RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



wood daily except Sunday from the forest of 

 Gillingham.'^ Hugh le Despenser in 1343 be- 

 stowed a yearly rent of 10 marks from the 

 manor of Broad Town (Wiltshire) for the life- 

 time of his sister Joan, a nun in the abbey,^' 

 and the following year the community obtained 

 in proprtos usus the church of Felpham (Sussex) 

 of their advowson.'^ The abbess was allowed 

 in 1368 to crenellate the abbey for the purpose 

 of defence.'^ At the beginning of the fifteenth 

 century the convent obtained from Henry IV 

 letters patent inspecting and confirming the 

 charters granted to them by his predecessors,'*" 

 and in 1481 Edward IV inspected and confirmed 

 by his letters patent a grant of Henry III for 

 wreck of the sea in their manor of Kingston.''^ 



That popular form of religious endowment, 

 the foundation of chantries, was the object of 

 many additional grants to the abbey in the four- 

 teenth century. In 1326, and again in the first 

 year of Edward III, the community acquired 

 two messuages in Shaftesbury in aid of the 

 maintenance of a chaplain who should celebrate 

 daily in the church of St. Mary and St. Edward 

 for the souls of Edward I and all the faithful de- 

 parted.*^ In 1330 Walter Hervy obtained a 

 licence for the alienation of a toft and 8 acres 

 of land in Shaftesbury for the provision of a 

 chaplain to officiate daily at the altar of St. Anne 

 in the conventual church ; *^ by another licence 

 in 1334 three messuages, 26 acres of land, and 

 4 acres of meadow in the town were alienated 

 for the maintenance of a chaplain to celebrate 

 daily for the souls of Sibyl Cokyn, Thomas de 

 Hacche, John Kokyn, and Agnes de Hacche, 

 their ancestors and heirs, at the altar of 

 St. Thomas the Apostle.*'' Richard Poinz in 

 1340 made over a rent of l^s. for the provision 

 of a chaplain who should celebrate daily in the 

 church for his soul and the souls of his an- 

 cestors;" and in 1342 a chantry was founded at 

 the altar of St. Nicholas for the good estate of 

 Thomas Platel of Shaftesbury and Alice his wife 

 and for their souls after death, and the souls of 

 their ancestors, heirs, and benefactors.^' The 



'= Pat. 14 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 6. 



" Ibid. 17 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 3. 



»Mbid. 1 8 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 15. 



°' Ibid. 42 Edw. I, pt. I, m. 25. A complaint was 

 made by the abbess and the icing's tenants of Shaftes- 

 bury in 1 341 that many evil-doers and breakers of the 

 peace were going about armed, robbing and killing 

 their servants, and that no remedy had been provided 

 hitherto. Ibid. 15 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 45. 



" Ibid. 2 Hen. IV, pt. 3, m. 20 ; 4 Hen. IV, 

 pt. 2, m. 23. 



" Ibid. 21 Edw. IV, pt. I, m. II. 



" Ibid. 19 Edw. II, pt. 2, m. 2 ; ibid. I Edw. Ill, 

 pt. 2, m. 23. 



" Ibid. 4 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 18. 



" Ibid. 8 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 21. 



*■" Ibid. 14 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. 20. 



'« Ibid. 16 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 32. 



priest serving the chantry at the altar of Holy 

 Cross was in 1364 transferred by the bishop to 

 the church of Holy Trinity within the church- 

 yard of the monastery, and inducted therein as 

 perpetual chaplain with a fit salary assigned.*' 

 Various other chantries were established tc com- 

 memorate the souls of certain of the abbesses.''* 

 In the episcopal registers mention is made of the 

 chantry of St. Edward within the abbey," and 

 the chantry commissioners of Edward VI in 

 the sixteenth century made a return of three 

 chantries at Shaftesbury : St. Catherine's at the 

 altar of St. Catherine, St. John Baptist, and the 

 chantry of St. Anne de la Gore in the chapel 

 of that name within the parish of St. James."* 

 The abbess and convent were granted in 1386 

 reversion of the manor of Brydesyerd for the 

 support of a chaplain officiating in a place called 

 'leBelhous' in Shaftesbury and of the twelve 

 poor inmates there.'^ In the Valor of 1535 

 various sums were assigned by the community 

 in support of these twelve poor men in the 

 ' Maudelyn ' or ' Belhous ' of Shaftesbury, who 

 in return for their maintenance were bound to 

 pray for the founders of the monastery. ^^ 



The endowment of the monastery was so con- 

 siderable and the extent of its possessions so vast 

 that in the Middle Ages there was a popular 

 saying, 'If the abbot of Glastonbury could marry 

 the abbess of Shaftesbury their heir would hold 

 more land than the king of England.' '' In the 

 reign of Henry II the holding of the abbess was 

 assessed at the service of seven knights,^' three 

 of whom appear to have represented her fees in 

 Dorset and Somerset and four those in Wiltshire.^* 

 In II 66 she certified the king by charter that 

 the seven knights she was bound to find for his 

 service were as follows : Earl Patrick one fee, 

 Anselin Mauduit, Jordan de Necche, and Thur- 

 stan de Huseldure a fee each, Robert Fitz- 

 Peter and Roger de Thoka held the fifth fee, 

 and the sixth and seventh were held ' against the 

 convent ' by Roger de Newburgh, who in addi- 

 tion held Aimer at a rent of 40J. and said that 

 he ought to hold it for half a fee, which how- 

 ever the abbess declared William de Glastonia 

 never did ; twelve other tenants held various 

 fractions of fees.*' Henry III by charter of 



" Sarum Epis. Reg. 'Wyville, fol. 315. See Pat. 

 41 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 16. 



*' Dionysia le Blunde, Cecilia Fovent, Edith Bon- 

 ham, and Margaret St. John. Hutchins, Hist, of 

 Dorset, iii, 36. 



" According to an institution in Bishop Chandler's 

 register (fol. 44) the chantry of Edward, King and 

 Martyr, was founded at the .iltar of St. Nicholas. 



" Chant. Cert. Dorset, 16, Nos. 1 7- 1 9, 95-7- 



*' Pat. 9 Rich. II, pt. 2, m. 31. 



" Fahr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 280. 



" Fuller, Church Hist, iii, 332. 



" Red Bk. of the Exch. (Rolls Ser.), i, 27, 33, 43, 

 54, 80. 



"Ibid. 64, 65. "Ibid. I, 214. 



75 



