RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Dewlish.'* The temporalities were all entered 

 under Tewkesbury, and realized ^^25 I2j. 6d}^ 

 From the date of its subjection to Tewkes- 

 bury the history of the cell is all but entirely 

 merged in that of the larger house, and save 

 on one or two occasions, when the abbot is 

 shown as keeping a watchful eye on his estate 

 here lest any of his rights should be infringed 

 by his powerful neighbour, the earl of Glou- 

 cester,'^ references to it are brief and rare. We 

 read that the body of Gilbert de Clare, earl of 

 Gloucester, who died abroad in 1230, was con- 

 veyed home for burial, and stopped at Cranborne 

 on its way to Tewkesbury. '' The church was 

 rebuilt in 1252 and dedicated to St. Mary and 

 St. Bartholomew.'* Occasionally the prior acted as 

 proxy or attorney for the abbot, as in 1 3 14 when he 

 was appointed to do suit and service to the abbot 

 of Glastonbury for lands held in his manor of 

 Damerham (Wiltshire)." In the course of a dio- 

 cesan visitation by the bishop in 1379 he was 

 ordered lo appear in the church of Sonning the 

 second Thursday after the Feast of St. Barnabas, 

 prepared to exhibit the title deeds of the abbot 

 and convent of Tewkesbury for their possessions 

 in the Salisbury diocese.'^ Among tlie expenses 

 charged on the priory in the Fa /or of 1535 is 

 an entry of ~s. lod. due to the bishop of 

 Salisbury for the triennial visitation of the church 

 of Cranborne.'' In the course of the Hundred 

 Years' War the prior was required, together with 

 the abbots of Sherborne, Cerne, Bindon, and 

 Abbotsbury, &c., to move nearer the sea-coast 

 for the purpose of repelling invasion, under peril 

 of being regarded as rebels and favourers of the 

 enemy.'* Edward III in 1329 'out of affection 

 for Peter de Broadway, prior of Cranborne,' 

 granted a licence for the abbot and convent of 

 Tewkesbury to acquire in mortmain lands not 

 held in chief to the value of j^io ; three years 

 later the prior of the subject-cell was induced 

 to surrender this grant and another was obtained 

 more specifically in favour of the parent house.'^ 



'" Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 178, 178^, 179. 



" Ibid. fol. 183, 18+. 



" Cott. MS. Cleop. A. vii, fol. 96-8 ; Jnn. Mon. 

 (Rolls Ser.), i, 140, 144. 



'^ Ibid, i, 76. " Ibid, i, 149, 150. 



" Hoare, Modern Wilts. Hund. of S. Damerham, 30. 



"" Sarum Epls. Reg. Erghum, fol. 29. 



" Valor Ecd. (Rec. Com.), ii, 485. In 1433 a royal 

 writ was issued desiring to be certified as to whether the 

 prior and convent of Cranborne held and hold the 

 parish church of Cranborne, what was the portion of 

 the prior therein, and at what was it assessed in all 

 clerical subsidies. The return stated that the church 

 of Cranborne, with the chapel of Archnal, was appro- 

 priated to the prior and convent, and taxed at 

 25 mariis, the vicar of Cranborne was taxed at 

 (}\ marks. Sarum Epis. Reg. Chandler, fol. 1 14. 



" Rymer, Foed. (Rec. Com.), ii, (2), 1062. 



" Pat. 3 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 21 ; 6 Edw. Ill, 

 pt. 3, m. 4. 



According to the Valor of 1535 the gross in- 

 come of the priory at that time amounted to 

 ^55 6j. \d.; the expenses to £\-i i6f. 8i., 

 including ^10 paid to the vicar of Cranborne 

 for his stipend 'according to the composi- 

 tion made by the ordinary,' and a yearly dis- 

 tribution of lOj. in bread to the poor, for the 

 soul of the founder ' Ailward Mayewe'; Henry 

 Bromall was then prior.-" 



At the Dissolution the cell shared the fate of 

 the abbey, which was surrendered to the king's 

 commissioners 31 January, 1540. William 

 Dydcottc, who in 1335 held the office of sacrist 

 of Tewkesbury, received a pension of ^^lo as ths 

 last prior of Cranborne." 



The manor of Cranborne Priory, pertaining; 

 to the late abbey of Tewkesbury and rated at 

 £\\ 13^. id.., was sold in the reign of Philip 

 and Mary to Robert Freke at seventy-four years' 

 purchase ; the manor, rectory, and advowson of 

 the vicarage in the first year of Elizabeth were 

 granted to Thomas Francis for life. Sub- 

 sequently they were given by James I to Robert 

 Cecil, earl of Salisbury, in the possession of whose 

 family they still remain.'^ 



Priors of Cranborne 



Gerold, abbot of Cranborne, transferred the 



abbey to Tewkesbury i io2 ^^ 

 Adam de Preston, died 1262^* 

 Walter de Appleleigh, occurs 1314-' 

 Peter de Broadway, occurs 1329 and 1332 ^^ 

 Henry Bromall, occurs 1535^'^ 

 William Dydcotte, last prior 1540 ■* 



6. THE PRIORY OF HORTON 



(Cell to the abbey of Sherborne) 



The foundation of the Benedictine abbey, 

 afterwards priory, of Horton is generally attribu- 

 ted to Ordgar or Orgar, earl of Devon, the 

 founder of Tavistock, who flourished in the 

 reign of King Edgar and died in the year 971.' 



=" Valor Ecd. (Rec. Com.), ii, 485. 



" L. and P. Hen. VIII, xv, 49. 



" Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iii, 382-3. 



'^ Jnn. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), i, 44. '* Ibid, i, 169. 



" Hoare, Modern Wilts. Hund. of S. Damerham, 30. 



'" Pat. 3 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 21 ; 6 Edw. Ill, 

 pt. 3, m. 4. 



" Valor Ecd. (Rec. Com.), ii, 485. 



" L. and P. Hen. VIII, xv, 49. 

 ' Hutchins gives the date of Horton as 961 {Hist, 

 of Dorset, iii, 149), the same year in which Ordgar 

 founded Tavistock according to Matthew of West- 

 minster {Flores Hist. [Rolls Ser.], i, 508). Ordgar will 

 always be remembered as the father of the notorious 

 Queen Elfrida, who, after disposing of her first hus- 

 band, became the wife of Edgar, and whom tradition 

 has charged with the murder of her step-son Edward 

 the Martyr. 



71 



