ST. EDMUND'S CHURCH.
The church of St. Edmund of Abingdon was founded by Bishop de la Wyle as a collegiate church in 1269. Building had begun, however, at least five years earlier, for Robert de Kareville, treasurer of the cathedral, made a bequest to the fabric of St. Edmund's Church in his will dated 1264.From the outset it appears that it was intended that the college with its priests and provost should serve the newly-created parish of St. Edmund. Probably at the same time the vicarage of St. Martin's was annexed to St. Edmund's and thenceforth until the Dissolution either the provost or a priest of St. Edmund's served the church of St. Martin.
In 1536, ten years before the college was dissolved, the rectory was leased by the provost to John Beckingham, a Salisbury merchant. After the Dissolution the college buildings and possessions were sold in 1546 to William St. Barbe, a royal servant, but the rectories of both St. Edmund's and St. Martin's (see below) were expressly excluded from the sale. In 1549 William and Thomas St. Barbe conveyed the college premises to John Beckingham, who was already leasing the rectory. In 1611 Henry Beckingham, son of John, conveyed the rectory to Bartholomew Tooker, John Ivie, and others in trust for the parish, but three years later a similar conveyance was made by Stephen Beckingham, Henry's son, to Giles Tooker, Salisbury's first recorder, and John Puxton. The descent of the rectory over the next 50 years is obscure, and since it was linked with the claim of the vestry to the advowson (see below), was a matter of controversy. By 1650 it had passed to Sir Giles Estcourt, the younger, whose father of the same name had acquired the college premises from Henry Beckingham in 1575, for that yeare Estcourt conveyed the rectory to three persons apparently trustees for the parish. The right of the parish to the rectory was not, however, finally established until 1663 when a new conveyance was made.
Until the dissolution of the college the provosts were appointed by the Bishop of Salisbury. When the college premises and property were sold to William St. Barbe in 1546, the advowsons of St. Edmund's and St. Martin's, unlike the rectories, were included in the sale. In 1549 when William and Thomas St. Barbe conveyed the college premises to John Beckingham, who already held the rectory of St. Edmund's (see above), both advowsons were also granted to Beckingham. In 1555, however, the bishop presented to St. Edmund's as void by lapse, but in 1562 and 1584 John and Henry Beckingham respectively presented. Shortly after this last presentation the validity of the original grant of the advowson to St. Barbe was questioned, and in 1606 and 1622 the bishop presented. In 1614 Stephen Beckingham tried, without success, to re-establish his right to the advowson. Soon after this an attempt was made by the vestry to purchase the advowson, for in 1617 it was agreed that parishioners who had lent money for this purpose, should be repaid even though the advowson had not been acquired. In 1640 the vestry appointed the presbyterian John Strickland (see below) and, after his removal from office in 1662, elected John Sedgwick as his successor. Sedgwick, however, claimed that he had accepted his presentation from the bishop. Thenceforth the advowson remained with the bishops of Salisbury, although the vestry only finally relinquished its claim at the end of the 17th century.
It is impossible to tell what was the value of the rectory leased to John Beckingham in 1536, and excluded from the grant of the college and its possessions to St. Barbe in 1546 (see above). It presumably included any great tithes, which had survived the growth of the town, and may have included some of the rents in Salisbury, which were the most substantial source of income belonging to the college.
In 1629 the vestry affirmed that the tithes of all gardens and orchards in the parish should be paid to the incumbent. They also claimed that he should have all the 'taxes' of the Greencroft and Town Ditch, and profits of the fair held there, and of the butchers' shambles, the tanners' standings, and the cornmarket, as all these lay within the parish. Whether these claims were substantiated or not is unknown. In 1649–50 the small tithes were said to be worth £5. In 1831 the average income of the benefice was £181 gross and £176 net. In 1878 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners made a grant of £60 a yeare for the employment of a curate. In 1952 the gross income was £656 and included £200 from rents and £447 from the Church Commissioners.
In 1649–50 the Committee of Plundered Ministers ordered that the minister's salary should be £150 a year. In 1835 the incumbent, who also held a cathedral prebend, received a salary of £100. In 1649 the incumbent was allotted one of the houses in the Close provided for the ministers of the city churches by the corporation.
In 1380–81, in addition to the provost and 9 priests in the college, there were 11 other priests attached to the church. In 1394 there were the rector or provost, a parochial chaplain, and 8 chantry chaplains. The earliest chantry mentioned is that founded in 1305 by Reynold of Tidworth (mayor 1306). All recorded presentations to this were made by the bishop, except in 1508 when the Abbot of Abbotsbury (Dors.) presented. In 1535 the chantry had £5 6s. 8d. from rents in Salisbury, 10s. 7¼d. in tithes from an unspecified source, and a contribution from the chaplain of Swayne's chantry in St. Thomas's Church. In 1545–6 this chantry had a chaplain and was valued at £6 6s. Other chantries in existence in the 14th century were one founded by Henry Burry in 1330, another for two chaplains founded in memory of Robert of Woodford c. 1362, a chantry of St. Edmund, and one at the altar of St. Nicholas. At the beginning of the 15th century a chantry chapel of St. Katharine was founded in the graveyard, and in 1448 a chantry to Walter Scammell, Bishop of Salisbury, 1284–6. Lights were maintained before altars, or in chapels, dedicated to the Virgin, the Trinity, St. Christopher, St. Sebastian, St. James, and St. Nicholas. Early in the 15th century there was a fraternity of Jesus Mass for brethren and sisters. This fraternity was responsible for the celebration of mass daily before the altar of the Holy Cross in St. Edmund's. It owned property in the city, and was administered by two stewards.
