Memorials of Old Dorset

by Unknown

The rebuilding of the Abbey Church choir in the fifteenth century recalls to our mind the great quarrel between the Abbey and the townsfolk, which came to a head in the year 1437. It has already been noted that in ancient times the townsfolk had been allowed by the Abbot and Convent to use the western part of the Abbey Church nave as a parish church. Thus the Abbey Church had become a divided church—part was conventual, part parochial. But as time went on this arrangement ceased to please one or other, or both, parties, and the consequence was that All Hallows was built at the west end of the Abbey Church for the use of the parishioners. After this addition was made, the large Norman doorway at the west end of the south aisle of the Abbey Church nave was narrowed by the insertion of a smaller doorway. Now, All Hallows had not the status of a parish church; technically, the parish church was still the western part of the Abbey Church nave, and here it was still necessary for all Sherborne children to be baptised in the font, which originally stood where the present font stands. The parishioners, to get to the font, had to enter All Hallows’ Church, and pass thence into the Abbey Church through the Norman doorway, which had been narrowed. This the parishioners regarded as a grievance. It appears, also, that the Abbot had moved the font from the place where it now stands to some other site which the parishioners regarded as inconvenient. The parishioners, therefore, in 1436, took the law into their own hands, and eight of them are charged before the bishop with having set up a font in All Hallows. The Abbot, of course, regarded this as a usurpation of the rectorial rights of the Convent; he complained, also, of another grievance, to wit, that the parish bells rang to matins at too early an hour, and disturbed the morning slumbers of the monks. For though they got up at midnight to sing matins and lauds, they went to bed again, and slept till the hour for prime, somewhere between 6 and 7 a.m. Abbot Bradford, therefore, appealed to the Bishop of Sarum, Robert Nevile, who came to Sherborne and held an inquiry on the 12th November, 1436, in what is now the chapel of the school, but was then the Abbot’s hall. He examined one hundred or more of the parishioners, many of whom had not approved of the high-handed course taken in the matter of the font. After a thorough investigation, the Bishop, by the advice of his counsel learned in the law, gave his decision from his manor of Ramsbury, on the 8th January, 1437. It was to this effect—(a) that the font in All Hallows was to be at once utterly destroyed and removed and carried out of the church by those who had caused it to be set there; (b) that the ringing of the bells to matins for the parishioners throughout the year was not to be made till after the sixth hour had struck on the clocka or horologium of the monastery, except on the following solemn feasts: All Saints, Christmas, Epiphany, and Easter; (c) that the font of the Abbey Church was to be replaced in its old accustomed position, and all infants born or to be born in Sherborne were, as of old, to be baptised therein; (d) that the intermediate door and entrance for the procession of parishioners to the font was to be enlarged and arched so as to give ample space and bring it to its original form; (e) that the manner of the procession and other ceremonies about the font were to be observed in the old and wonted way; (f) that there must be made, at the expense of the monastery, in the nave of the monastic church, close to the monks’ choir, a partition, so that there should be a distinct line of separation between the monks and the parishioners; (g) that the replacing of the Abbey Church font in its wonted place, and the enlarging of the door, must effectually be completed before the following Christmas.

This admirable judgment was not received by the disputants with the respect which it deserved; delays and evasions on both sides brought about a violent termination of the dispute. The monks induced “one Walter Gallor a stoute Bocher dwelling yn Sherborne” to enter All Hallows, where “he defacid cleane the Fontstone; the townsmen, aided by an Erle of Huntindune lying in these Quarters ... rose in playne sedition ... a Preste of Alhalowes shot a shaft with fier into the Toppe of that part of St. Marye Church that divided the Est Part that the monks usid; and this Partition chauncing at that tyme to be thakked yn the Rofe was sette a fier, and consequently al the hole Chirch, the Lede and Belles meltid, was defacid.” After the fire the monks were induced to agree to the legal transformation of All Hallows’ Chapel into the parish Church, in order to get rid of the parishioners altogether.

