By the Rev. Canon Molerly. 



135 



A list of those who were the heads of the hospital during this 

 time will be found in the Appendix. 1 Their official titles varied. 

 Nicholas Laking, the first head under Bingham's foundation, was 

 called "custos," or warden. But Bridport, calling himself " warden," 

 put in a " prior 99 to rule the hospital : and this arrangement con- 

 tinued under Bishop Wyley, in whose time (1266) we hear of 

 " Brother Adam, the prior 99 of the hospital. But in 1281 John 

 Burnes is again "custos"; Bishop Wykehampton seems to have 

 given up his claim to that title. And only once again do we find 

 the head of the hospital called " prior " : and that is in the time of 

 the old Bishop Longespee, a younger son of Earl William of 

 Pembroke and the Countess Ela the first benefactress of the hospital, 

 who thus must have again adopted for himself the " wardenship 39 

 of St. Nicholas'. After this the bishops again repudiated the title : 

 for we find the immediate head always called <e warden/'' and ap- 

 pointed by the bishop. The episcopal records of institutions begin 

 with the fourteenth century : so that thenceforward we have an 

 unbroken list of wardens, or masters. But " warden " is the title 

 by which they are consistently known till the beginning of the 

 sixteenth century. 



We have also a list, though very fragmentary indeed, of the 

 wardens of the Valley College. 2 John Holtby was the first: the 

 second bore the name of Thomas Bridport, and so was some relative, 

 or at least a fellow-townsman, of Bishop Giles, Once (1337) we 

 find the same man (John Kirkby, Archdeacon of Dorset) warden of 

 both institutions. Before this, in 1325, the chapter had voted that 

 the scholars of the Valley College should go " to Oxford, or to some 

 proper place of study 99 : none were to remain and inhabit the 

 building but the two stewards, two chaplains, cook, and butler. It 

 looks as if the chapter had become jealous of Bridport's college : 

 and were determined that the office of warden should thenceforth 

 be a sinecure. At this time it was, perhaps, that the Salisbury 

 scholars acquired tenements in School Street, Oxford, "and par- 

 ticularly in two halls that joined together, one called for the most 



1 Appendix D. 



2 Appendix E. 



VOL. XXV. — NO. LXXIV. L 



