342 



(Dit % S>wcctBsm of t\t %%mm of Hilton, 

 foitjj %mz ttotiw of Milton jSpfe. 1 



By J. E. Nightingale, F.S.A. 



^HE earliest monastic foundation o£ Wilton, as distinct from 

 its occupation by the Anglo-Saxon monarchs, seems to have 

 been in something like the following order : — Seculars, c. A.D. 773 ; 

 a Benedictine nunnery under a prioress, 800 ; and the enlarged 

 establishment presided over by an abbess, in 871. The monastery 

 thus constituted continued until the time of its dissolution in 1539. 



The object of this paper is to give a further addition to the 

 already not inconsiderable list of abbesses recorded in Hoare's Modern 

 Wilts, as well as other particulars relating to some of them, their 

 seals, &c. The usual sources of information concerning the heads of 

 religious houses, hitherto available, have been Dugdale's Monasticon, 

 with Brown Willis's additions to Tanner's Notitia Monastica made 

 in 1774, but we may look for more original matter, as well as some 

 probable corrections, when it is found possible to make more easily 

 available the rich treasures of MSS. and charters which are under- 

 stood to be still accumulating in the British Museum. 



A great deal of curious information connected with the Abbey of 

 Wilton is to be found in the Chronicon Vilodunense, a MS. preserved 

 in the Cottonian Library, and now generally accessible from a printed 

 copy made by Sir R. C. Hoare in 1830. It may be termed the 

 Legendary history of Wilton Abbey in metre, and was no doubt 

 written for the instruction of the recluses ; as a genuine specimen 

 of the ancient Wiltshire dialect it is exceedingly valuable. From 

 internal evidence it is clear that it was composed about the year 

 1420, by some one dwelling in Wilton and connected with the 

 monastery. The chief source of the compilation is expressly said 



1 The Committee desires to record its grateful thanks to Mr. Nightingale for 

 his generous presentation of the beautiful plate of seals which illustrates this 

 paper, as for the previous plate of a medal in illustration of his paper on the 

 First Earl of Pembroke, Magazine, vol. xviii., p. 81. [Ed.] 



