270 



Edingdon Monastery. 



Cheney to the founder's brother, Sir John Edingdon, now belonged 

 to the House of Bonhommes. 



An original Latin document (at Longleat) records a solemn pro- 

 ceeding of this date, relating probably to the manumission of a 

 * native/' or "neif" :— 



" Brother Thomas [Odiham] Rector of Edyngdon and the Convent there, 

 authorize J ohn Gowayn their steward to summon a Jury in their manor of 

 Coteridge, and enquire upon oath whether John Sefare, son of John Sefare, of 

 Bradleigh, was or was not a " Native " belonging to the convent, and of servile 

 condition. The return to be registered. Dated at Edyngdon Chapter House, 

 Thursday after the Feast of St. Maurice the Abbot. 14 Eich. II." 



1393. 17 Rich. II. Keevil. Impropriation of the Rectory of 

 " Kyveleigh." It is this of which Leland says : " One Blubyri, a 

 prebendary o£ Sarebyri and executor of the Wille of Hedington" 

 [Bishop William Edingdon] " caused a great benefice of the patron- 

 age of Sceaftesbyri Monastery to be impropriate to Hedington" 

 [i.e., the Monastery]. 1 



The Church of Keevil had been given by Ernold de Hesding to 

 the Abbey of St. Edward, at Shaftesbury. The documents relating 

 to the transfer to Edingdon are preserved in the Cartulary. The 

 grant by the Abbess, Joan Formage, was witnessed by John, Lord 

 Lovel, Thomas Hungreford, and Balph Cheyne, Knights, John 

 Gawayne, Thomas Bonham, J ohn Auncell, Thomas Bulkington, and 

 others. The attorney to deliver possession was John Mareys, the 

 Abbess of Shaftesbury's bailiff for her Hundred of Bradford. An 

 annual rent of four marks was reserved to Shaftesbury Abbey. 



That the transfer of ecclesiastical property in those days was not 

 an easy or inexpensive matter is evident not only from the various 

 petitions to the Crown, licenses, inquisitions, &c, that were necessary :. 

 but from the actual bill of costs which appears to have been so enor- 

 mous that the particulars in this case were thought deserving of 

 being recorded ( u in terrorem " ?) in the Edingdon Cartulary. They 

 are as follows, taken from a 



Public Instrument, dated 1395. 

 Paid to the Abbess and Convent of Shaftesbury, for the Advowson of 



Keevil 133 6 8} 

 Expenses in London, settling the annual pension of y 182 18 7 

 4 ma rks 49 11 11 ) 



1 Leland, in Wilts Mag., and Hutch. Dorset, II., 513. 



