A HISTORY OF SURREY 



swine and liberty to cut wood for fuel and 

 other purposes in his woods at Farnham.' 

 Henry de Blois, brother of King Stephen, 

 who succeeded Giflard in the see of Win- 

 chester, added to his predecessor's endowment 

 a virgate of land at ' Wanford ' and full rights 

 of pasture at Farnham with licence to cut 

 and dig turf, heath, stone and sand.^ The 

 charter set out in detail the bounds of the 

 abbey estates : ' From the oak at Tilford, 

 called the King's Oak, along the king's high- 

 way to Farnham, as far as W interborne, and 

 from thence along the bank which runs from 

 Farnham to the hill called Richard's Hill, and 

 across the said hill and the bridge of "Wanford " 

 to the meadow of Tilford called Ilvetham's 

 Mead, and so on to the oak from whence this 

 perambulation sets out.' ^ Among other early 

 benefactors of the house were Adeliza, Queen 

 of Henry I., who granted to the abbot and 

 convent the grange of Northolt,* and King 

 Stephen who gave them Neatham near Alton,^ 

 and by his charter, at the request of his brother* 

 ' their father, founder and bishop,' granted that 

 the abbot and convent of the Blessed Mary of 

 Waverley should hold their lands quit of 

 pleas and plaints, geld and danegeld and all 

 secular service in frankalmoin under the king's 

 protection.'' Pharamus de Bologne, nephew 

 of King Stephen, sold to the brethren the 

 manor of Wanborough for the sum of 125 

 marks of silver, the sale being confirmed by 

 charter of Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of 

 Essex, lord of the fee.* All grants up to 

 1147 were confirmed to the monastery by a 

 bull of Pope Eugenius III., who also, in a 

 clause of the same bull, exempted the abbey 

 from all payment of tithes for their cattle and 

 for such lands aswere in their own occupation." 

 Richard I. confirmed to the abbey the pri- 

 vileges and liberties granted by his predecessor 

 King Stephen, together with further bene- 

 factions : grants of land by Robert de Venuz 

 and William his son and other donors." John 



' Pal. II Edw. II. pt. ii, m. 36 (fer Inspex). 

 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 



• Chart. II Edw. II. No. 41 (fer Inspex). William 

 de Albini, Earl of Arundel, the second husband of 

 this lad/, died in the monastery in 1176. Ann. 

 Man. (Rolls Ser.), ii. 240. 



6 Chart. II Edw. II. No. 41. 



• Henry de Blois, Bishop of Winchester. 

 ' Chart. II Edw. II. No. 41. 



8 Ibid. 



= Dugdale, Man. v. 342. Exemption from the 

 payment of tithe was not a privilege of Waverley 

 alone, it was granted to the whole order Privi- 

 leges of the Cistercian Order : Dugdale, Mon. v. 228 

 et seq. 



10 Cart, .\ntiq. S. 20. 



78 



confirmed the charter of liberties granted by 

 his predecessors and added fresh gifts." During 

 his reign Gilbert de Basseville, lord of the 

 manor of Worplesdon, granted to the convent 

 a piece of land within his lordship afterwards 

 called ' la Newe Rude.' " Henry III. having 

 recovered certain lands in Neatham which he 

 claimed as belonging to his demesne bestowed 

 them on the abbey in 1239," and about this 

 time also Savaric de Bohun confirmed a grant 

 made by his ancestors of one mark yearly out 

 of his mill at Midhurst for the maintenance 

 of one monk in augmentation of the convent.'* 

 By a grant of Richard Malherbe de Bouegath 

 in 1281 Hugh, abbot of Waverley, and his 

 convent came into possession of two acres of 

 meadow lying between their own holding and 

 the Itchin." The following year John 

 Dabernon gave permission to the brethren to 

 take turf from his wood called Stokewood to 

 repair their fosse situated between their land 

 and the said wood, letters in acknowledgment 

 being issued by the abbot ' lest that which had 

 been granted by favour should after be de- 

 manded as a right.' '° The charter of liberties 

 granted by Stephen and confirmed by his 

 successors was inspected and confirmed by 

 Edward II. on the 27 January 1317—8.'^ 



Comparatively the abbey of Waverley was 

 but slenderly endowed. In the Taxation 

 Roll of 1 29 1 the temporalities of the mon- 

 astery amounted to ^^98 is. 8^." Contrasted 

 with the vast estates of a foundation like 

 Bermondsey such a modest rent roll sinks into 

 insignificance, yet comparison can only result 

 in admiration of the energy and wise govern- 

 ment displayed by those who ruled the ab- 

 bey, qualities so conspicuously lacking in the 

 case of the richer house, but enabling the 

 poorer to cope with difficulties and times of 

 depression under which the other succumbed. 

 In common with Bermondsey the Cistercian 

 house suffered much from devastating floods, 

 bad seasons, loss of crops, but embarrassments 

 which mainly constitute the history of Ber- 

 mondsey proved but temporary checks in the 

 annals of the Blessed Mary of Waverley. It 

 is a tribute to the rule and discipline main- 

 tained by the house that from its foundation 

 to the year 1291 " seven of the brethren were 



" Chart. liEdw. II. No. 41. 



" Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), ii. 273. i3 Ibid. p. 321. 



" MSS. Dodsworth Bodl. Libr. xxx. f. 49. 



" Add. Chart. 37,677. i* Ibid. 5,548. 



" Pat. II Edw. II. pt. ii, m. 36. 



" PopeNich. 7 ax. (Rec. Com.), 13, 109, 139, 192, 

 196, 206, 215. 



1" The annals of the house cease with that year, 

 and personal details as to the heads themselves 

 become more scanty from that date. 