The monks never removed the smaller doorway by which the old Norman entrance was narrowed; there it stands to this day, a monument of that stormy time, and connected with it there is still a curious tale to tell. Among the eight parishioners who, “casting behind them the fear of God,” set up the obnoxious font in All Hallows, and complained of the narrowed doorway, there was a certain Richard Vowell. Anyone who now examines this doorway will notice that the wall, which now blocks it up, is almost wholly occupied by a large monumental tablet to the memory of Benjamin Vowell, who died in 1783, and to his three wives; thus, as Professor Willis neatly showed, the doorway which in the fifteenth century Richard Vowell felt to be too narrow, Benjamin Vowell in the eighteenth blocked up altogether. The “partition” referred to, which was being thatched, must have been the tower, which was being raised in height, and was covered with a temporary roof of thatch to keep out the rain; no doubt, also, the new choir, which was already built as high as the springing-stones of the vault, was also thatched for the same purpose. The reddened stones in the choir and tower still bear witness to this fire.

John Barnstaple, last Abbot of Sherborne, surrendered the Abbey into the hands of King Henry VIII. on the 18th March, 1539. He received a pension of £100 a year, and the Rectory of Stalbridge in 1540; this living had been in the patronage of the Abbot and Convent. He died in 1560; we know neither the place of his death nor of his burial, but he certainly was not buried at Stalbridge; he left a small legacy to Sherborne School.

Henry VIII. sold the Abbey Church, and the demesne lands of the Abbey, to Sir John Horsey, of Clifton Maybank; Sir John, in 1540, sold the Abbey Church to the parishioners; the lead, however, with which the church was roofed, had not been granted to Sir John, and the parishioners had to buy that through him from the King. The parishioners appear to have begun at once to sell All Hallows for building stone. The parish accounts for 1540 and 1541 are missing, but that for 1542-3 shows the process of selling going merrily on, until, finally, in the account for 1548-9, we get the last of it in such entries as these: “George Swetnam, for vi. yerds off one syde off the Tower, xxs.; Robert ffoster, for foundation stones of ye Northe Syde of ye Tower, xiiis.; Mr. Sergyer, for a yard off the grace table off the sowthe syde and for the dore yn the north syde off ye Tow^r, xs.”!

It may be interesting to set down here what the parishioners paid for the Abbey Church and lead. We have already noted that the parish accounts for 1540 and 1541 are missing. They were not missing, however, in the eighteenth century, as is evident from an entry in the parish account book in use from 10th April, 1721, to 4th April, 1809. This entry is due to Francis Fisher, a Sherborne attorney, who was steward to the Governors of the School during the years 1720-1730. He tells us that by an indenture made the 28th September, 1545, between the King on the one part and Sir John Horsey on the other, the parishioners paid £230 for the body of the church and tower and for the lead. He adds that the parish account rolls give us the following information: In 1540 the parish paid £40 for the church, in 1541 £26 13s. 4d. for the same, in 1541 £17 17s. 6d. for the bells of the Abbey, in 1542 £100 for the lead, in 1544 £80 in full payment for the church and lead. So that, if the King got in 1545 £230, and the parish actually paid £264 10s. 10d., Sir John put into his pocket the balance. However we may regard this matter, the parishioners of Sherborne made an excellent bargain.

No man can doubt but that the dissolution of the monastery meant serious loss to Sherborne. Its Abbots had ruled wisely and well, as far as we can judge, a strip of territory stretching, though not in an unbroken line, from Stalbridge to Exmouth. Anyone who will make for himself a map of the manors in Dorset and Devon belonging to our Abbey, will see that this is so; and besides these, our Abbey held other lands as well, so that when Sherborne ceased to be the caput of this fair estate, much that had once come our way ceased to come hither any more. Though the presence of the school here has in later times done much to redeem this loss, one cannot say that it has entirely done so.

The Entrance to Sherborne School.

Of all the ancient institutions in Sherborne, that one which has kept its dwelling-place longest, which is to-day what it was before Wessex became one with England, is Sherborne School. The old Castle is a ruin, the Almshouse dates only from the fifteenth century, the Abbey Church became the parish church only in 1540. But the School, though it suffered pecuniary loss in 1539 by the dissolution of the monastery, suffered no breach of continuity; it was in existence when the Almshouse was founded, it educated St. Stephen Harding in the eleventh century, and we have no reason to think that its existence suffered any break from Ealdhelm’s day till then. A school with such a history may well call forth some reverence from those who love Wessex and know something of its history. Our school has roots which stretch down into the very beginnings of things Christian among the West Saxons, and there is certainly no existing school in Wessex that can rival its claim to antiquity.