A HISTORY OF DORSET 



at Cheselbourne to his servant Agemund with 

 the object of their ultimate reversion to the 

 church." 



During the first century of its existence the 

 abbey appears under the dedication of the Blessed 

 Virgin, but after the translation to Shaftesbury 

 of the body of Edv/ard the Martyr, murdered in 

 978," it was called after him and became popu- 

 larly known as St. Edward's ; the earlier dedica- 

 tion, however, was never formally dropped and 

 the house frequently occurs, as in the Domesday 

 Survey, under the dedication of both St. Mary 

 and St. Edward.'' 



According to the Survey of 1 086 the abbey 

 at that time held the following lands : 15^ hides 

 at Felpham in Sussex ; ^^ 5 hides at Beeching- 

 stoke ; 10 at Tisbury ; 40 at Donhead ; 42 at 

 Bradford ; 7 at Alvediston ; 38 at Liddington ; 

 and 20 at Downton (Domnitone) in the county of 

 Wilts ;" 5 hides at Combe, and a rent of 50^. 

 paid by six burgesses of Milborne in the county 

 of Somerset ; ^' in this county the possessions of 

 the nuns were as follows : 20 hides at Handley ; 

 8 at Hinton St. Mary ; 17 at Stour ; 15 at Font- 

 mell ; 10 at Compton Abbas ; 10 at Melbury ; 

 18 at Iwerne Minster; 10 at Tarrant; 5 at 

 Fifehead ; lO at Kingston; l at Farnham ; 5 

 at Stoke ; 1 1 at Mapperton and 10 at Chesel- 

 bourne." In the time of Edward the Confessor 

 the abbess had 153 houses in the town of 

 Shaftesbury, now owing to the destruction of 

 forty-two she only had 1 1 1, she also held at the 

 time the Survey was taken 15 1 burgesses in the 

 same town, twenty vacant houses and a garden.-" 

 A great increase in the value of the manors had 

 taken place since Edward the Confessor's time 

 and Domesday records that William the Con- 

 queror had given the church of Gillingham to 

 the nuns in place of a hide of their manor of 

 Kingston on which he had built his castle of 

 Wareham, and had restored to them the manors 

 of Cheselbourne and Stour, of which they had 

 been robbed by Earl Harold, on the production 

 of a writ by the late king ordering their restora- 

 tion together with the manor of Melcombe, 

 which the Conqueror still retained for himself. 

 Puddle was another manor that had been seized 

 by the late earl."' 



The Norman and Plantagenet kings by their 

 gifts and privileges added enormously to the 

 power and wealth already enjoyed by this richly- 



" Harl. MS. 61, fol. 8. 



'* Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 102 ; Leland, 

 Coll. i, 219 ; ii, 252. 



" The possessions of the .ibbey for instance in 

 Sussex and Somerset are entered under ' Terra Sancti 

 Edwardi,' in Wilts and Dorset under ' ecclesia S. 

 Mariae Sceptesberiensis.' 



'« Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, i -jb. 



" Ibid, i, fol. 6ji. 



'« Ibid, i, fol. 91. "Ibid, i, fol. 75. 



•» Ibid. " Ibid. 



endowed house."' William Rufus in 1090 

 confirmed to the church of St. Mary and 

 St. Edward and to Eulalia the abbess various 

 grants by different persons, each grantor bestow- 

 ing a daughter as a nun in the house as a con- 

 dition of his gift.^' Henry I confirmed the 

 manor of Donhead to the nuns ' for their 

 clothing ' to be held quit of all geld and tax, 

 pleas of the hundred, suits and quarrels save for 

 murder and theft." Stephen by his charter 

 confirmed the lands which Emma the abbess 

 had proved to belong to the abbey in the pre- 

 sence of Henry I and his barons.'* Henry II 

 took the community under his special protection 

 and made them free of all toll and passage."' 

 Richard I in the first year of his reign granted 

 to the abbey, and especially to the abbess Mary, 

 the privilege of the hundred in their manor of 

 Bradford.-' John count of Mortain gave the 

 nuns, at the special request ' of my dearest 

 friend the abbess Mary ' of Shaftesbury, two loads 

 of brushwood daily in his manor of Gillingham."' 

 The abbess received from Henry III a charter 

 for wreck of the sea in her manor of Kingston,"® 

 licence to hold a market and two fairs at Kint- 

 bury (Berkshire),'" and right of free warren over 

 her lands at Barton, Cheselbourne, Aimer and 

 Caundle (Dorset), Donhead, Tisbury and Brad- 

 ford (Wiltshire), and Felpham (Sussex)." Ed- 

 ward I by letters patent in 1290 licensed the 

 alienation to the abbey by Edward de Manneston 

 of land and two messuages in Donhead and Tis- 

 bury,'" and on payment of a fine in 1 304 

 allowed the nuns to acquire the manor of Stour 

 by feoffment of Ralph Wake.'' By licence of 

 Edward II in 131 8 Stephen Pruet, parson of 

 Compton Abbas, bestowed on the convent 20s. 

 yearly rent out of Donhead (Wiltshire) for the 

 provision of a light to burn through the night 

 in the cloister of their abbey.'* Edward III in 

 1337 gave a licence for the sisters to acquire 

 more land to the value of ;^I0 yearly." The 

 king in 1340 after an inquisition confirmed to 

 them the right to have four horse-loads of brush- 



" A summary of the charters contained in the re- 

 gister of Shaftesbury (Harl. MS. 61) is given by 

 Dugdale, Mon. ii, 68. 



» H.irl. MS. 61, fol. 23. " Ibid. fol. 24. 



»»Ibid. " Ibid. fol. 25. 



" Ibid. fol. 26. " Ibid. fol. 27. 



" Pat. 54 Hen. Ill, No. 50. Confirmed by 

 Edward IV ; ibid. 21 Edw. IV, pt. I, m. 11. 



»" Chart. R. 52 Hen. Ill, n. 12. 



" Ibid. 22 Edw. I. 



" Pat. 18 Edw. I, m. II. 



" Ibid. 32 Edw. I, m. 16. 



" Ibid. II Edw. II, pt. 2, m. 32. 



'' Ibid. II Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 32. In part satis- 

 faction of this grant they obtained in 1348 lands 

 and messuages in Shaftesbur)-, Cann, Gussage St. An- 

 drew and Minchington (Dorset), Ke!ston (Somerset), 

 and Donhead St. M,.ry and St. Andrew (Wilts). 

 Ibid. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 13. 



74 



