296 The Wiltshire Possessions of the Abbess of Shaftesbury. 



Coward, and John Hillgrove : — " We present that our chancel is 

 very much decayed. Item, we present that the cure is left and 

 committed to a man which can and doth teach us sound doctrine ; 

 but his allowance is so small, viz., 7/., and that not so orderly paid 

 as one could wish it. We pray you, therefore, have a care thereof, 

 that the man may be better seen to ; for thereupon, without our 

 help, he and his were not able to live." 



The manor of Sedgehill was granted, 32 Hen VIII., to Sir Thomas 

 Poynings, who, a few years afterwards, was created Baron Poynings. 

 By him it was conveyed to Sir Thomas Arundel, on whose attainder 

 it fell to the Crown. It was afterwards granted to the Audley 

 family, by one of whom it was sold (15 Eliz.) to William Grove, 

 of Shaftesbury, and Thomas Aubrey, of Chaddenwick. The manor 

 remained in the Grove family, though several parcels of the land 

 have, from time to time, been sold off to divers persons. The 

 advowson of the church has always remained attached to the Lord- 

 ship of the Manor of Berwick St. Leonard. 



DiNTON. 



Pursuing our journey through the estates of the Abbess, we now 

 leave the hundred of Dunworth, and, entering a detached portion 

 of that of Warminster, come to Dinton. In Domesday the 

 word is spelt, Domnitone ; it is so written also in the summary of 

 the possessions of the Abbess in the chartulary. Gradually in the 

 course of centuries it has assumed the various forms of Donyngton, — 

 Donyton, — Dinton. It is by no means clear how Dinton came into 

 the possession of the Abbess. There is certainly no proof that it 

 ever belonged to Alfred, or that it was given by him to Shaftesbury. 

 In the time of Edward I. the Abbess for the time being made a 

 declaration, before the Court of the King's Exchequer, to the 

 effect that she held Domnitone of the King in Chief, and that it 

 appertained to her Barony by virtue of an ancient grant {de veteri 

 feoffame^ito). In the survey of her possessions in the chartulary, 

 the estate at Domnitone was assessed at 20 hides, which would pro- 

 bably represent its actual average, viz., 2600 acres. It was valued 

 in 1293, for the purpose of levying the subsidy of one-tenth, granted 



