WIMBORNE-MINSTER, a parish, in the hundred
of BADBURY, Shaston
(East) division of the
county of DORSET, comprising
the market-town
of Wimborne-Minster, and
the tythings of Abbottstreet,
Barnesley,Cowgrpve,Leigh,
Petersham,Stone,Thornhill,
and Wimborne - Borough,
and containing 3563 inha-
bitants, of which number,
1387 are m the town of Wimborne-Minster, 26 miles
(E.N.B.) from Dorchester, and 101 (S.W. by W.) from
London. This is a place of very remote antiquity; in
the time of the Romans it was of considerable importance
as a station to their camp at Badbury, and by
them was denominated Findogladia, or Ventageladla,
terms descriptive of its situation near to, or between,
two rivers. The Saxon appellation of Vinburnan, whence
the present name is obviously deduced, is of similar
import; the epithet of Minster, from its ancient monastery,
having been added as a term of distinction.
Some have supposed this to have been the scene of the
battle between Kearl, Earl of Devon, and the Danes, in
851, in which the latter were defeated; but Bishop
Gibson states this to have occurred at Wenbury, in
Devonshire, with which he endeavours to identify Wicganbeorche,
the place where, in the Saxon Chronicle,
it is stated to have taken place. About the commencement
of the tenth century, Edward the Elder, in the
beginning of his reign, being opposed by Ethelwald,
son of his uncle Ethelbert, who aspired to the crown,
encamped at Badbury, with a considerable army, and
advanced upon Wimborne, where Ethelwald had fortified
himself with a small force, which he captured, after
an ineffectual resistance from the latter. But the principal
cause of its celebrity was a nunnery, founded
previously to 705, and dedicated to the Virgin Mary,
by St. Cuthberga, daughter of Cenred, and sister of
Ina, both kings of the West Saxons, which, about the
year 900, being destroyed by the Danes, was subsequently
converted into a house for Secular canons, the
revenue of which, at the dissolution, was valued at
£131. 14. The foundress became an inmate of the
nunnery, where she died, and was buried in the church,
of which, having been canonized, she was made the
tutelar saint. The town is situated in a fertile vale,
near the confluence of the rivers Stour and Allen, on
the main road from London to Poole; the streets are
irregular, and the houses in general of mean appearance.
At its eastern extremity the Allen divides into
two branches, over which are two bridges. Leland
thus describes it:-"the town is yet meatly good, and
reasonably well inhabited. It hath bene a very large
thing, and was in price in the tyme of the West Saxon
kinges. Ther be in and about it diverse chappelles, that
in tymes paste were, as I have lernid, paroche chirchis
of the very town of Wimburne." And in another place
he says;-"the soile about Wimburn-Minstre self is
very good for corne, grasse, and woodde." The town
hall, which formerly stood near the square, has long
since fallen into decay: it occupied the site of St. Peter S
chapel sometimes styled the king's free chapel, which,
the building having been neglected soon after the Reformation,
was, with the cemetery, containing about one
acre of ground, vested in the corporation, and their
successors in fee, for the erection of a town-hall, the residue
of the profits to be applied towards the maintenance
of the choristers in the church. The market is on
Friday} and fairs are held on the Friday before Good
Friday and on the 14th of September, each for two
days, for horses and cattle. Constables are appointed
at the manorial court held annually at Michaelmas.
On the establishment of the Secular canons, when
the nunnery was destroyed by the Danes, the church
became collegiate, and a royal free chapel, having been
declared by letters of Edward II., in the eleventh year
of his reign, to be exempt from all ordinary jurisdiction,
imposition, &c. In Leland's time the society consisted
of a dean, four prebendaries, five cantarists;
three vicars, and four secondaries,. The dean and prebendaries
maintained four priests' and four clerks to
serve the cure; viz., in the collegiate church, and in St.
