DORSET CHANTRIES. 3 1 



parish churclics, or in some cases in separate buildings. It is 

 quite possible that priests from a neighbouring- IMonastery per- 

 formed the religious services in these Chantries, but they had 

 their stipend from the income of the Chantry in which they 

 officiated. 



It is not, however, till the Chantries were sold that one gets to 

 know from whence their incomes were derived, and I venture to 

 think that the details given in these sales will prove very 

 interesting and will throw considerable light on a subject that 

 has not hitherto been much investigated, at all events as far as 

 Dorset is concerned. 



Hutchins made use of the Chantry Rolls and inserted under 

 each parish where there was a Chantry, &c., some of the inform- 

 ation contained in the roll, and he further in many instances 

 seems to have had the Patent Rolls searched to ascertain to 

 whom they were sold, but there he seems to have stopped, as no 

 doubt the detail involved was too great, and it is left to the 

 present day to record here the details whence the income was 

 derived. 



This and other information is contained in four volumes of Sales 

 of Chantries, Vols. 67 and 68 of the Miscellaneous Books in the 

 Exchequer, Augmentation Office, and Vols. 258 and 259 of the 

 Miscellaneous Books of the Treasury of Receipt, Exchequer, and 

 from the Files of Particulars for Grants also in the Augmentation 

 Office.* 



The four volumes before mentioned, though in different 

 departments of the Exchequer, are all in the same handwriting, 

 and do not overlap, and it is difficult to understand why they 

 should not have been kept in one department. They were 

 probably made up from the documents on the files as they came 

 into the office and in no particular order, either county or 

 chronological. The files have now been sorted under the names 



* The ludexes to Vols. 67 and 08 are in the Eound Room at the Public Record 

 Office, and Vol. 260 is the Index to Vols. 2oS and 259. These latter have to be 

 applied for. 



