SPETISBURY, a parish in the hundred of LOOSEBARROW,
Shaston (East) division of the county of DORSET,
3 miles (S. E. by S.) from Blandford-Foruin, containing
546 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, with the
perpetual curacy of Charlton-Marshall annexed, in the
archdeaconry of Dorset, and diocese of Bristol, rated in
the king's books at £28. 18. 1., and in the patronage
of Thomas Rackett, Esq. The church is dedicated to
St. John the Baptist. The navigable river Stour runs
close past the village. Dr. Sloper, in 1728, founded and
endowed with £20 per annum a school for teaching
poor children. There is also a bequest by Bishop Hall;
for supplying the poor with bibles. Here was a priory,
a cell to the abbey of Preaux in Normandy, founded lathe
time of Henry I., but afterwards considered part of
the cell of Monk Toftes in Norfolk, belonging to the
same house. In the neighbourhood are the remains of
a fortification, in which many coins and other relics of
the Saxons have been found.