RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



house the manors of Spettisbury (Dorset), 

 Warmington (Warwickshire), and Aston (Berk- 

 shire), lately belonging to the ah'en priory of 

 Toft, together with all fees and advowsons per- 

 taining to the same.'"' The following February 

 (1462) he transferred the possessions of Toft to 

 the college of St. Mary and St. Nicholas — now 

 King's College — Cambridge,''" with the excep- 

 tion of Spettisbury, which remained in the pos- 

 session of Witham Priory down to the Dissolu- 

 tion, the Falor of 1535"' stating that the 

 prior of Witham had rents here amounting to 

 ;^35 OS. lod., besides the sum of 26j. 81^. as 

 the fee of William Frye the steward, and a pen- 

 sion of 30J. similar to the one paid to the prior 

 of Spettisbury in 129 1. 



37. THE PRIORY OF WAREHAM 



An ancient monastery, probably the earliest 

 religious foundation in this county, was built 

 here in Saxon times, but afterwards destroyed in 

 the Danish raid of 876."' Cressy, in his account 

 of the assault on Wareham by the Danes in tiiat 

 year, describes the house as 'a noble monasterie 

 of religious virgins seated in the same town.'"' 



After the Conquest a priory or cell to the 

 Norman abbey of Lire, founded by William 

 Fitz Osborn, kinsman and marshal to the Con- 

 queror,"* was established here in the early part 

 of the twelfth century in connexion with the 

 churches and lands in Wareham granted to the 

 abbey by Robert earl of Leicester. A charter 

 in the register of Carisbrooke Priory, the chief 

 house of Lire in England, states that Henry II 

 confirmed to the abbot and convent among their 

 English possessions the church of Wareham with 

 its appurtenances, the church of Gussage with 

 100s. worth of land, and the church of 

 ' Rinchorde ' with its appurtenances, the gift 

 of Robert earl of Leicester, with a hide of land 

 in Wareham the gift of William de Waimura 

 or Weymouth ; while by another charter he 

 confirmed to the abbey the churches of Ware- 

 ham, with a hide of land given by Robert earl 

 of Leicester, and an ounce of gold given by 



''" Pat. I Edw. IV, pt. 4, m. 6. 



"° Ibid. pt. 3, m. 23. 



"' Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, I 57-8. 



'" Tanner, Notitia, under Dorset, xxix. 



"^ Ch. Hist, of Brit. (1668), lib. xxviii, cap. iv. 

 Leland describes this nunnery as situ.ited between the 

 two rivers, the ' Frome ' and the Trent or Puddle, but 

 it must not be confounded with that other monastery 

 near the Frome in Somerset built by Aldhelm and 

 included in the bull of Pope Sergius I in 701, grant- 

 ing privileges to various monasteries of the bishop's 

 foundation, which was probably also destroyed by the 

 Danes ; Leland, Collect, ii, 388 ; Birch, Cart. Sax. i, 

 152; Tanner, Notitia, under Somerset, xxi. 



"' Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1040. 



William de Waimuta, in the reeveship [prae- 

 poiitura) of Wareham."* 



In 1290 the prior successfully petitioned the 

 king to grant a licence for Peter Doget, chaplain, 

 to alienate to the brethren a messuage and a 

 carucate and a half of land in Whiteway ; '"^ and 

 in 1329, by a fine of 20/., the prior and convent 

 obtained a licence for the alienation in mortmain 

 of a messuage and land in Whiteway towards the 

 support of a chaplain to celebrate daily in the 

 convent church for the souls of all the faithful 

 departed.'''" 



Besides the church of St. Mary, Wareham, of 

 which the prior was the rector, the prior held 

 the presentation of the churches of St. Martin, 

 St. Michael, and St. Peter within the town. In 

 1291 the spiritualities amounted to ^,^12 25. 9^/. 

 from the churches of Shapwick, Gussage (St. 

 Michael), Holy Trinity Wareham, St. Mary 

 Wareham, Knowle, Winfrith Newburgh, and 

 East Stoke."' The temporalities within Steeple 

 and Tyneham, Whiteway, Egliston, Blandford, 

 and Wareham, were worth £% os. 8;/."' 



The priory is not mentioned in the general 

 seizure of alien cells as the property of Norman 

 landowners in 1204, but it occurs on the eve of 

 John's death in 1 2 1 6, when the king notified Peter 

 de Manley that he had committed the abbey of 

 Shaftesbury to the prior of Wareham during a 

 vacancy, and that the abbey should remain under 

 the king's protection so long as it was in the custody 

 of Prior William.'*' An order was subsequently 

 issued in November in the first year of Henry III, 

 directing the prior to cause the newly-elected 

 abbess to have full seisin of all the possessions of 

 the abbey.'*' 



Edward III in 1294 granted letters of protec- 

 tion to the prior in return for a grant of a contri- 

 bution from his goods,'*^ the letters being re- 

 newed in March, 1297, for Prior Nicholas 

 Bynet.'*' On the seizure of alien property in 

 1324, the goods and possessions found in this cell 

 by Walter Beril and Roger de Blokkesworthe, 

 custodians of religious houses 'of the power and 

 dominion of the king of France,' were found on 

 inquisition to be worth ^^27 14.S. 6d., of which 

 £6 OS. lod. came from the parish of Wareham.'** 

 On being taken into the king's hands by 

 Edward III in 1337, they were valued at 



'" See Chart, under Carisbrooke, Dugdale, Mon. 

 vi, 1 04 1, No. V. 



"' Anct. Pet. 1088 1 ; Pat. 18 Edw. I, m. 18. 



'" Ibid. 3 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 17. 



'■'" Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 178, 178^, 179^. 



'^Mbid. 183-4. 



'*" Close, 18 John, m. 1,2. 



'" Pat. I Hen. Ill, m. 16. 



'*' Pat. 22 Edw. I, m. 8. The prior of Wareham 

 was also requested in 1332 10 contribute towards the 

 subsidy raised on the marriage of the king's sister ; 

 Close, 5 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 6a'. 



'" Pat. 25 Edw. I, pt. I, m. 13. 



'" Add. MS. 6164, fol. 282. 



21 l6 



