A HISTORY OF DORSET 



dated 1310 a burgage held by the abbey of 

 Milton is described as lying near the Friars 

 Minors,'" and in the same year the house 

 received legacies from Thomas Button, bishop 

 of Exeter," and from Robert Bingham of 

 Dorchester." 



Friars of this house received licence to preach 

 and hear confessions, as Friar John of Grymston 

 in 1338." About the time of the Peasant 

 Revolt the head of the house was ordered by 

 the king to correct Friar John Grey for having 

 excited the cottagers and tenants of the abbot of 

 Milton against their lord.** 



Alexander Riston, rector of the church of 

 Sarum, left these friars two quarters of corn and 

 one of barley, c. 1393 :" and Robert Grenelefe 

 aSas Baker of Dorchester left them his ' best 

 bason with ewer and best brass pot' in 1420."' 

 They also had bequests from Elizabeth de 

 Burgh, Lady Clare (1355)," Sir Robert Rous, 

 knt. (1383),'' John de Waltham, bishop of 

 Salisbury (1395),'' John Seward (1400),** 

 Sir William Boneville, knt. (1407)," William 

 Ekerdon, canon of Exeter (141 3)," John Pury 

 of Dorchester (1436)," William Wenard of 

 Devonshire (1441)," John Martyn of Dorches- 

 ter (1450)," Thomas Strangways (1514).^* 



Richard III in 1483 granted to the warden 

 and brethren of this house full power to have 

 the rule and governance of the hospital of St. 

 John the Baptist in Dorchester, lately occupied 

 by Sir Richard Hill, priest, and now in the king's 

 hands, and to minister divine sen'ice there and 

 receive the rents to their use.*' This hospital 

 had been endowed with lOOs. of rent by 

 William Mareschal of Dorchester in 1324,*' and 

 in the time of Henry VIII the master of the 

 chapel of St. John held nine burgages or tene- 

 ments in the parish of St. Peter, thirteen in the 

 parish of All Saints, and two in that of Holy 

 Trinity." The hospital had already been 



*> Hutchins, Hiit. 0/ Dorset, ii, 364. 



" jiccount of the Executors of . . . Thomas bishop of 

 Exeter (Camd. Soc), 42. 



'' Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 364. 



" Reg. Rod. de Sahpia (Somers. Rec. Soc. ix), 322. 



" Camb. Univ. Lib. MS. Dd. iii, 53, fol. 97. 



'=■ P.C.C. Rous, fol. 66b. 



'« Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 387. 



" Nicholas, Royal and Noble Wills, 33-4. 



^ P.C.C. Rous, fol. I ; Coll Top. et Geneal. iii, 

 100. 



»' P.C.C. Rous, fol. 32. 



*° Cant. Archiepis. Reg. Arundel i, fol. I93'»,- cf. 

 Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 389-90. 



*' E.xeter Epis. Reg. Stafford, 391. 



" Ibid. 402. 



" Hutchins, Hist of Dorset, ii, 364, 388. 



" P.C.C. Rous, fol. 105. 



" Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 364, 388. 



" P.C.C. Fetiplace, qu. 13. 



" Harl. MS. 433, fol. 131. 



«' Pat. 17 Edw. II, pt. 2, m. 28. 



" Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 408-9. 



conferred on Eton College by Henry VI and it 

 is doubtful whether the grant of it to the Grey 

 Friars took effect.'*' The friars, however, at 

 the time of the Dissolution held three tenements 

 in the parish of All Saints and four in the 

 parish of Holy Trinity." In March 1483-4 

 the king further ordered the receivers and 

 tenants of the manors of Little Crichel, 

 Chideock, and Caundle Haddon to pay in all 8oj. 

 a year to this friary.*- 



An important addition was made to the 

 possessions of the convent in 1485, when 

 Sir John Byconil, knt., built and gave them 

 some mills on the water that ran by the friary. 

 The friars in return recognized him as chief 

 founder of the house, conferred on him special 

 spritual benefits and engaged to celebrate his 

 decease on the day after the feast of St. Francis. 

 The mills were given on the following conditions : 

 (i) that 40i. of the profits of the mills should be 

 set aside each year for repairs ; (2) that the friars 

 should take it in turn week by week to pray for 

 the donor and each should at the end of his 

 week receive bd. ; the cursors or lecturers ' being 

 diligently employed about their scholars ' were 

 excused this service and entitled to receive the 

 alms, provided that they substituted another to 

 perform the office ; (3) each friar praying at the 

 obsequies of Sir Jolm should receive an alms ; 

 (4) the remainder of the revenues derived from 

 the mills was to be employed 



in bringing of boys into the Order and their education 

 in good manners and learning and in making good the 

 books in the choir and in no other way : and the 

 brethren so brought in and educated to the perpetual 

 memory of the said John were to be called Byconil's 

 Friars and none of them to be called by their sur- 

 names. 



If these conditions were not fulfilled, the profits 

 of the mills were to be divided equally between 

 the Franciscan houses of Bristol, Bridgwater, 

 and Exeter. The agreement was confirmed by 

 William Goddard, D.D., provincial minister, and 

 John Whitefield, custodian of Bristol, and the 

 seals of the provincial minister, the custodian, and 

 the convent were affixed to the deed.'' 



It is noteworthy that Sir John Byconil made 

 no bequest to any houses of friars in his will in 

 1500.'* His widow Elizabeth left 20s. to the 

 friars of Dorchester in 1504." In 1510 John 

 Coker, esq., having given the friars a barn and 

 a garden annexed, on the south side of the 

 cemetery, was admitted with his family and 



" On this hospital see Dugdale, Mon. vi, 759. 



" Ibid. 



" Harl. MS. 433, fol. 1643. 



" Fr. a. S. Clara (Chr. Davenport), Hist. Minor 

 Fratrum Minorum Pror. Jngliae, 37-8 ; Collectanea 

 jing.'o-Minoritica, i, 208 ; Dugdale, Mon. vi ; Hutchins,. 

 Hist, of Dorset, ii, 364. 



" P.C.C. Blamyr, 5. 



" Ibid. Holgrave, 15. 



94 



