288 The Wiltshire Possessions of the Abbess of Shaftesbury. 



' Wintra, Abbot of TIsselbury (so the word is spelt), in the kingdom 

 of the West Saxons, is mentioned in a life of St. Boniface, (in 

 "Cressy's Church History,") as flourishing about the year a.d. 720.' 

 He adds, in a note, that the tradition that there was an ancient 

 religious house here (for which he refers to a MS. letter of William 

 Aubrey), joined with a description of its being in the West Saxon 

 dominions, seems to make it probable that Tisbury was the place 

 alluded to. There are two of the earlier charters printed by Kemble 

 in the 'Codex Diplomaticus ' which confirm the truth of this opinion. 

 Amongst the names for instance of the witnesses to a charter (a.d. 

 704) of Ina of Wessex, by which he grants certain privileges and 

 immunities to various members of religious houses, are those of 

 Aldhelm, who had then recently been consecrated as Bishop of 

 Sherborne, and ' Wintra ' who describes himself simply as * Abbas.' 

 But there is another deed (a.d. 759) included in the Shaftesbury 

 Chartulary, of Cynewulf, of Wessex, which seems quite decisive on 

 the matter. It commences by reciting, first of all, a charter of 

 Coinraed, King of Mercia (a.d. 703 — 709) by which he bestowed 

 lands (30 manentes) on an Abbot, by name Bectune, and which are 

 described as bounded " on the north by a river called Funtamel, 

 and on the south by the lands of Bishop Leotherius." * The river 

 called ' Funtamel ' is evidently a portion of the Nodder, or one of 

 its tributary streams, the name of which is still preserved in Font- 

 hill, (the older form of which name in Anglo-Saxon charters is 

 Funt-gael,^) which lies to the north of Tisbury. The Bishop alluded 

 to is evidently Hlothhere, who was Bishop of the West Saxons 

 from A.D. 670 — 676, and his land was no doubt situated in Ebles- 

 burne, which, judging from ancient records, comprised a considerable 

 tract of country extending from Toney Stratford, Bishopston 



1 The charter as preserved is a transcript of the original deed, and is found 

 in the Shaftesbury Chartulary (Harl. MS., 61, fol. 19b.) The whole of the 

 documents are copied in a careless and slovenly manner. The words describing 

 the situation of the property originally bestowed by King Coinraed are as 

 follows : — ' aliquam terrse particulam donare decreverim venerabili viro Bectune 

 abbati, id est 30 manentes, de aquilone rivus nomine Funtamel, ex meridie habet 

 terram beatse memorise Leotheri episcopi." Codex Diplom., No. 104, 



'Codex. Diplom., 328, 610, 641. 



