A HISTORY OF DORSET 



impression in the minds of the more scrupulous 

 and devout of the clergy, while the nature of 

 his employment did not tend to add to his 

 popularity. "*' On his election to Rochester in 

 1285, Archbishop Peckham actively interfered 

 and, on the ground of Kirby's notorious 

 pluralism, desired the chapter to make another 

 choice of a fit person.'^ The archbishop did not 

 interfere, however, when, in 1286, the dean was 

 promoted to Ely." 



No record seems to exist of the original 

 endowment of the college and deanery, which 

 at the beginning probably consisted of the great 

 tithes of the parish, to which were added as 

 time went on considerable gifts of portions of 

 tithes and land. According to the Taxatio of 

 1 29 1 the possessions of the dean and college 

 were assessed at ;^7 1 ; the portion of the dean 

 amounting to £26 ly- 4-d- from Wimborne, 

 Kingston, and Shapwick ; that of the four pre- 

 bendaries jTio each ; the sacrist ^^4 6s. Sd.^* In 

 1349, on the appointment of Reginald Brian, 

 four commissioners were deputed, together with 

 Thomas de Gary the sacrist, to survey the chapel, 

 which was reported to be very defective in books 

 and ornaments, and in need of repairs in the 

 manse and houses as well as in the manors and 

 other places in the country pertaining to the 

 deanery, to the great injury of the then dean,^* 

 who, the following year, was raised to the see of 

 St. David's and subsequently made bishop of 

 Worcester. The next occasion for an inquiry 

 was in 1367, when an inquisition was ordered 

 to be held in the presence of Richard de 

 Beverley, lately presented to the deanery, or his 

 proctor and the executors of the late dean, Henry 

 de Bukyngham, with a view to ascertain what 

 damages and waste had occurred during the last 



" Just before the death of Henry III he was given 

 the Great Seal, and, though he subsequently resigned it, 

 appears to have been attached in some capacity to the 

 chancery ; the Anna'es speak of him as vice-chancellor 

 {Ann. Man. [Rolls Sen], iii, 315). In 1284 he was 

 made treasurer, but he was employed chiefly to travel 

 the country and collect what sums he could for the 

 king. The benefices with which his zeal was rewarded 

 included the rectory of St. Burian's, Cornwall, the 

 deanery of Wimborne, a canonry in Wells and York, 

 and in 1272 the archdeaconry of Coventry ; Wharton, 

 Angl. Sacra, i, 637, note 4 ; Fasti Eccl. Angl. i, 568. 



" Reg. Epist. Peckham (Rolls Ser.), ii, 575. 



" Wharton, Angl. Sacra, i, 637. 



" Po/>e Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 180. Within the 

 deanery of Pimperne the dean is said to have 

 portions consisting of 1 3/. \d. from the church 

 and chapel of Shapwick (ibid. 178), j^l from 

 Edmondsham, 10/. from Stanbridge or Litde Hinton, 

 and j^l from Hampreston (ibid. 179) ; Hutchins, 

 Hist, of Dorset, 139, 142,435. The parishioners of 

 Hampreston were formerly buried at Wimborne until 

 1440, when they obtained a licence for their own 

 burial-ground from Henry VI ; Harl. MS. 6963, 

 fol. 56. 



'^ Pat. 23 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 22 d. 



occupancy of the deanery, the nature of the 

 defects, and whether they could be repaired 

 within a cost of ^^400. The return made to the 

 writ, giving the value of the dean's possessions, 

 enumerates titlies in Shapwick, lOOs. ; Kingston, 

 8 marks ; Pimperne, 20s. ; Bradford, 20s. ; 

 Crichel, ioj. ; parcel of Holt, with tithes of 

 wool and lambs, ;^8 ; tithes of Hampreston, ^^4 ; 

 demesne lands let to farm, 235. ; tithes of wool 

 and lambs, 40^. ; and states that William Sewell, 

 chaplain and farmer of the late dean, had 20 

 marks remaining in hand, and the reeve 

 [praepoiitus) £6 of arrears.'* 



Leaving the deanery, we find the staff 

 of the college with sacrist and four preben- 

 daries increased in the middle of the fourteenth 

 century by the addition of four chaplains ap- 

 pointed to serve the chantry, known as the 

 Great or Brembre's Chantry, founded in 1354 

 by the dean Thomas de Brembre, who, on 10 

 August of that year, obtained a royal licence to 

 appropriate the advowson of the church of 

 Shapwick, held in chief of the king, to the canons 

 and college of Wimborne Minster for the sus- 

 tentation of four chantry priests celebrating 

 divine ofSces in the chapel under the sacrist 

 according to the ordination of the dean." In 

 addition to this grant the custodian and four 

 chaplains obtained a licence enabling them to 

 acquire 10 'marcatas' of land and rent in 

 Walsford, Chalbury, Kingston, ' Duppleshegh,' 

 and ' Cokeshull,' not held of the king in chief; 

 while Richard de Corfton, at the same time, was 

 permitted to assign to them one messuage, 12 

 bovates of land, 16 acres of meadow, 5 acres of 

 pasture, 2 acres of wood with 40;. rent, and 

 pasturage for sixteen oxen, twelve cows, forty 

 pigs, and 400 sheep in the above places, valued 

 at J IS. 4.ci., to be held by the custodian and 

 chaplains at the annual value of £i^., in part 

 satisfaction of the grant of I o ' marcatas.' '* The 



" Inq. p.m. 41 Edw. Ill (2nd Nos.), No. 37. 



" Pat. 28 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. I 5. The church of 

 Shapwick seems, from early times, to have been 

 attached to the deanery. In 1238 Henry III 

 addressed letters to the bishop of Salisbury bidding 

 him revoke the presentation he had made to the 

 church on the ground that it belonged immediately to 

 the deanerj' which pertained to the royal patronage. 

 Pat. 22 Hen. Ill, m. 2. 



" Pat. 28 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 10. There m.iy 

 later have been some dispute in reference to this grant, 

 for an entry in the Close Rolls of the last year of 

 Henry IV states that Thomas Corfton testifies that 

 he has released and quitclaimed to Richard Holhurst, 

 sacrist of the church of St. Cuthburga of Wimborne 

 Minster and custodian of the chantry of Thomas de 

 Brembre, founded in the church, to Richard Skvll, 

 William Vyncent, Richard Shephurd, and Thomas 

 Pylle, chaplains, all personal actions which he may 

 have or could possibly have against them ' from the 

 beginning of the world up to the dav of the " con- 

 fection " of these present.' Close, 14 Hen. IV, m. 28. 



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