276 Collections for a History of West Bean. 



" These presents, above written and recited, are given and done in the said 

 Chapel of All Saints, in the diocese of Wynton, on the third day of the month of 

 July, in the year of Our Lord, according to the course and computation of the 

 Church of England one thousand four hundred and seventy-four, of our induction 

 the seventh, of the pontificate of the most holy Father in Christ and our lord, 

 the lord Sixtus the fourth, by divine providence, Pope, the third. 



"In the presence of the worshipful Master John Sogett, Doctor of Decrees, 

 Thomas Beauchamp and John Wroughton senior, Esquires, and John Bullock 

 senior, and Thomas Langford, of the dioceses of Wells, Sarum, and Worcester, 

 witnesses specially summoned and requested for this purpose." 



It is evident from this document that the destruction of the 

 Church of All Saints was Dot a part of the arrangement : on the 

 contrary, special provision was made therein for the repair, and even 

 re-building of its chancel. At what subsequent period the demolition 

 took effect there is nothing to show. But the very site had been 

 forgotten, until the accidental discovery, in March, 1870, of a stone 

 coffin (removed for safe custody to the mortuary chapel), in a field 

 still called " All Hallon," lying west of the village, and traversed 

 by the footpath thence to Whiteparish, led to further excavations, 

 which revealed the existence of numerous interments and the foun- 

 dations of the eastern end of the chancel. Its position — west of 

 the village, and yet undoubtedly in Hants — proves that the boundary 

 running north and south between that county and Wilts here de- 

 scribed a curve, so as to include within the former the bulk of the 

 population. 



The provision for alternative rights of presentation was never 

 carried out, being rendered unnecessary by the fusion of the families 

 of the patrons, as already described under the history of the manor, 

 in that of Harcourt, by the representative of which subsequent 

 appointments to the united benefices were made. 



Earlier notices of this Church occur : — in Bishop Pontisson's list 

 of Churches and Chapels in the diocese of Winton, drawn up circa 

 1284, " Decanatus Somborne — ecclesia de Westdene"; in another 

 list of Churches taxed and non- taxed in the diocese of Winton, 

 inserted in Bishop Beaufort's Register, " Decanatus de Somborne — 

 ecclesia de Westdene non taxatur"; and in a list of the benefices 

 in the diocese of Winton whose annual value " modernis temporibus * 



