HOUSES OF CISTERCIAN MONKS
6. THE ABBEY OF QUARR
The Cistercian abbey of Quarr, dedicated to
the honour of the Blessed Virgin, situate on
the northern shore of the Isle of Wight, in
the parish of Binstead, was one of the earliest
foundations of that order in the kingdom. It
was founded by Baldwin, the second de
Redvers, Lord of the Wight, in 1131. By
a charter of that date he granted to Geoffrey,
abbot of his Norman monastery of Savigny,
land on which to build the monastery, the
manor of Arreton, the land of Sheat (Sieca),
' Boccumba,' the mill of Christchurch and the
mill of ' Boleherst.' (fn. 2) This grant was confirmed by William de Vernon, Earl of Devon,
the son of the founder, about 1195, together
with various subsequent grants of lands and
salt pits, and of the chapel of St. Nicholas in
Carisbrooke castle; the grantor also gave
liberty to the monks of Quarr to buy and sell
free of toll in all his lands. (fn. 3)
Henry, Duke of Normandy, before he came
to the throne, gave to the monks of Quarr
land in ' Locwella' ad faciendam ibidem
capitalem abbatiam, from which it is evident
that the island abbey was considered capable,
within twenty years of its foundation, of
dispatching a colony to found another monastery. (fn. 20) About 1150 a composition was
entered into between Hillary, abbot of Lire,
and Gervase, abbot of Quarr, by which the
former conceded to the latter, in return for
a yearly pension of 40s., the tithes and
profits of the manors of Arreton, Haseley,
Luccombe, Titchingham and Shalcombe.
This arrangement was renewed in 1239 with
a further sum of 10s. a year for the support
of the church of Carisbrooke. (fn. 1)
In 1238 Gregory IX. issued a bull allowing the community to choose a confessor from
their own body.
Edward I. in 1284 granted the abbey free
warren over all their manors in the Isle of
Wight. (fn. 2)
At the time of the taxation of 1291, the
annual value of the temporalities of the abbey
in Winchester, including four mills and the
profits of tanneries in the island, amounted to
£96 3s. 4d. The abbot had also temporalities at Forwood, in Exeter diocese, of the
annual value of £13 6s. 8d.
The Crown imposed a life pensioner on
the community on 13 April, 1330, when
Benedict de Glannvyll, who had long served
the king and his father, was sent to the abbey
to receive such maintenance for life as John le
Hunte had had in that house in his lifetime,
by the late king's request. (fn. 3)
On 9 March, 1339, William Trussel,
admiral of the fleet from the mouth of the
Thames towards the west, received orders
from the king to supersede the exaction made
on the abbot of Quarr for finding a ship prepared for war with sixty men, mariners and
others, well armed and supplied with necessaries, to set out with other ships under royal
command. The abbot had successfully besought the king to be released from this
obligation, inasmuch as he was already maintaining ten men-at-arms and no small number
of archers in the Isle of Wight for its defence
at a great expense, and was quite unable to
support any further charge. (fn. 4)
We find by the feudal aid of 1346 that
the abbot held half a knight's fee in perpetual
alms in Sheat in Gatcombe. (fn. 5)
In 1366 Edward III. granted the abbey
licence to crenelate as a safeguard against
foreign invasion, and about the same time
letters patent were issued that all wine ships
belonging to the community should come and
go free of duty. (fn. 6)
The abbots of Quarr held a distinguished
position in the Isle of Wight. When a commission of array was issued in April, 1380,
on information of an intended invasion by
France and Spain, the abbot of Quarr headed
the list of eight gentlemen nominated by the
Crown, preceding even Sir Thomas de
Beauchamp, the governor of Carisbrooke
castle. (fn. 7) John Cheselburgh, abbot of Quarr,
occupied a like honourable position, in royal
commissions of 1461 and 1462, to summon
the king's subjects of the island and of the
counties of Hampshire, Surrey and Sussex
to defend the Isle of Wight against the
French. (fn. 8)
The Valor of 1535 gives the clear annual
value of the house as £134 3s. 11d.
