Winchester 1541-1857
INTRODUCTION
Like Canterbury and Rochester, Winchester cathedral was reorganized after the dissolution of the monastic chapter of St. Swithun. In royal letters patent of 28 March
1541, (fn. 1) the former prior of the monastery, William Basing or Kingsmill was appointed
dean, together with twelve canons to replace the monks. The offices of archdeacon of
Winchester and Surrey were unaffected. Henry VIII issued statutes for the new body
in 1544, similar to those of other cathedrals of the New Foundation. (fn. 2) The king
originally had the right of presentation to all the prebends, but queen Mary transferred this to the bishop of Winchester in 1557. (fn. 3) The twelve canons were appointed
to numbered prebends in 1541, but the records of subsequent appointments do not
give the number of the prebends, and the succession has to be traced by reference to
predecessors. The cathedral statutes were revised by archbishop Laud, and the new
statutes of 1638 took the place of those of Henry VIII. (fn. 4) The number of canons remained at twelve, until the Cathedrals Act (Stat. 3 & 4 Vic. c. 113) reduced it to five. (fn. 5)
The Ecclesiastical Commissioners also made provision for twenty-four honorary
canons with no duties of residence, and despite their misgivings, the dean and chapter
set their seal to the scheme in 1844. (fn. 6) Special arrangements were made for the period
until the chapter should consist exclusively of canons appointed after the passing of
the Act. (fn. 7) This volume ends with the year 1857, by which time the number of canons
had been reduced by deaths to eight. (fn. 8) It reached five in 1865. (fn. 9) A table at the end of the
Winchester lists shows how the cathedral body was reduced between 1841 and 1865.
Le Neve's work was similar to the type of work he did for Canterbury and Rochester. His lists of bishops cite some archbishops' registers at Lambeth (without any folio
details), Rymer, Keepe's Monuments of Westminster, (fn. 10) and the Diary of Archbishop
Laud. (fn. 11) There are three references to 'Reg. Winton.'. The deans contain another vague
reference to 'Reg. Winton', and otherwise draw heavily on Wood's Historia et Antiquitates Universitatis Oxoniensis. The canons are found in the appendix to his work,
and clearly gave Le Neve some trouble, as the lists are rather unsatisfactory. First he
listed the foundation canons, taken from Gale's Antiquities of Winchester. (fn. 12) Then he
gave canons who were installed between 1546 and 1561, apparently drawn from the
Ledger Book IV (1539-61), and unrelated to the foundation canons. Finally he gave
lists allegedly of each stall, but he worked by 'counting the Twelve now sitting
therein, 1715, and tracing upwards'. In fact, by this method, eight of the twelve
prebends are given completely wrong numbers in 1558. Le Neve gave no references,
and the main or only fact given is the installation, which suggests that he, or his
informant, worked from the chapter ledger books.
As usual, T. D. Hardy's main contribution was to add his findings from the bishops'
certificates at the Public Record Office (E 331 Winchester), though he did not cite
his source. In fact, he gave no references at all throughout his lists of canons. Any
attempt Hardy might have made to correct Le Neve's numbering of prebends was
hampered by the fact that the bishops' certificates give only a very abbreviated summary of the institution as it is in the bishops' registers, and seldom give the name of
the predecessor in a prebend. In the complicated period of Edward VI's and Mary's
reigns, when successive deprivations occurred, the succession is undoubtedly difficult
to trace, but by reference to the bishops' registers it is possible to link the foundation
canons with those installed 1546-61, and then proceed in a logical method with the
subsequent appointments in each prebend. Even after this period Hardy overlooked
some exchanges of prebends, with the result that the lists of Le Neve and Hardy are
totally confused and unreliable. (fn. 1) The last appointment noted by Hardy was that of
William Carus, 21 March 1851.
The first and most obvious source used in this revision of Le Neve-Hardy's work
is the bishops' registers, apparently not used before, although there are gaps in the
series from 1616 to 1626, and from 1684 to 1742. The cathedral records, like those of
Canterbury, fall into two main series, though the division of material is somewhat
different in the two cathedrals. The Ledger Books, otherwise known as Enrolment
Registers or Books of the Common Seal, contain the installations of canons, together
with leases of chapter lands, while the Chapter Act Books record the business at the
two great chapters of the year, and give the names of all the cathedral dignitaries,
major and minor, holding office on each occasion, and not merely those actually
present. This invaluable series begins in 1553, and is complete, apart from a gap of
twenty-two years at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The series of bishops'
certificates at the Public Record Office begins in 1661. Further information comes
from the archbishops' registers at Lambeth, and from the general sources mentioned
in the Introduction to Canterbury. A few printed works of particular value to Winchester cathedral are the Letters of Stephen Gardiner, (fn. 2) the delightful diary of Dean
John Young, 1616-45, (fn. 3) and the scurrilous memoirs of one of bishop Hoadly's
appointments as canon, Edmund Pyle. (fn. 4)
One particular feature of Winchester cathedral body was its close association with
Winchester College and New College, Oxford. A high proportion of canons came from
these two colleges. In fact, in the original foundation charter, John White was informator or schoolmaster of Winchester College, becoming Warden the following
year. After this, every Warden until John Cobb, who died in 1724 (with the exception
of Thomas Brathwaite, 1712-20) held a prebend.