RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



bourne in Tyneham and Steeple, Milborne Bee 

 and Povington being assessed at ^i i lOi. in the 

 year 129 1.'' 



In common with other ah'en cells Povington 

 was constantly taken into the king's hands dur- 

 ing the wars with France. By an inquisition 

 held on the occasion of its seizure 8 October, 

 1324, by Walter Beril and Martin Roger de 

 Blokkesworthe the goods found in the manor of 

 Povington and Lutton were valued at ;^58 gs.^^ 

 The sheriff in 1337 was charged with the issues 

 of Povington and Lutton, and of ' a certain place 

 called Milborne Bek,' amounting to ^^28 4s. gd., 

 which had been taken into custody by Henry 

 Haydok, clerk, and delivered to him.'' The 

 inquisition at VVareham the Monday after Easter, 

 1387, probably ordered with a view to ascertain 

 the cause of the steady decrease in value then 

 taking place in most of the alien cells, showed 

 that the possessions of the prior of Ogbourne at 

 Povington and West Whiteway, Lutton, and 

 Blackmanstone were worth £6 1 3$. 4.d. after all 

 charges and deductions had been made.'"'' 



The vicissitudes of the manor during the fif- 

 teenth century were many and various, and one 

 can hardly account for the contradictory effect 

 of many of the grants. Before the final suppres- 

 sion of alien priories in 1 41 4 Ogbourne, with 

 all its rectories, manors, land, and possessions, 

 &c., was granted by Henry IV to John duke of 

 Bedford, who, piously recollecting the religious 

 nature of the benefaction, made it over to the 

 warden and canons of St. George's, Windsor, the 

 gift being confirmed by Henry V.'''' Henry VI, 

 on the death of the duke in 1435,'°' granted the 

 manor of Povington — together with pensions and 

 portions in Milborne Bee, Turnworth, Charl- 

 ton, and Up Wimborne — parcel of the sometime 

 alien priory of Ogbourne, which had reverted to 

 the crown, to Richard Sturgeon, clerk, for life, 

 and in 1442 bestowed the reversion of the manor 

 with its members on John Carpenter, the master 

 and brethren of the hospital of St. Anthony, 

 London, for the exhibition and support of five 

 boys or scholars ' well disposed ' at the university 

 of Oxford, each of whom should previously have 

 been well and sufficiently instructed in the rudi- 

 ments of grammar at Eton College and should 

 receive at the university lOs. per week until he 



Povington was returned in 1285, however, by the 

 jurors of the hundred as belonging to the abbey of 

 Bcc-Hellouin, though they could not say by what 

 title. The abbot claimed to have the fines {amercia- 

 menta) of his tenants, the assize of bread and ale, and 

 the right to hold a view of frankpledge within the 

 manor ; Inq. of Assess, relating to Feud. Aids, ii, 



'' Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 183-4. 



"' Mins. Accts. bdle. 1 125, No. 7. 



'' Ibid. No. 9. 



'™ Add. MS. 6164, fol. 506. 



"" Chart. R. I Edw. IV, m. 20. 



"" Inq. p.m. 14 Hen. VI, No. 36. 



had attained the degree of bachelor of arts.'*" 

 This arrangement notwithstanding, the king nine 

 years later gave to the provost and college of 

 Eton the farm or rent to be paid by John 

 Newburgh, knt., for the custody of the manor of 

 Povington to which he had been appointed the 

 previous Michaelmas, 1450, together with the 

 reversion of the same.'"^ Edward IV, in the first 

 year of his reign, while confirming the pre- 

 vious grant to St. George's, Windsor, of the 

 alien priory of Ogbourne and all its appurte- 

 nances by John duke of Bedford, granted the 

 manor of Povington to William Beaufitz for the 

 term of twenty years.'"* In 1467 he made it 

 over to Eton College,'"^ and again in 1474 made 

 it the subject of another grant in favour of the 

 chapel of Windsor."" 



The schemes of the Yorkist king for the union 

 of Eton and Windsor and the enrichment of the 

 royal chapel of the latter by the endowments of 

 Henry VI's college were foiled by the decision of 

 Archbishop Bourchier.'"^ Edward IV by letters 

 patent of May, 1478, appears to have repeated 

 his grant of this manor to Windsor,"" but Po- 

 vington was, nevertheless, restored to Eton with 

 other lands of which it had been deprived in 

 anticipation, and remained in the hands of the 

 college down to the reign of Henry VIII. "" 



There is in the case of Povington little to 

 favour the presumption that a religious house 

 was actually maintained here. A single refer- 

 ence to it as a ' priory ' occurs years after it had 

 passed away from its ancient possessors the abbots 

 of Bee,'" and, in all probability, it would be 

 most accurately described as a grange. 



36. THE PRIORY OF SPETTISBURY 



Robert de Bellomonte or Beaumont, earl of 

 Leicester and count of Meulan, in the reign of 

 William Rufus granted to the abbey of St. Peter 

 of Prdaux in Normandy, twin foundation to the 

 other abbey of St. Leodegar or Leger on whom 

 his father Roger had bestowed Stour Provost in 

 this county,"^ the manor of Toft, Norfolk, 

 with the tithes of Charlton Marshall and Spet- 

 tisbury, Dorset, the churches of these two vills, 

 and the lands belonging to them ; "' the earl by 

 another charter testifying that his gift, made for 



'" Pat. 20 Hen. VI, pt. I, m. 5. 



"" Ibid. 29 Hen. VI, pt. I, m. 9. 



"^ Chart. R. I Edw. IV, m. 20. 



"■^ Pat. 7 Edw. IV, pt. 3, m. 13. 



"" Ibid. 14 Edw. IV, pt. 4,m. i. 



"" Hist, of Colleges of mn Chester, Eton, ice. (Acker- 

 mann), 29. 



'"' Pat. 17 Edw. IV, pt. I, m. i. 



"» yalor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 216. 



'" This is in the patent of Edward IV in 1467 ; 

 Pat. 7 Edw. IV, pt. 3, m. 13. 



"' Tanner, Notitia, Dorset, xxvii. 



'" Cal. Doc. France, 1 1 1 . 



119 



