Dorchester Friary, also known as Dorchester Priory, was a Franciscan friary formerly located in Dorchester, Dorset, England. [1]
Dorchester is the county town of Dorset, England. It is situated between Poole and Bridport on the A35 trunk route. A historic market town, Dorchester is on the banks of the River Frome to the south of the Dorset Downs and north of the South Dorset Ridgeway that separates the area from Weymouth, 7 miles (11 km) to the south. The civil parish includes the small town of Poundbury and the suburb of Fordington.
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to the west and Scotland to the north. The Irish Sea lies west of England and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south. The country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, and includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.
The friary stood on the north side of the town (grid reference SY693909 ), on the banks of the River Frome, a little east of the site of Dorchester Castle. [2] Possibly a royal foundation, [1] it was in existence by 1267, and it was dissolved in 1538. [2]
The Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references used in Great Britain, distinct from latitude and longitude. It is often called British National Grid (BNG).
The River Frome is a river in Dorset in the south of England. At 30 miles (48 km) long it is the major chalkstream in southwest England. It is navigable upstream from Poole Harbour as far as the town of Wareham.
Dorchester Castle was a motte and bailey castle in the market town of Dorchester, Dorset, southern England.
In 1296, the establishment is recorded as being home to 32 friars. In the course of its existence it received legacies and gifts from such notable people as Thomas Bitton, Bishop of Exeter; Elizabeth de Clare; and John de Waltham, Bishop of Salisbury. The Hospital of St John the Baptist in Dorchester was placed in their care by King Richard III of England, even though his predecessor, Henry VI, had given it to Eton College. The friars' other properties included profitable local watermills, barns and gardens. In 1485, in return for his generosity to the friary, Sir John Byconil was recognised as "chief founder" and it was agreed that henceforth boys newly admitted to the order would be known as "Byconil's Friars". [1]
Thomas Bitton was a medieval Bishop of Exeter.
Elizabeth de Clare, 11th Lady of Clare was the heiress to the lordships of Clare, Suffolk, in England and Usk in Wales. She was the youngest of the three daughters of Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford and Joan of Acre, and sister of Gilbert de Clare, who later succeeded as the 7th Earl. She is often referred to as Elizabeth de Burgh, due to her first marriage to John de Burgh. Her two successive husbands were Theobald II de Verdun and Roger d'Amory.
Richard III was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Battle of Bosworth Field, the last decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses, marked the end of the Middle Ages in England. He is the protagonist of Richard III, one of William Shakespeare's history plays.
Richard Yngworth, the newly appointed Bishop of Dover, had the task of dissolving the friary and seizing its assets on behalf of King Henry VIII of England, and the long-standing warden, Dr William Germen, eventually signed the deed of surrender at the end of September 1538. Edmund Peckham, a cofferer in the King's Household, purchased the buildings and land and sold them on to Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton in 1547. [1] The estate later passed into the hands of Denzil Holles, MP, who had married Dorothy Ashley, a Dorset heiress, [3] whose father, Sir Francis Ashley, had bought it from Southampton. Ashley had made many alterations to the house [4] Holles' son, Francis Holles, 2nd Baron Holles, was born there in 1627. When the Holles barony became extinct, the estate passed to John Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle. [5] The house was described by James Savage in his 1837 History of Dorchester as having been standing "a few years ago". Savage described it as "a long low and irregular building; the eastern part seemed to be the most ancient by three old windows. At the West end there was a long gallery perhaps once a dormitory."
Richard Ingworth or Richard Yngworth, prior of Langley, was appointed Bishop of Dover under the provisions of the Suffragan Bishops Act 1534 in 1537, a post he held until his death eight years later. As Bishop of Dover, Yngworth acted as the agent for Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell in obtaining the surrender of the friaries; as part of the suppression of the monasteries, nunneries and friaries of England and Wales
Henry VIII was King of England from 1509 until his death in 1547. He was the second Tudor monarch, succeeding his father Henry VII. Henry is best known for his six marriages, in particular his efforts to have his first marriage annulled. His disagreement with the Pope on the question of such an annulment led Henry to initiate the English Reformation, separating the Church of England from papal authority. He appointed himself the Supreme Head of the Church of England and dissolved convents and monasteries, for which he was excommunicated. Henry is also known as "the father of the Royal Navy"; he invested heavily in the Navy, increasing its size greatly from a few to more than 50 ships.
Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton, KG was an English peer, secretary of state, Lord Chancellor and Lord High Admiral. A naturally skilled but unscrupulous and devious politician who changed with the times and personally tortured Anne Askew, Wriothesley served as a loyal instrument of King Henry VIII in the latter's break with the Catholic church. Richly rewarded with royal gains from the Dissolution of the Monasteries, he nevertheless prosecuted Calvinists and other dissident Protestants when political winds changed.
