the Elder and known by 

 the name of Haylward Snevv on account of his fairness. 

 And being not unmindful of his end, he built for him- 

 self and yElfgifu his wife in the days of King Ethelred 

 and St. Dunstan the archbishop a small monastery to 

 the honour of God and Our Lord Jesus Christ, 

 His Mother, and St. Bartholomew the Apostle, and 

 endowed it with lands and possessions. And having 

 assembled there brethren to serve under the obedience 

 of an abbot according to the rule of St. Benedict, he 

 made Tewkesbury, of which he was patron, wholly 

 subject to it. These things were done about the 

 year 980. And Haylward, having died and received 

 burial in the church which he had built, was suc- 

 ceeded by ^Ifg.ar his son, the father of Brihtric, who 

 according to the vow of his parents ' amplified ' the 

 church which they had begun.' 



' Subsequently,' pursues the chronicle — 



William Duke of Normandy acquired England, bring- 

 ing with him Robert Fitz-Hamon, lord of Astremar- 

 villa in Normandy, and Matilda the wife of the 

 Conqueror hated the said Brihtric Snew or Meaw 

 because when sent abroad on an embassy for the 

 affairs of the realm he refused her hand in marriage. 

 She afterwards married William, and h.iving sought 

 opportunity stirred up the king's wrath against the 

 Saxon nobleman so that he was seized by the king's 

 order in the manor of Hanley (Worcestershire) and 

 conveyed to Winchester, where he died and was buried 

 leaving no heir.' 



'"Add. Chart. 20372. 



' Cott. MS. Cleop. C. iii, fol. 220. Dugdale 

 mentions a tradition of a still earlier foundation, con- 

 tained in an MS. in the Ashmolean Museum, ' de 

 abbatiis et abbatibus Norman, et eorum fundatoribus,' 

 which states that a college of six monies was built 

 here in memory of the Britons who had here been 

 slain. Mon. iv, 465. 



' Cott. MS. Clerp. C. iii, fol. 220. Freeman 

 dismisses this pedigree with the remark that as ' a 

 piece of chronology it attributes a wonderfully long 

 life to the persons concerned ; ' Norman Cotiq. iv, 

 App. T. p. 763. 



' Cott. MS. Cleop. C. iii, fol. 220. Freeman 

 commenting on this ' legend,' which comes from the 

 continuator of Wace and may be found in Ckiomqucs 



His estates were granted to Queen Matilda and 

 subsequently to Robert Fitz Hamon, who, in the 

 year 1 102, 'led by the Holy Spirit' and at the 

 instigation of ' his good wife Sybil ' and of 

 Ceroid, abbot of Cranborne, greatly enlarged the 

 church of Tewkesbury and endowed it with 

 further possessions ; and finding that the place 

 enjoyed a more agreeable site and a more fertile 

 soil he transferred the whole community from 

 Cranborne thither, leaving only a prior and two 

 monks that the memory of its founders might 

 be held for ever in remembrance, and so, trans- 

 forming the former abbey into a priory, he made 

 it entirely subject to the abbey of Tewkesbury.* 

 The regulations for the newly-constituted abbey 

 drawn up by Abbot Ceroid in the year 1105, 

 when the transference to Tewkesbury seems to 

 have been finally completed, assigned the manor of 

 Tarrant (Monkton) towards the improvement of 

 the monks' food, the churches 'which had belonged 

 to Robert the chaplain' towards their clothing, and 

 the manor of Chettle in Dorset for almsgiving.' 

 Previous to this removal the Domesday Survey 

 of 1086, which separates the estates of Cran- 

 borne from those of Tewkesbury, states that 

 the church of St. Mary here held 2 carucates 

 of land in Cillingham valued at 60;. in Edward 

 the Confessor's time, but then worth 20J., 

 Boveridge and Up Wimborne, both of which 

 had been and were then worth iooj., Lestisford, 

 half a hide in Langford in the parish of Framp- 

 ton, and the manor of Tarrant Monkton, which 

 had fallen in value from ;^I2 to £\0.^ Under 

 the holding of the widow of Hugh Fitz Crip it 

 is recorded that Hugh gave the church of St. 

 Mary, Cranborne, a hide of land in Orchard for 

 the good of her soul, and ' it is worth lOiJ A 

 charter of Roger, bishop of Salisbury, confirmed 

 to the abbey of Tewkesbury the gifts of Robert 

 Fitz Hamon and his knights in the year 1109, 

 including the church of St. Mary of Cranborne 

 with all its appurtenances, and certain churches 

 which had belonged to R[obert] the chaplain, 

 viz., Pentridge, Ashmore, and Frome, with other 

 tithes.* The Taxatio of 1 29 1 gives the abbey 

 spiritualities valued at j^i I2j. from the churches 

 of Belchalwell, Pentridge, and Langton Mat- 

 ravers ;' those of the priory of Cranborne, amount- 

 ing to £2 IS., consisted of a pension of Js. from 

 the church of Sturminster Newton, 12s. from the 

 church of Edmondsham, 25. from that of Wim- 

 borne Karentham, and ;^i from the vicarage of 



Anglo-'Normandes (i, 73), says 'it has this much of 

 corroboration from history that a portion of the lands 

 of Brihtric did pass to Matilda'; Norman Conq. iv, 166. 



« Cott. MS. Cleop. C. iii, fol. 220. 



' Cott. MS. Cleop. A. vii, fol. 94^. The Annates 

 of Winchester and Worcester are wrong in giving 

 1086 as the year in which the removal of Tewkes- 

 bury took place. Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 34 ; iv, 

 373. ° Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 77^. 



' Ibid. 84. ' Cott. MS. Cleop. A. vii, fol. 75*. 



' Po^e Nici. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 178^, 179. 



70 



