Page 6 - Estate Catalogue complete Flip book_Neat

EXTRACTS FROM A PAMPHLET
BY
THE REV. W. S. SWAYNE, M.A.
GIVING
The History and Antiquities of the

Parish of Stalbridge

in Dorset

(Published in the year 1888)

STALBRIDGE AND THE ROMANS. bridge as “A praty uplandisch toune of one
“streate, meately well buildyd, where at the
HOUGH there is not sufficient evidence
“northe end of the town there is a churche; and
that there was ever a Roman settlement
T
“there one Thornehull of Thornehull lyeth
at Stalbridge, there is abundant evidence
“buried, on the south syde of the quier in a fayre
that the place was not unknown to them. About
“chapell of his own building. The lordship and
twenty vears ago, when digging for gravel in a
“townelet of Stapleford in Blakemore hath
field named Gomershay, near the river Stour,
“longgid of aunciente tyme unto the Abbay of
some workmen discovered a Roman burying-
“Shirburne. This towne was privilegyd with a
place. Inside four slabs of stone a sepulchral urn
“market and a faire, by the procurement of an
was found, and with the urn a great number of
“Abbat of Shirburne. The market is decayed,
Roman coins, more than a thousand in all, at
“the faire remaynithe. There is a right goodly
least three hundred of which were in excellent
“Springe on the southe syde of the church
preservation. These coins chiefly belonged to the
“waullyd about. Stour is the next water on it,
age of Constantine. There was also found at the
“and that levith Stalbridge about a mile on the
same place a Roman quern, or hand mill. It is
“right ripe.”
possible that in an expedition up the river Stour
some man of importance may have died, and In the first year of Edward VI, the manor of
been buried in Gomershay field, or the place may Stalbridge was granted to the Duke of Somerset.
have been an outlying Roman station. Roman As Somerset was the boy king’s uncle and Lord
coins have also been discovered in Stalbridge Protector of England, this discreditable business
itself, two specimens, one bronze and the other simply means that the scoundrel granted the lands
copper, having been dug up in Mr. Lionel Parsons’ which he had taken from the church to himself.
garden in Gold-street. The copper coin bears on Never, probably, has Stalbridge had a worse lord
the obverse a very perfect female head, with the of the manor than Somerset, the man who com-
inscription “LVCILLA AVGVSTA.” passed his own brother’s execution, and was
himself afterwards executed for felony. On his
THE MANOR OF STALBRIDGE. attainder, however, in 1549, the manor passed to
The ancient name of Stalbridge seems to have John Touchet, Lord Audeley. On the attainder
been Staplebridge or Stapleford. In Domesday of a subsequent Lord Audeley the manor was
Book, Stalbridge is surveyed among the lands of granted to Richard Boyle, Earl of Cork.
the Bishop of Salisbury: “The same Bishop
In 1644, Symonds’ Diary relates that king
holds Staplebrige.” Its yearly value was in those
Charles I dined with Lord Cork at Stalbridge,
days estimated at £12 per annum. There is a
“Tuesday, Oct. 8th, the king marched from
curious addition in Domesday Book which points
“Sherborne, and lay that night at Stawbridge,
to one of William Rufus’ various experiments
“the fayre howse of the Earle of Corke. The
in the way of Disendowment: “of this same land
“north yle of the church is full of coates. Wee
also Manasses holds three virgares, which William
“returned to our quarters.” The fated king
the king’s son took from the church without the
was then on his way to fight the battle of Newbury,
consent of the Bishop and the monks. Thereon
which took place on October 27th, in which he
is one plough.”
suffered defeat at the hands of the Parliamentary
By the year 1293, the lordship of the manor army.
had passed into the hands of the Abbot of
The famous Robert Boyle, Chemist and
Sherborne, and his lands were valued at a yearly
Philosopher, whom Hutchings speaks of as “a
value of £20 8s. 4d. The connection with Sher-
“man superior to titles and almost to praise,”
borne Abbey is probably still attested by the name
was the fourteenth child of the Earl of Cork.
“Prior’s Down,” the farm of which name seems
He was born at Lismore in 1627, and received the
anciently to have belonged to the Prior of Sherborne.
earlier part of his education at Eton, but after
Leland, in his Itinerary, published in the reign three years of school life he was brought by his
of Henry VIII, describes Stapleford or Staple- father to Stalbridge and committed to the care
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