RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Friar Simon Ball or Bell, sometime prior of 

 this house, was collated to the rectory of Radipole, 

 18 December, 1533.'^ Owen Watson, rector of 

 Portland, who died in 1533, willed his body to 

 be buried at the Friars Preachers here where he 

 had built a tomb for himself.^' 



Shortly before the Dissolution some new altars 

 were erected and new stalls placed in the choir 

 and new seats in the church, as appears from the 

 inventory of the 'stuff' taken at the end of Sep- 

 tember 1538, when the bishop of Dover as visitor 

 took the priory into the king's hands.'* Among 

 the belongings of the house may be noticed in 

 the choir a fair table of alabaster, ' a fair table 

 folk of beyond sea work,' a frame of iron hanging 

 for tapers, and new stalls : in the church, new 

 altars, seven images, six marble stones, new ceiled 

 seats at the Jesus altar, new seats in the body of 

 the church, and a little bell in the steeple. The 

 contents of the parlour, buttery, and vestry were 

 few and poor : in the chambers were four old 

 bedsteads, one feather bed and one flock bed : the 

 kitchen also was scantily furnished, though every- 

 thing seems to be included in the inventory down 

 to a broken saucer. The visitor, however, paid 

 his expenses and discharged the debts owing by 

 the house, which amounted only to 20s. He 

 carried away a chalice weighing ii|^oz. and left 

 the house in charge of John Gierke, controller of 

 the customs.'^ There was no lead except a few 

 gutters,'* and the timber was hardly sufficient to 

 keep the fences in repair." 



The Black Friars was let in 1541 to Sir 

 John Rogers, knt., grandson of the founder, for 

 twenty-one years at a rent of 1 35. ^.d. a year." 

 Sir John purchased the whole with other 



"Ellis, Hist, and Jntiq. of Weymouth, 261 ; Hist. 

 MSS. Com. Rep. v, 581. 



" Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 454. 



"i. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii (2), 12 14. 



" Ibid. Ellis in his History and Jntiquitiei of Wey- 

 mouth (1829) has preserved an inventory of jewels and 

 plate of this house which probably dates from the 

 Dissolution ; the articles mentioned are a short pair 

 of beads of gold coral with eighteen stones of silver and 

 a ring of silver and a Saint Dominic's shell ; sixteen 

 rings of gold, and a ' gymmere ' (a ring with two rounds 

 of pearls) of stones and a buckle of gold ; an Agnus 

 Dei of silver ; a circlet of silver ; a cross of silver ; 

 a box with two silver beads ; a paten of silver ; 

 a chalice of silver ; a Holy Rood ; a piscina ; a 

 pair of beads of gilt with stones of silver ; a pyx; 

 an ampul, etc. He also mentions a tradition that 

 the prior had a wonder-working chair, the gift 

 of a cardinal and engraved with a cardinal's hat and 

 ' certain arms,' which at the Dissolution was ' con- 

 verted into the municipal office of holding the persons 

 of the borough representatives.' Ellis had, however, 

 found no trace of it. The tradition (mentioned by 

 Hutchins) that there was a nunnery adjoining the 

 priory is without foundation. 



^"L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii (2), 489. 



" Partic. for Gts. (P.R.O.), file 944. 



'« Ibid.; L. and P. Hen. Fill, xvii, 703. 



monastic lands in 1543, holding the friary at a 

 rent of \6d. from the crown." 



The friary was situated in the east part of the 

 town, in Maiden Street, near the sea.^" Leland 

 called it a ' fair house.' '' The patron saint of 

 the church was, according to Speed, St. Dominic ; 

 according to Willis, St. Winifred. The ceme- 

 tery appears to have been on the north side, 

 where many skulls and bones were dug up in 

 1682. The priory was in a ruinous condition 

 in 1650, but some old buildings still remained 

 in 1803, including the church, which had been 

 converted into a malt-house. In 1861 the 

 whole of the buildings were pulled down and 

 the ground cut up into building plots.^' 



14. THE FRANCISCAN FRIARS OF 

 DORCHESTER 



The Franciscan friary, or the priory, as it is 

 generally called, stood on the north side of the 

 town, on the banks of the river, a little east of 

 the castle.^^ 



The date and circumstances of its founda- 

 tion are unknown. It was already in exist- 

 ence in 1267, as in that year the friars were 

 presented for encroaching upon the road by 

 erecting a wall ; ^ that the encroachment was 

 of recent date is shown by the entry in the 

 same year of the death of a workmen who fell 

 off the wall while building it.^' It is said by 

 Speed to have been built by the ancestors of 

 Sir John Chideock.^^ Richard III claimed it as 

 a royal foundation,^' probably with justice. At 

 the time of the Dissolution there was still a 

 room in the friary known as ' the king's cham- 

 ber.' ^' The house was already a large one 

 containing thirty-two friars in May 1296, when 

 Edward I gave them 321. for three days' food 

 through Friar Nicholas of Exeter.^' In a deed 



" L. and P. Hen. Fill, xviii (2), 241 (31) ; xix 

 (1), 278 (40); Pat. 35 Hen. VIII, pt. I, m. 34; 

 and pt. 14, m. 11. 



" Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 454. 



" Leland, Itin. iii, 65. 



" Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 455. 



" Ibid. (ed. 3), ii, 364. 



" Assize R. 202. " Ibid. 



" Speed, Hist. 1055. Dugdale and others say it 

 was built 'out of the ruins of the Castle.' The 

 tradition that some monuments in St. Peter's 

 church were monuments of the Chideocks and 

 were removed from the Grey Friars church lacks 

 confirmation : Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 381. 

 For pedigree of the Chideock family, see ibid. 257. 

 In the Year Book of 1364 there is a reference to a 

 'college de xxx soers in le Precheurs de Dorcet': 

 this is probably a mistake for Dartford : Les Reports 

 des Cases on Ley (1679), Mich. 36 Edw. Ill, 28. 



" Harl. MS. 433, fol. 131. 



" L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii (2), 474 (2). 



" B.M. Add. MS. 7965, fol. 7. 



93 



