A HISTORY OF DORSET 



completely did the bishop and abbot dominate the town and check, its 

 municipal growth that after the dissolution of the monasteries Sherborne sank 

 into insignificance after being the most populous and frequented town of the 

 county."^ Cerne Abbas shared the same fate ; the life of the town was 

 centred in the abbey, and with its suppression the town lost its chief sub- 

 sistence."' Sherborne is the town of Dorset most typical of English eccle- 

 siastical towns, if generalizations are permissible ; but the other monastic 

 towns of the county have a different history. Shaftesbury never fared better 

 than when under the sway of the lady abbess, who from before the Norman 

 Conquest owned one and by degrees obtained possession of the other 

 manor."' It was only after the Dissolution, when the new lords or their 

 bailiffs regarded the manor as a source of revenue, when tenants were rack- 

 rented, and the manorial court looked upon as an instrument of fiscal extor- 

 tion, that the town became involved in endless quarrels and litigation.^'" 



An accumulation of causes, some of which dated back a considerable 

 number of years, prepared the way for the distress of the sixteenth and 

 seventeenth centuries. Comparatively early in the fifteenth centurv the arm 

 of justice seems to have been relaxed. The Gaol Delivery Rolls'" for the 

 period are full of charges of murder, robbery, and house-breaking, but offenders 

 seem rarely to have been brought to justice : either no one was found to 

 prosecute, or the jury returned a verdict of not guiltv, or the accused was 

 released under the terms of a general pardon. The inroads of the sea and 

 foreign attacks had caused havoc to Melcombe and Lyme Regis, so that 

 their fee-farm rents had had to be reduced and their contributions to taxes 

 relaxed ; "' and finally, in 1433, 'for lakke and scarcete of helpe of peuplc 

 to withstand and resiste the malice ' of the king's enemies the port of 

 Melcombe was closed and the staple and other privileges of the port trans- 

 ferred to Poole.'" A century later Poole, Lyme, Shaftesbury, Sherborne, 

 Bridport, Dorchester, and Weymouth were among the decayed towns upon 

 which Henry VIII urged the necessity of effecting restorations."* 



Nor was the distress confined to the towns. In 1435—6 the county was 

 found to be utterly incapable of bearing its normal share of the burden of 

 taxation, and a schedule was issued of ' vills and boroughs desolated wasted 

 destructed and depopulated ' to which allowances must be made. The 

 remittances to the boroughs included 50J. to Dorchester, 6oj. to Shaftesbury, 

 13J. to Portland, 13J. 4/ to Wareham, and 20J-. 5^. to Bridport."' A similar 

 list was issued in 1449-50. Unfortunately, both documents are in such a. 

 state of decay that comparison is difficult ; but although at the later date in 

 some cases the allowance is not so great, in other cases it is greater, and several 

 places are included which were omitted in the earlier list."' The distress, 

 though it was perhaps most prevalent in the centre, does not seem to have 

 been confined to any particular quarter of the county ; thus, while Cranbornc 

 was apparently able to bear the full burden of its tax, the neighbouring parish 

 of Wimborne St. Giles had to be pardoned i8j. \d. in 1435 and 26/. 8^. in 



'" Camden, Brit.{ ed. Gough), i, 45. '" Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iv, 15. 



'" Mayo, Rec. of Shaftesbury, 16. 



"" Ibid. '" Nos. 194, 202. 



'" Rot. Pari. (Rec. Com.), iii, yob, \\lb, 616a, 6$^a. 5I5<», 6iSa, 640J ; iv, 468*. 



'" Ibid, iv, 444^. '" Cunningham, Grou-th of Engl. Industry (ed. 1905), i, 507. 



'" Lay Subs. R. Dorset, bdle. 103, No. 79. '" Ibid. No. 91. 



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