A HISTORY OF DORSET 



The chantry of Margaret, countess of Rich- 

 mond, was returned at a clear income of 

 £(> 2s. o^^., and had no ornaments.*' The four 

 prebends in the college called the ' first,' ' seconde,' 

 ' thirde,' and ' fourthe staulle,' were worth re- 

 spectively ^^8 los., £j !$!■ 2d., £12 I5i. 2d., 

 and £j IS. id. clear.*'* 



Pole forfeited the deanery in 1537 and was 

 succeeded at Wimborne by Nicholas Wilson.'" 

 Some of the leading parishioners the following year 

 addressed the dean a very respectful letter, saying 

 they had been informed that ' Seynt Cuthborow's 

 hed ' was to be removed from their church. 



And we know by our composycion that yt ys the 

 p,irishioners' goods and our chyrche ys in gret ruyn 

 and decay and our toure ys foundered and lyke to 

 fall and ther ys no money left in our chyrche box, 

 and by reason of great infyrmyty and deth ther hath 

 byn thys yere in our parysh no chyrche aele the 

 whych hath hyndred our chyrche of xx nobles. 



The letter proceeded to ask whether the 

 parishioners might sell the silver about the head 

 of the image, and apply the proceeds to the re- 

 pair of their church.'" 



The college was dissolved in 1547, and we 

 may gather the immediate effect of its suppres- 

 sion and of the withdrawal of the activity of the 

 staff from the parochial and social life of the 

 town from the second part of the commissioners' 

 report of Edward VI. The chantry of the 

 Countess Margaret,'^ ' founded to the intent that 

 the incumbent thereof should say mass for the 

 soul of the founder and to tech schoole'mg,^ was 

 empty, and complaints appear to have been 

 made by the townspeople that their children 

 had been deprived of the means of education 

 provided for them : — 



It is very requisite and necessary (ran the report) to 

 have the said school maintained, for the town of 

 Wimborne is a great market town and a thoroughfare 

 and hath many children therein, and there is no 

 grammar school kept within i 2 miles of Wimborne, 

 at which pLice the poor men dwelling in Wimborne 

 and there.ibout are not able to keep their children. 

 Wherefore it is very requisite that the said school may 

 remain still for the bringing up of young children in 

 larnyng . . . without anything paying at all as it 

 was in times past." 



*' Chant. Cert. Dorset, 28. " Ibid. 29. 



"i. and P. Hen. rill, xii (i), 1 1 15 (42). At 

 the close of 1536, on the report that Pole was about 

 to forfeit his promotion, William Marshall sought to 

 procure the ' little deanery ' from Cromwell for his 

 brother Thomas Marshall or his son Richard. Ibid, 

 xi, 1355. 



"* Given by Hutchins from the parish records 

 (Hist, of Dorset, iii, 1888). It is not noted whether 

 so apparently reasonable a request was granted. 



" With the exception of this chantry, the net value 

 of which was returned at ^lo 12/. I \d., the value of 

 the rest of the offices had fallen in the second part of 

 the report below that of the first. 



" Chant. Cert. 16, No. 106. 



From the sacrist's office, the last holder of 

 which was Simon Benyson," a distribution was 

 annually made to the poor of 205.'* The clear 

 income of the deanery, lately held by Nicholas 

 Wilson, then amounted to ;^34 6i. id., 



all which was employed as well towards his own 

 portion and finding as towards the finding of poore 

 men, in which said town of Wimborne be very many 

 poore people unto the finding and relief whereof he 

 did yerely distribute ^^4 at the lest." 



A note in reference to the four prebends in the 

 college states : — 



Mem"* to have 4 priests to serve the cure in the 

 parish of Wimborne because there be 3 chapelles 

 wherein ther is devyne service, because the said 

 chapelles be distaunt from the church of Wymborne 

 3 miles and are for the ease of the people.'' 



The report also serves to show of what the 

 staff of the college consisted ; besides the dean 

 and sacrist, the four chaplains — afterwards reduced 

 to three — ordained to serve the Great Chantry, 

 the chantry priest and schoolmaster of the 

 foundation of the Countess Margaret, there were 

 four prebendaries who were bound out of their 

 salaries to find and maintain four vicars and four 

 'secondaries' to discharge the cure of souls in 

 the parish. The repetition of some of the 

 names indicates that some offices were doubled ; 

 John Ace and Walter Matthew, chaplains of 

 the Great Chantry, served as vicars of the 

 first and third prebend.'' 



On its dissolution, in the first year of the reign 

 of Edward VI, most of the possessions of the 

 college were granted to (i) Edward, duke of 

 Somerset, (2) to Giles Keylsway and William 

 Leonard, and in 1551 to Edward, Lord Clinton. 

 Notwithstanding the representation of the com- 

 missioners no steps appear to have been taken 

 for the retention of the school till the reign of 

 Elizabeth, when by a grant of the queen part 

 of the property of the late college was vested in 

 the governors of the free grammar school of 

 Queen Elizabeth in Wimborne Minster in the 

 county of Dorset.'* 



" He received a pension of ^^5 as late incumbent 

 of Redcottes Chantry ; Willis, H'tst. of Mitred Abbeys, 

 ii, 72. 



" Chant. Cert. 16, No. 108. This was probably 

 the distribution ordained to be made annually at the 

 discretion of the sacrist on the anniversary of the 

 countess of Richmond and Derby and her parents. 



" Ibid. No. III. The late dean was entered for 

 a pension of 53/. \d. ; Add. MS. 19047, fol. 8 d. 



''Chant. Cert. 16, No. iii. Besides the free 

 chapel of St. Peter within the town there were these 

 three chapels outside the town : St. Katherine's of 

 Leigh, St. Stephen's at Kingston Lacy, and St. James 

 of Holt. Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iii, 228. 



" Chant. Cert. 16, No. 109-11. They received 

 a pension of £6 each ; Add. MS. 19047, fol. 8 d. 



" Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1452. 



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