THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES OF WILTSHIRE
The religious houses of Wiltshire, even in the widest sense of the term,
were not very numerous, and, with four exceptions, were of no more
than local importance. Foremost among the exceptions must be
placed the chapter of secular canons of the cathedral church of Salisbury.
One of the first cathedral chapters to be organized on a large scale on a secular
basis, it was the only one known to have a written constitution. Consequently
in the 12th and 13th centuries it tended to be the model to which other cathedral chapters turned for constitutional precedents. In the later Middle Ages,
moreover, the Use of Salisbury was pre-eminent among liturgical uses. Of the
religious houses within the more limited meaning of the term, three were Saxon
foundations. The Benedictine abbey of Wilton, whose abbess held her lands of
the king in chief by knight service, ranked throughout its history as one of the
greatest nunneries in England. Like the other great nunneries of Wessex—
Shaftesbury, Winchester, and Romsey—Wilton had a quasi-college of secular
canons attached to it. Malmesbury Abbey, also a Saxon foundation, was not one
of the richest houses of the Benedictine Order, but many of its abbots played an
important part in affairs outside the county. It had also the distinction of being
the home and burial place of St. Aldhelm and of William of Malmesbury, the
historian. The abbey of Amesbury, likewise of pre-Conquest origin, was at first
a house for nuns following the Rule of St. Benedict. It was refounded in the
12th century and became one of the three double houses of the Order of Fontevrault in the country. Like Wilton, it had a long and close connexion with the
monarchy and was the resort of aristocrats.
All the more important religious orders had houses in Wiltshire except the
Carthusians and the Premonstratensians, who established only a temporary cell
at Charlton (near Upavon). The reformed Benedictine Order of Cluny was
represented by a priory at Monkton Farleigh, a dependency of the Priory of
Lewes (Suss.). The Cistercians also had only one house, founded originally at
Loxwell (in Pewsham) as a daughter house of the abbey of Quarr (Isle of Wight),
but moved soon after its foundation to Stanley in Bremhill. Houses of Augustinian canons were established at Bradenstoke, Ivychurch, Longleat, and Maiden
Bradley. There were two Gilbertine priories, both for canons only, one at Marlborough, the other at Poulton (now in Glos.). In addition, the rarer orders were
represented by the Trinitarians at Easton Royal and the house of Bonhommes at
Edington, which was the second and last house of that order to be founded in
England. The Knights Templars had a preceptory at Temple Rockley and the
Hospitallers at Ansty. Three out of the four great Orders of Friars were represented in the county: the Dominicans, who moved from Wilton to Salisbury
towards the end of the 13th century, the Franciscans at Salisbury, and the
Carmelites at Marlborough. Besides the nunneries at Wilton and Amesbury,
there was a small house of Benedictine nuns at Kington St. Michael, and a house
of Augustinian canonesses at Lacock.
There are some isolated references to pre-Conquest religious communities
in Wiltshire about which almost nothing is known. (fn. 1) In addition to the community established at Bradford-on-Avon by St. Aldhelm in the 8th century, (fn. 2)
Wintra, Abbot of Tisbury, occurs between 710 and 716, (fn. 3) and in 759 monks of
Tisbury are mentioned. (fn. 4) According to legend, a house of monks had also been
established before the Danish invasions at Amesbury, (fn. 5) and a community at
Damerham (now in Hants) is mentioned in King Alfred's will. (fn. 6) No traces of
these houses are found in the 10th and 11th centuries. At the end of the 10th
century there appears to have been a community at Bedwyn, (fn. 7) for tithes were
assigned for the maintenance of the 'servants of God' there. A bequest in a will
of the same period suggests that there may also have been a monastery or collegiate church at Cricklade. (fn. 8) The large endowments recorded in the Domesday
Survey for the churches at Netheravon and Calne also suggest that there may
have been religious communities in these two places at an earlier time. At Netheravon the possibility is strengthened by architectural evidence, for there are traces
of subsidiary buildings on either side of the pre-Conquest tower of the present
church. Certain features in the church at Britford suggest a similar possibility.
The author of the Eulogium Historiarum records a tradition that at an early date
there was a community of nuns at Malmesbury, (fn. 9) but no other reference to it has
been found.