In December, 1535, Abbot Ripon wrote
to Cromwell about farms that the lord privy
seal and his nephew Richard had desired to
obtain. The abbot protested that the farms
in question were the demesnes of the monastery by which hospitality and the household
were maintained, and that without them the
abbot could not continue the house. Besides
the demesne, the monastery could not spend
yearly above £120, and fifty persons had to
be kept, besides such as resorted thither from
the country. He trusted therefore that
Cromwell's servant would be contented with
the reversion of any farms he might have to
let, and to secure his favour he would give
the fine to him and his nephew. (fn. 9) The last
abbot's anxiety as to his farms was not however of long duration, for being under £200
of annual value the monastery was dissolved
in 1536.
Special efforts were made in the locality to
secure the king's good will for this monastery
and for Netley on the other side of the
water, but all in vain. The particularly good
report of the county commissioners, Sir James
Worsley and John and George Poulet and
William Berners, presented on 30 May, 1536,
was treated as so much waste paper. They
reported that the abbey of Quarr was: ' A
hedde house of Monkes of the ordre of
Cisteaux beinge of large buyldinge scituate
upon the ryvage of the sees by raporte greate
refuge and comforte to all th'inhabitantes of
the same yle and to strangers traveillinge
the seid sees'; £156 10s. 1d.; 10 monks,
all priests, of good religious conversation,
eight of whom desire to continue in religion,
and two to have capacities; 39 other inmates,
viz. 10 waiting servants, 7 servants in the
church, 8 officers in the household, 10 hinds,
2 lavenders, (fn. 1) 6 dairymen, and one 'corodur';
church, mansion and building in convenient
repair, lead and bells worth £19; plate and
jewels, £48 14s. 3d.; ornaments, £17 10s. 8d.;
stuff, £23 13s. 4d.; corn and grain, £20;
stocks and stores, £220 19s.; owing by the
house, £55 8s. 9d.; owing to the house,
£9 18s. 4d.; woods, etc., £122 18s. 4d. (fn. 2)
At the time of the dissolution the monastery held the manor of Quarr with the site of
the abbey and the manor of Newenham there;
the manors of Arreton, Staplehurst, Sheat
in Brixston, Shaldcomb, Newport, Comley,
Fowewod cum Forewey; the granges of
Compton, Haseley, Lovecombe, Hampstede,
Roughbarowe, Bydeborough, Charke in
Rowner; the rectory of Caresbrook; messuages, rents, etc., in Newport, Whippingham,
Newchurch, Southwick, Portsmouth, Christchurch, Swey, Milford, and tithe of salt in
Lymington. (fn. 3)
On 17 February, 1537, Thomas Wriothesley, the great devourer of monastic property
in the west, obtained most of the manorial
rights of the abbey by grant from the Crown.
The Devonshire manors and other property
of the abbey were also granted him in the
following November. (fn. 4)
A lease of the actual site of the monastery,
together with certain tithes of Arreton, was
granted by the Crown to John Mylle of
Southampton in March, 1537. (fn. 5)
Much of the stonework of the abbey was
used in 1539 towards the making of two
blockhouses at East and West Cowes for defensive purposes. (fn. 6)
An illustration of the seal of the abbey is
here given. It is round and shows the Virgin
standing with child on left arm and St. John
Baptist under a double canopy, and below the
half-length figure of an abbot. The legend is
S' ABBATIS ˙ ET ˙ CŌVĒTvs ˙ ABBATHIE ˙ SCE ˙
MARIE ˙ DE ˙ QVARRARIA
Abbots Of Quarr
Gervase, 1140
William, (fn. 7) 1150
Peter of York, 1205
Henry, (fn. 8) 1228
Philip, (fn. 9) about 1235
Augustine, (fn. 10) 1249
Andrew, (fn. 11) 1256
'Hel' (Elias), (fn. 12) 1270
Adam of Arundel, (fn. 13) 1290
Walter, (fn. 14) 1323
Geoffrey, (fn. 15) 1324
William, (fn. 16) 1359
John of Winchester, (fn. 17) 1381
Thomas Suell, (fn. 18) 1397-9
Richard Bartholomew, (fn. 19) 1399
Robert, (fn. 20) 1419
Roger, (fn. 21) 1438
John Cheselburgh, (fn. 22) 1457-62
John Norton, (fn. 23) 1466
Geoffrey of Newchurch, (fn. 24) 1477
John Fonsard, (fn. 25) 1481
Thomas of London, (fn. 26) 1493
Richard Tottenham, (fn. 27) 1508
William Ripon, 1521-36