244 



Edingdon Monaster?/. 



Sir John, under Romsey Abbey: which (by some arrangement) 

 the Bishop ultimately obtained for the perpetual maintenance of a 

 House of Religion. 1 



After education at Oxford, William de Edyndon became Rector 

 of Cottingham, and afterwards of Dallington, both in Co. North- 

 ampton. The latter he exchanged in 1322 for the Rectory of 

 Middleton Cheney, near Banbury. 2 He was also Prebendary of 

 Leigh ton Manor, Dioc. Lincoln : Dean of Westbury-on-Trym, Co. 

 Gloucester : and (if it was not another person of the same name) 

 he was also appointed by Alicia la Rous to the Chapelry of St. Ed- 

 mund, Imber, and was a Prebendary of Netheravon, in the Church 



1 We have also the names of others, no doubt his kindred. John de Edingdon, 

 Prebendary of Romsey, and of Faringdon, A.D. 1351, and Thomas de Edingdon, 

 Prebendary of Chute, A.D. 1350, both in the Church of " Sarisbury." (See Jones's 

 Fasti Sarisb.) 



The armorial bearings attributed to the bishop do not assist much in identifying 

 any distinct family name : there being (according to Bedford's Blazon of Epis- 

 copacy) no less than three different coats among which to chuse : — 



1. Lozengy [?] on a cross engrailed five cinquefoils. Seal, MS., Ashmole, 

 833. 



2. Three bars wavy. Gatehouse at Esher palace, and MS., Brit. Mus. 

 Add., 12443. 



3. Azure, two lioncels passant O., in a bordure A. Sari. MS. 6100, and 

 MS., Brit. Mus. Add. 12443, fol, 130. 



Francis Thynne, the Herald, in a MS. at Longleat, draws this last coat, with 

 a border Gules, and the lioncels passant gardant : impaled with the See of Win- 

 chester. 



The bishop's "secretum," or private seal, among the archives at Winchester,' is 

 said to exhibit " a cross engrailed with five mullets pierced." 



In the Wilts Archaeological Magazine, vol. i., p. 186, Note, it was stated by 

 the present writer, in the notes upon Leland's Tour in Wilts, that there was some 

 reason for believing William of Edyngdon's family name to have been Cheney ; 

 principally on the authority of a manuscript in the Ashmolean Library : but 

 upon subsequent inspection of that document this appeared to be incorrect. Of 

 the coats of arms variously attributed to him (as just described) not one in any 

 way resembles those of Cheney of Co. Wilts, which were, " A Fess lozengy, each 

 charged with an escallop, as may be seen in Edingdon Church). But though not 

 of their blood, it is clear from many circumstances that the Cheney family is to 

 be reckoned among his principal coadjutors and patrons. They resided at Brook 

 House, in the parish of Westbury. 



2 In 1329 (3 Ed. III.) John, son of Roger Enok sold to William of Edingdon 

 Rector of the Church of Middleton juxta Bannebiri all his tenement in North- 

 mead, and an acre lying by the road from Tenhide to Sweltenham (Edingdon 

 Chartulary). 