There were but few hospitals within the county and nearly all of them were
small and insignificant. The most interesting is that of St. Nicholas, Salisbury,
which still survives as an almshouse after existing for over 700 years. It also
claims the affection of Trollopians as the probable original of Hiram's Hospital
in The Warden. Trinity Hospital, Salisbury, the hospitals of St. Giles, St. John
the Baptist, and St. Mary Magdalene, Wilton, and the Hungerford Hospital in
Heytesbury have also all survived until the present day (1953) as almshouses.
Certain of the more obscure houses mentioned by Dugdale and others have
been omitted from the section which follows because their existence as religious
houses has not been proved. A number of bequests to a house for lepers at East
Harnham, Salisbury, in the 14th and 15th centuries have been noticed, (fn. 10) and
there is a reference to a spittal house there in the 17th century. (fn. 11) There is a
reference in 1269 to 'Merton' hospital, said to have been founded by one Warin. (fn. 12)
This may refer to Marten in Great Bedwyn, where in the 14th century there is
mention of a free chapel, (fn. 13) or it may refer to St. John's Hospital, Cricklade,
founded by Warin, one of Henry III's chaplains. (fn. 14) A hospital of St. Lawrence
at Chippenham was granted protection for one year in 1338, (fn. 15) but is not heard
of again, and at Malmesbury there is a similar single reference in 1245 to
St. Anthony's Hospital. (fn. 16) The full discussion of the evidence for the existence
of these houses is left for the relevant topographical volumes.
De Vaux College, Salisbury, was an interesting and unusual institution.
Founded in the 13th century as a house for 20 scholars, it invested Salisbury for
a time with the main characteristics of a university city. Besides the cathedral
church of St. Mary, there was one other collegiate church in the city—St. Edmund's. The only other collegiate church in the county was that at Heytesbury.
The six alien priories in Wiltshire were all, except possibly that at Ogbourne,
small and unimportant cells, and there is little evidence of conventual life in them.
Ogbourne, which belonged to the abbey of Bec, was for a time the administrative centre for all the English lands of Bec not definitely attached to one of the
other English dependencies of the abbey. No evidence has been found for the
existence of the alien priory at Stratton St. Margaret, to which Dugdale referred
without much conviction. (fn. 17)
There are numerous references to hermits and anchorites in Wiltshire. One
of the earliest is to the learned Irish monk Mailduib, who settled in a desolate
spot on the edge of Selwood Forest, and whose disciples were the predecessors
of the monks of Malmesbury. In the 13th century there is mention of two
female recluses: Eve, known as the recluse of Preshute, who in 1215 received a
grant of 1d. a day from the king, (fn. 18) and Joan, recluse of Britford. The recluse of
Britford received royal gifts of oaks in 1226, 1231, and 1245, (fn. 19) and in 1237 the
sheriff was ordered to see that the courtyard surrounding her house (hospicium)
was enclosed with a stone wall. (fn. 20) In 1296 a hermit in Bentley Wood (Clarendon
Forest) received 21s. and 2 qrs. of wheat. (fn. 21) There was still a hermit there in 1331.
