RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



to the college or free chapel of Wimborne and 

 is entered among its possessions, being held in 

 the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI by 

 the sacristan of the college in conjunction with 

 his other office. At the time the Valor of 1535 

 was taken it was worth ^^5 6s. 8d., and was 

 held by Thomas Yeroth, sacristan."' Accord- 

 ing to the chantry certificate Simon Benyson, 

 then incumbent, received for his stipend 

 £^ 6s. Sd. arising out of certain lands ' called 

 Dixon and Capons lands,' parcel of the duchy 

 of Lancaster ; after his death these rents should 

 be paid into the duchy. In the meantime he 

 held another living to the value of ;^30."^ An 

 annual pension was allowed him of ^^5 a year.^'" 

 The book of ancient accounts above men- 

 tioned further shows that from the year 1567 

 to 1683 the hospital was continued under the 

 control and direction of two parishioners, annually 

 elected and styled the guardians or wardens of 

 St. Margaret's Hospital or Almshouse, assisted by 

 the constable of the town and the stewards of 

 the lord of the manor of Kingston Lacy, the 

 latter signing the accounts on behalf of the lord 

 of the manor.^^^ 



From 1683 the election ofguardians ceased, and 

 the entire management and control of the funds 

 was placed under the stewards of the lord of 

 the manor, to whom belonged the appointment 

 of the poor to the almshouses. In a return to 

 Parliament in 1786 the value of the house was 

 given at ;^35 iij. The hospital benefited 

 largely by the will of the Rev. Wm. Stone, 

 dated May, 1865, whereby certain lands and 

 tenements in the parish of Wimborne Minster 

 were left in trust to the use of the almsmen 

 only in St. Margaret's Hospital. The house is 

 described as standing on the high road which 

 runs from Blandford to Wimborne."^ 



31. HOSPITAL OF WAREHAM 



The only reference to a hospital here is to be 

 found in the return of the commissioners for 

 chantries and colleges in the sixteenth century,, 

 which states that the hospital or house of charity 

 in the town of Wareham, valued at £() 13J., 

 was founded for the relief of six poor and im- 

 potent men and five poor women ' to have their 

 continual living there and so yt ys usyd.' ^^^ 



COLLEGE 



32. WIMBORNE MINSTER 



One of the earliest religious foundations in 

 this county was the nunnery built here at the 

 beginning of the eighth century, converted on 

 its restoration into a house of secular canons pre- 

 sided over by a dean, and subsequently known 

 as the royal free chapel and college of Wimborne 

 Minster. 



The Saxon monastery was built by St. Cuth- 

 burh or Cuthburga, the daughter and sister re- 

 spectively of the Wessex kings, Kenred and 

 Ine, who after her union with Aldfrid, king of 

 the Northumbrians, renounced married life and, 

 with the consent of her husband, entered the 

 abbey of Barking and became a nun under the 

 rule of the Abbess Hildelitha.'^ Various dates 



»« Fa/or Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 273. 



'" Chant. Cert. 16, No. 107. He also held the 

 sacristan's office of Wimborne Minster. 



'••» B. Willis, Hist, of Mitred Abbeys, ii, 72. 



"' The lords of the manor were reputed the 

 founders. 



'*' Hutchins, op. cit. iii, 248. 



'" Chant. Cert. Dorset, 1 6, No. 1 1 7. 



' Will, of Malmes. Gesta Regum (Engl. Hist. Soc.), 

 i, 49 ; Flor. Wigorn. Chron. (Engl. Hist. Soc), i, 49 ; 

 Matt, of Westm. {Flores Hist. [Rolls Ser.], i, 367), 

 Leland {Coll. i, 211-12 ; ii, 387), and a few other 

 writers give Ecgfrid, king of the Northumbrians, half- 

 brother to Aldfrid, as the husband of St. Cuthburga, 

 but Capgrave, who in his life of the saint records a 

 dialogue between her and her husband on the subject 



are assigned for her subsequent foundation at 

 Wimborne. Cressy, whose account is generally 

 adopted, gives the year 713 ;" the Anglo-Saxon 

 Chronicle meniions it under 718, but makes no 

 definite statement as to when it came into exist- 

 ence.' The foundation must, however, be 

 dated some years earlier and previous to 705 

 according to a letter of Bishop Aldhelm, written 

 in that year, granting liberty of election to the 

 monasteries under the charge of the bishop, who. 

 died in 709, in which he mentions particularly 

 ' the nuns in the monastery by the river which 

 is called Wimburnia presided over by the abbess 

 Cuthburga.'* 



' St. Cuthberga,' says Cressy, translating various 

 passages from the Fita of Capgrave — 



having built her monastery and therein a church to 

 the Queen of Virgins, there macerated her body with 

 almost continual watchings and fastings. She was 

 humble both to God and man and mild to all. Many 

 virgins she assembled in the same place ; she per- 

 mitted her body to enjoy no rest ; but importunately 

 day and night her prayers sounded in the ears of a 

 merciful God. She happily ended her d.iys in the 

 year of grace 727, and her memory is celebr.ited by 

 the church on the last day of August.' 



of the renunciation of marriage, as well as her dying 

 charge to her nuns, calls the king Aldfrith or Aldfrid;. 

 No^a Legenda Anglie (15 1 6), fol. 79-80. 



' Ch. Hist, of Brit. (1668), lib. xxi, cap. 18. 



' Op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), 39. 



* Birch, Cart. Sax. i, 168. 



' CA. Hist, of Brit. (1668), lib, ; xi, cap. iS. 



107 



