HOUSE OF CLUNIAC MONKS
8. THE PRIORY OF HOLNE OR EAST HOLME
The priory of Holme, or Holne as it was
anciently called, a cell of the Cluniac priory of
Montacute in Somerset, was founded towards
the middle of the twelfth century (fn. 1) by Robert
de Lincoln, the son of Alured de Lincoln. The
founder, in his charter for the endowment of the
new establishment, recites that 'moved by divine
instinct to build a house of religion in honour of
God' he has given to God and the church of
St. Peter of Montacute and the monks serving
God there his land which is called Holne, (fn. 2) in
perpetual alms for the maintenance of thirteen
monks, the gift being made with the concurrence
of Beuza his wife and Alured his son, by the
counsel and consent of the bishop of Salisbury,
in the presence of the prior and monks of
Montacute, and of Gilbert the monk, 'to whom
I afterwards personally gave the place,' for the
souls of King Henry, of the donor's father and
mother, of himself, his wife, and children,
relations, and friends. The original endowment
also consisted of three virgates of land at Weston
Worth (Wrda) in Purbeck, a tithe of the bread,
meat, and fish provided for the use of his household (de dispensa domus mee) and that of his heirs,
a salt-pan of the salt works adjacent to his manor
of Langton, with tithes of his demesne at Okeford Fitzpaine, at Winterborne Whitchurch,
Langton near Abbotsbury, and Corton in Portisham, besides tithes of the demesne at Cheselbourne and Watercombe, the gift of Bardolph
'my knight.' (fn. 3) Alured, the founder's son, added
to the gifts of his father and confirmed all former
grants, stating that they were bestowed in free
alms, quit of all suit and service save of celebrating divine offices for the soul of the founder, of
his ancestors and successors, and of all the faithful departed. (fn. 4)
An inquisition, held in June, 1281, as to the
lands and tenements of the prior of Montacute
in the isle of Purbeck reported that these were
extended to the value of £16 6s. 2d., and included, besides the advowson of the church of
Holme, valued at 60s., a garden and curtilage
with 34 acres of arable land, 40 acres of meadow,
a turbary, fish-pond, fixed rents (reddit' assis') of
the villeins, their works, pleas, perquisites, fines
of land and heriots within the manor of Holme. (fn. 5)
The Taxatio of 1291 gives the priory an income
only of £5 10s. 8d., the spiritualities, amounting
to £2 13s. 8d., derived from pensions from the
following churches:—Puddletown, (fn. 6) Warmwell, (fn. 7)
Corton, Langton Herring, and Powerstock; (fn. 8)
the temporalities were valued at £2 17s., of
which £2 1s. 8d. came from Weston Worth
in Purbeck. (fn. 9)
As a cell subordinate to an alien house, Holme
was constantly in the hands of the crown during
the Hundred Years' War. On 8 October,
1324, the farm of the lands of the prior of Montacute in Holme and Plush was committed by
Edward II to Walter Beril and Roger de Blokkesworthe until the superior had found sufficient
security to satisfy the king, after which they were
ordered to amove their hand. (fn. 10) Edward III,
shortly after his accession, made a general
restoration to the abbot of Cluny of all his lands
and possessions in England, (fn. 11) but they were subsequently re-seized, and in 1337 the prior of
Holme was ordered to pay a fine of six marks
and 40s. for the custody of his priory. (fn. 12) In 1339
Edward III granted to William de Montacute,
earl of Salisbury and his heirs the advowson of
the priory of Montacute, with the custody
whenever it should be seized into the king's
hand by reason of the war with France, and at
the earl's petition the following year he added
on similar terms the advowson and custody of
Carswell, Holme, St. Carric, and Malpas, cells
pertaining to the said priory 'from the time of
which memory does not exist.' (fn. 13) One of the
earliest acts of Henry IV on his accession was to
restore, among others, the alien priory of
Montacute with its subject cells, remitting the
farm lately paid to the king and his heirs or, by
virtue of a former grant, to the earl of Salisbury and his heirs, and reserving only the
payment of the ancient 'apport,' paid in time of
peace to the head house. The prior in 1407,
by the payment of a sum of 300 marks, obtained a charter of denization for his house,
