35. THE PRIORY OF POVINGTON
Povington, formerly a manor and now a
hamlet in the parish of Tyneham in the isle of
Purbeck, was granted to the abbot and monks
of Bec-Hellouin in Normandy by Robert Fitz
Gerold, (fn. 91) a Norman who accompanied the Conqueror to England, and who is returned in
Domesday as holding 'Povintone' of the king,
the manor being valued then and in the days of
Edward the Confessor at £11. (fn. 92) In the roll of
Norman landowners in England of the year
1205 the manor of Povington belonging to the
abbot of Bec was valued at 100s. unstocked, and
at double that amount with the stock. The prior
of Bec was reported to have removed since Easter
eighty-five cheeses and all the wool of the flock,
together with 1 mark from the sale of beans,
15s. from the sale of oats, and 20s. 9d. of the
Easter rent. (fn. 93)
Notwithstanding the many charters granted in
favour of this Norman abbey by the Norman and
early Plantagenet kings, (fn. 94) the claim of the monks
to their estates here did not pass unchallenged.
As a result of a trial by wager of battle fought
out between Avenel Fitz Robert and Henry
abbot of Bec by his attorney, William de Wanecing, the former by a fine levied within fifteen
days of Michaelmas, 1223, released to the said
abbot his claim to the manor of Povington, and
received by way of compensation the sum of
30 marks of silver. (fn. 95)
Towards the close of the thirteenth century
the manor of Povington with its members of
West Whiteway in the parish of Tyneham,
Lutton and Blackmanstone in the parish of
Steeple, and Milborne Bec in the parish of Bere
Regis, had come to be reckoned as parcel of the
priory of Ogbourne, Wiltshire, another cell to
Bec; (fn. 96) the temporalities of the prior of Og
in Tyneham and Steeple, Milborne Bec
and Povington being assessed at £11 10s. in the
year 1291. (fn. 97)
In common with other alien cells Povington
was constantly taken into the king's hands during the wars with France. By an inquisition
held on the occasion of its seizure 8 October,
1324, by Walter Beril and Martin Roger de
Blokkesworthe the goods found in the manor of
Povington and Lutton were valued at £58 9s. (fn. 98)
The sheriff in 1337 was charged with the issues
of Povington and Lutton, and of 'a certain place
called Milborne Bek,' amounting to £28 4s. 9d.,
which had been taken into custody by Henry
Haydok, clerk, and delivered to him. (fn. 99) The
inquisition at Wareham the Monday after Easter,
1387, probably ordered with a view to ascertain
the cause of the steady decrease in value then
taking place in most of the alien cells, showed
that the possessions of the prior of Ogbourne at
Povington and West Whiteway, Lutton, and
Blackmanstone were worth £6 13s. 4d. after all
charges and deductions had been made. (fn. 100)
The vicissitudes of the manor during the fifteenth century were many and various, and one
can hardly account for the contradictory effect
of many of the grants. Before the final suppression of alien priories in 1414 Ogbourne, with
all its rectories, manors, land, and possessions,
&c., was granted by Henry IV to John duke of
Bedford, who, piously recollecting the religious
nature of the benefaction, made it over to the
warden and canons of St. George's, Windsor, the
gift being confirmed by Henry V. (fn. 101) Henry VI,
on the death of the duke in 1435, (fn. 102) granted the
manor of Povington—together with pensions and
portions in Milborne Bec, Turnworth, Charlton, and Up Wimborne—parcel of the sometime
alien priory of Ogbourne, which had reverted to
the crown, to Richard Sturgeon, clerk, for life,
and in 1442 bestowed the reversion of the manor
with its members on John Carpenter, the master
and brethren of the hospital of St. Anthony,
London, for the exhibition and support of five
boys or scholars 'well disposed' at the university
of Oxford, each of whom should previously have
been well and sufficiently instructed in the rudiments of grammar at Eton College and should
receive at the university 10s. per week until he
had attained the degree of bachelor of arts. (fn. 103)
This arrangement notwithstanding, the king nine
years later gave to the provost and college of
Eton the farm or rent to be paid by John
Newburgh, knt., for the custody of the manor of
Povington to which he had been appointed the
previous Michaelmas, 1450, together with the
reversion of the same. (fn. 104) Edward IV, in the first
year of his reign, while confirming the previous grant to St. George's, Windsor, of the
alien priory of Ogbourne and all its appurtenances by John duke of Bedford, granted the
manor of Povington to William Beaufitz for the
term of twenty years. (fn. 105) In 1467 he made it
over to Eton College, (fn. 106) and again in 1474 made
it the subject of another grant in favour of the
chapel of Windsor. (fn. 107)
The schemes of the Yorkist king for the union
of Eton and Windsor and the enrichment of the
royal chapel of the latter by the endowments of
Henry VI's college were foiled by the decision of
Archbishop Bourchier. (fn. 108) Edward IV by letters
patent of May, 1478, appears to have repeated
his grant of this manor to Windsor, (fn. 109) but Povington was, nevertheless, restored to Eton with
other lands of which it had been deprived in
anticipation, and remained in the hands of the
college down to the reign of Henry VIII. (fn. 110)
There is in the case of Povington little to
favour the presumption that a religious house
was actually maintained here. A single reference to it as a 'priory' occurs years after it had
passed away from its ancient possessors the abbots
of Bec, (fn. 111) and, in all probability, it would be
most accurately described as a grange.