He was one John de Warwick, who was that year granted one year's protection
for collecting alms. (fn. 22) Two years later he received a similar grant for himself and
'his men'. (fn. 23)
References to hermits dwelling in or near chapels in which they conducted
services also occur. In 1317 licence was granted for the alienation in mortmain
of 2 acres at Codford St. Mary to Henry de Mareys, chaplain and hermit, who
was to build on this land a house and a chapel in which to celebrate divine service. (fn. 24) Dispensation was granted in 1348 to a hermit at Fisherton Anger to conduct services in the chapel there. In 1352 the place of the hermit had been
usurped by a layman, who had assumed clerical dress, and the chapel was placed
under an interdict by the Bishop of Salisbury. Some years later Bishop Metford
restored the right to hold services to Thomas, hermit of St. Anne's Chapel,
Fisherton Anger. In 1418 the bishop was again concerned with the hermit of
Fisherton when he considered the request of one John to be shut up in a narrow
place of hermitage at the end of the chapel of Fisherton. (fn. 25) There seems also to
have been a hermitage with a chapel attached at Bradford-on-Avon, for in about
1397 40 days' indulgence was granted to the chapel or hermitage of St. Andrew
there. (fn. 26) References to hermits in Bradford also occur in 1340 (fn. 27) and 1428. (fn. 28)
In 1337-8 at the hospital of St. James and St. Denis, Southbroom, (fn. 29) and in
1340 at St. Thomas's Hospital, Marlborough, (fn. 30) hermits were employed to gather
alms for the two houses. A hermit is said to have tended the causeway at Chippenham, and there is mention of a hermit in that town in the 16th century, when it
is recorded that he held 3 acres by the hermitage. (fn. 31) John Benton, ah anchorite in
Marlborough in 1529, received 13s. 4d. from Katherine of Aragon's receivers. (fn. 32)
A hermitage at Malmesbury was among the property granted to various persons
upon the dissolution of the abbey. (fn. 33)
Leland commented upon buildings which he supposed to have been hermitages at Hazelbury and Edington. (fn. 34) The building at Hazelbury was the chapel
called Chapel Plaister and thought by Aubrey to be attached not to a hermitage
but to a resting-place for pilgrims. (fn. 35) Leland also referred to a hermitage in the
'Dike of the Towne' at the west end of the old parish church of Malmesbury, (fn. 36)
and suggests that the Tory chapel, Bradford-on-Avon, was the chapel of a hermitage. (fn. 37) Aubrey (1626-97) records 'a very fine hermitage' at Stanton St.
Quintin, (fn. 38) and suggests that there may have been hermitages at Yatton Keynell
and Lydiard Tregoze. (fn. 39)
ECCLESIASTICAL MAP OF WILTSHIRE
KEY TO ECCLESIASTICAL MAP
SECULAR CANONS
1. Salisbury Cathedral.
BENEDICTINE MONKS
2. Malmesbury Abbey.
BENEDICTINE NUNS
3. Wilton Abbey.
4. Amesbury Abbey, later Priory.
5. Kington St. Michael Priory.
CLUNIAC MONKS
6. Monkton Farleigh Priory.
CISTERCIAN MONKS
7. Stanley Abbey.
AUGUSTINIAN CANONS
8. Bradenstoke Priory.
9. Ivychurch Priory.
10. Maiden Bradley Priory.
11. Longleat Priory.
AUGUSTINIAN CANON ESSES
12. Lacock Abbey.
GILBERTINE CANONS
13. Marlborough Priory.
14. Poulton Priory.
BONHOMMES
15. Edington.
TRINITARIANS
16. Easton Priory or Hospital.
KNIGHTS TEMPLARS
17. Temple Rockley Preceptory.
KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS
18. Ansty Preceptory.
FRIARS
19. Salisbury Franciscan.
20. Wilton Dominican.
21. Salisbury Dominican.
22. Marlborough Carmelite.
HOSPITALS
23. Great Bedwyn, St. John the Baptist.
24. Bradford-on-Avon, St. Margaret.
25. Calne, St. John the Baptist and St. Anthony.
26. Cricklade, St. John the Baptist.
27. Devizes, St. John the Baptist.
28. Heytesbury, St. John and St. Katharine.
29. Malmesbury, St. John the Baptist.
30. Malmesbury, St. Mary Magalene.
31. Marlborough, St. John the Baptist.
32. Marlborough, St. Thomas the Martyr.
33. Salisbury, St. Nicholas.
34. Salisbury, Holy Trinity.
35. Salisbury, St. John the Baptist and St. Anthony.
36. Southbroom, St. James and St. Denis.
37. Wilton, St. Giles and St. Anthony.
38. Wilton, St. John the Baptist.
39. Wilton, St. Mary Magdalene.
40. Wootton Bassett, St. John the Baptist.
COLLEGES
41. Salisbury, De Vaux.
42. Salisbury, St. Edmund.
43. Heytesbury, St. Peter and St. Paul.
ALIEN HOUSES
44. Avebury Priory.
45. Charlton Priory.
46. Clatford Priory.
47. Corsham Priory.
48. Ogbourne Priory.
49. Upavon Priory.
RURAL DEANERIES
I. Malmesbury.
II. Cricklade.
III. Avebury.
IV. Marlborough.
V. Potterne.
VI. Amesbury.
VII. Wylye.
VIII. Wilton.
IX. Chalke.