HURST, a parish comprising the liberty of Whistley-Hurst
in the hundred of CHARLTON, the liberties of
Newland and Winnersh in that of SONNING, county of BERKS,
and the liberty of Broad-Hinton in the hundred
of AMESBURY, county of WILTS, 3 miles (N.N.W.)
from Wokingham, and containing 2091 inhabitants.
The living is a perpetual curacy, annexed to the vicarage
of Sonning, in the peculiar jurisdiction and patronage
of the Dean of Salisbury. The church, dedicated to
St. Nicholas, contains, among other handsome monuments,
one to the memory of Margaret, wife of Sir
Henry Savile, founder of the Savilian Professorship at
Oxford, and another to Sir Richard Harrison, who twice
raised, at his own expense, a troop of cavalry for the
service of Charles I. An hospital was founded here by
William Barker, Esq., who died in 1685, for eight poor
persons, to each of whom he gave three shillings and
sixpence weekly. Dame Dorothy Harrison, in 1690,
gave £7 per annum for the instruction of eight boys;
and Edward Polehampton, in 1721, erected a chapel,
school-room, and dwelling-house, which he endowed
with £40 a year, for a clergyman to officiate in the
chapel and teach ten boys.