which made the priory, with all its possessions, advowsons, &c., indigenous of England,
and provided that its superior should be elected
by the convent without collation or institution of the abbot of Cluny. (fn. 14) Holme continued
up to the Dissolution as a dependent cell
with a prior 'dative and removable' by the head
house. (fn. 15)
Though ordained by the founder for the
maintenance of thirteen monks, there appears
from early times to have been a considerable
decline from the original design. The inquisition
held in 1281 declared that the prior of Montacute held the church and manor of Holme
subject to the charge of finding four monks to
sing for the soul of Alured de Lincoln, his
progenitors and successors. (fn. 16) Two years previous
to that the priors of Mont Didier in France and
Lenton in England, appointed by the abbot of
Cluny, in 1279, to visit English houses of the
order, found here two monks and a prior, (fn. 17) while
a fifteenth-century description, probably drawn
up from visitation reports of 1298, 1390, and
1405, stated that the community consisted of
a prior and two monks. (fn. 18) Leland, in the
sixteenth century, said that the four cells
belonging to Montacute had only two monks
each. (fn. 19)
With regard to the internal condition and
management of the house, the visitors appointed
in 1279 reported that the inmates lived well and
commendably according to the rule, fulfilling
their religious duties as far as the exigencies
of the place permitted and the limited number of the community. (fn. 20) The prior, who had
been in office for three years, had taken over
the house burdened with a debt of twenty
marks, which he had managed to pay off,
and it was now free of debt. (fn. 21) The buildings
and church were in good repair, and there
was a sufficient store to last till the following harvest. The Cluniac order being exempt
from episcopal jurisdiction and visitation by
the ordinary the Salisbury registers throw no
light on the history of the house, but various
references are made to it in other records. In
January, 1331, a commission of oyer and terminer was issued on the complaint of the abbot
of Bindon against John de Montacute, sometime abbot of Bindon, who, both before and
after his deposition, proved such a source of
trouble to his house; in his quarrel with his
own community he seems to have enlisted the
active support of the then prior of Holme,
Walter de Welham, at all events the two, with
others, were accused of breaking into the abbey
by night, driving away cattle, and carrying off
books, vessels, and ornaments of the church,
together with the conventual seal, which they
further proceeded to append to various documents to the prejudice of the community. (fn. 22)
In 1348 a certain Ralph de Midelneye was
charged with having acquired from the same
prior, Walter de Welham, then deceased, certain
premises in Winterborne Wast, Bockhampton,
and Swanage, and having entered on the same
without obtaining a licence of the king. (fn. 23)
Edward III, in 1344, directed the mayor and
bailiffs of Dover to permit Gerard de Noiale,
prior of Holme, to cross the Channel in order to
visit the Roman court 'for the correction of his
soul.' (fn. 24)
The Valor of 1535 states that John Wales
was then prior of this cell, valued at
£16 9s. 4d., (fn. 25) and on the surrender of Montacute Priory, 20 March, 1539, the same John
was appointed to serve the cure of Holme with
a stipend of £8; in the event of his being 'impotente and lame' and past work he should
receive a pension of £5 13s. 4d. (fn. 26) The house
and site of the dissolved cell were granted by
Henry VIII to Richard Hamper for a term of
twenty-one years; Edward VI, in the first year
of his reign, bestowed the reversion of the
property on the duke of Somerset and his
heirs. By the attainder of the duke the estate
reverted again to the crown, by whom it was
granted to John Hannam of Wimborne Minster, in whose family it remained till the reign
of William and Mary, when it came into the
Bond family. (fn. 27)
Priors of Holme (fn. 28)
Hada, occurs 1217–18 (fn. 29)
Geoffrey, occurs 1262 (fn. 30)
Walter de Welham, occurs 1330 (fn. 31)
Gerard de Noiale, occurs 1344 (fn. 32)
William Pope, occurs 1444 (fn. 33)
John Wales, or Wallis, occurs 1535 and
1539 (fn. 34)