Peter's, Kingston, and Holt chapels. On the dissolution
of the college, its possessions lapsed to the crown';
and Elizabeth, in the fifth year of her reign, on reestablishing
the school, appointed twelve of the inhabitants
governors, whom she incorporated, with a common
seal, and granted in trust to them the tithes of
the parish, and all other endowments of the college and
school, for their future support, with all ecclesiastical
rights and spiritual jurisdiction previously belonging to
the college and prebends. In the reign of Charles I.,
the governors having surrendered these possessions,
the king re-granted them in full, on the condition of
their providing the necessary officers for the service of
the church and the school, with all ecclesiastical jurisdiction
within the parish, and power to appoint the
official and registrar of the peculiar court. Three incumbents
are elected by the governors, who serve the
church in rotation weekly; they also appoint three
clerks, an organist, three singing men, and six singing
boys; a visitation court is held annually. The chapels
of Kingston and St. Peter have fallen into ruins; that
at Holt remains. The church, commonly called the
Minster, is dedicated to St. Cuthberga, and is a large
cruciform structure, with a quadrangular tower rising
from the intersection, and another at the west end,
the former in the Norman style, the latter in the later
English; the east window is in the early English
style of architecture. A tempest destroyed the spire
about 1600, and it has not since been replaced. The
chancel and choir are approached from the nave by
a flight of steps, and are supported by pillars: the
choir consists of sixteen stalls, covered with canopies
of carved oak, St. Cuthberga is supposed to-have been
entombed in the wall of the chancel: here also was
King Ethelred's tomb, of which the brass plate fixed
in the floor is all that remains. On the south side
of the choir is an altar-tomb, with the effigies of the
Duke and Duchess of Somerset, the parents of Margaret,
Countess of Richmond, mother of Henry VII.;
on theopposite side is a similar tomb, but without
figures, to the memory of Gertrude, Marchioness of
Exeter, mother of the unfortunate Edward Courtenay,
last Earl of Devonshire; and in the south aisle is a
ihonument, with an armed recumbent figure, to Sir
Edmund Uvedale, Knt., dated 1606. Under the area
of the chancel is a small crypt, called the Dungeon,
having pointed arches, with bold circular groins to support
the roof; it was formerly used as a chantry, of
which the church contained a great number. On the
outside of the Bell tower is the figure of a soldier, with
a hammer in each hand, with which it strikes the
quarters of the hour. There are places of worship for
Baptists, Independents, and Wesleyan Methodists.
The free grammar school, originally founded by Margaret,
Countess of Richmond, in 1497, was re-founded
by Queen Elizabeth, in 1563, for the gratuitous instruction
of all applicants, without limitation, and designated
Queen Elizabeth's free grammar school in Wimborne-
Minster: the management is vested in the twelve governors.
St. Margaret's hospital, for poor persons, situated
at the west end of the town, is of ancient ,and
obscure foundation; the revenues are under the direction
of the lord of the manor of Kingston-Lacy, and
his steward, who conjointly nominate the almspeople:
in a chapel attached to it divine service is occasionally
performed. A second hospital, called Courtenay's,
situated at the east end of the town, was built pursuant
to the will of Gertrude, Marchioness of Exeter, bearing
date 1557; the governor and poor persons are incorporated
and have a common seal: there are six
almspeople on the foundation. At Pamphill, in this
parish, are a school and almshouse, founded pursuant
to the will of Roger Gillingham, dated July 2nd, 1695;
the schoolmaster and almspeople are nominated and
appointed by the governors of the free grammar school
in this town; the former receives £20, and each of
the latter £5, per annum. This is supposed to be the
birthplace of Matthew Prior, Esq., the statesman and
poet, who was educated at the free grammar school.
The Duke of Monmouth, after his escape from the
battle of Sedgmoor, is stated to have been arrested in a
small enclosure, called Shagsheath, near this place; but
this is doubted by some, who are of opinion that his
capture took place near Ringwood. Badbury camp, in
the vicinity, is a circular intrenchment, surrounded by
three ramparts, enclosing an area of eighteen acres:
Roman coins, urns, and a sword, were dug up in 1665.