Among the guilds maintaining lights in the church the weavers seem to have had a special place. The light of their craft in the church is mentioned in wills of 1410 and 1415, and their fraternity of St. Mary there in 1417. In 1491 John Briggs, a clothier, left cloths and money for a daily mass at the altar dedicated to the Virgin, sometimes called the Wreffyn altar, on which the weavers' light stood, and near which Briggs was buried in a marble tomb. In 1545–6 the weavers maintained a chaplain in a chantry then valued at £12 7s. 1d. In 1624 a contribution from this guild was applied to the repair of the chancel. The weavers, and also the taverners, had pews reserved for them in the church. In 1447 the tailors moved from St. Thomas's and founded a chantry in the chapel of St. John, but two years later they returned to St. Thomas's, although they apparently retained an interest in St. Katharine's chapel in the churchyard. In 1485 John Ashford left property in Minster Street to the tailors' fraternity to endow an obit for himself and his family and the fraternity in St. Edmund's.
Besides contributions for the maintenance of lights, income came from much the same sources as at St. Thomas's. Between 1495 and 1524 the vestry received rents from the stall-holders at the fair held in the churchyard, and payments from cheese-mongers standing by the churchyard walls were received until towards the end of the 16th century. By the middle of that century annual payments to the church by the parishioners, graded according to means, were recorded in the 'Quarter' or 'Easter Book'. In the 17th century rates, based on the assessments in the Quarter Book were levied for special purposes. In 1650, when the condition of the tower was causing anxiety (see below), a ten-year-rate was proposed, but was later amended to a three-year rate. Special collections were made for the purchase of bread and wine. In 1591–2 this amounted to £1 4s. In 1603 the parish was divided into three districts for the collection of this money, but in 1626 it was arranged that all wishing to take communion should purchase in advance communion tokens costing ½d. each. In 1633 it was re-affirmed that money for the bread and wine should be raised by the collection of a rate, and that the contribution known as the Holy Loaf should cease. Shortly before this it was ordered that muscadine only should be used for the communion wine and no more claret was to be bought. Seats in the church were paid for from at least as early as 1456, prices varying from 2d. to 20d. As in the other city churches seats were reserved for the mayor and corporation. In the 15th century there were four churchwardens, but after 1510 only two were appointed. Four sidesmen were chosen to assist the churchwardens after 1662.
In the 15th century the parochial chaplain received extra payment for reading the bede-roll. The High Altar and other altars were pulled down in 1550–1, and the church was cleared of rubble and stones. In the same yeare communion tables and forms for communicants to kneel upon were made. In 1602 the vestry decided to devote £2 a yeare to pay for four sermons to be preached after the communion service on Easter Sunday, Whit Sunday, All Saints' Day, and Christmas Day. In 1603 the minister refused to say morning prayers at 6 a.m., as had been customary, and it was agreed to pay the clerk 20s. a yeare to read the prayers. Some twenty years later the clerk was receiving this sum, and the minister was excused from saying morning prayers on the ground that he was a preacher. A small retiring room was built for the preacher in 1628. In 1624 more accommodation within the church was required, and new pews were installed on the north side.
In 1622 the vestry, supported by Giles Tooker, succeeded in having the presbyterian Peter Thatcher appointed rector. This appointment was also supported by Henry Sherfield, a later recorder, and a member of the vestry, who in 1638 demonstrated his puritan views by breaking a painted window in the church showing the Creation. In 1638 Thatcher refused to pay first fruits, and the vestry retained a solicitor for his defence in the suit brought against him. Thatcher was succeeded in 1641 by another presbyterian, John Strickland, who was elected a member of the Westminster Assembly in 1643. During Strickland's absences from Salisbury the vestry paid a deputy £1 to serve the cure. In 1645 the vestry petitioned Parliament for a more adequate stipend for the rector, and in 1649 Strickland was persuaded to return to Salisbury with a salary of £150. He was said to preach twice every Sunday. In 1662 he was disqualified by the Act of Uniformity, but he continued to live and work in Salisbury. In 1894 an iron church was erected in Winchester Street as a mission room for St. Edmund's, and was later used for Sunday school and other meetings, and occasionally for services. In 1921 the room was sold, and eight years later part of the proceeds were used to buy a house for the curate.
The church of ST. EDMUND is built of stone and has an aisled nave, west tower, and chancel with a north sacristy and south chapel. Nothing remains of the collegiate church built in c. 1264. A church, said to be newly built in 1407, was a cruciform building with a central tower, an aisled nave, and an aisled chancel with a south Lady chapel and a north chapel of St. John the Baptist. The nave, which presumably served as the parish church, was separated from the chancel, used by the priests of the college, by a rood loft with screen and doors.
During the first quarter of the 17th century the state of the tower was causing concern. In 1624 the roof of the chancel was slipping away from the tower, and was shored up pending more permanent repairs. The east window also required attention. In 1638 three buttresses were built to support the north wall of the church. To pay for the extensive repairs special rates were levied. In 1653 to ease the strain on the tower it was agreed to remove all but two of the bells and the weather vane. Some days later, however, the tower fell, demolishing the nave. Work was begun at once on clearing away the whole damaged western portion of the church, and repairing and probably altering the chancel and aisles to form the nave and aisles of the present church. The tower at the west end of the new nave, built in the late Perpendicular style, was completed in 1655. Money for these works was raised by donations within the parish, by contributions collected in the other two city parishes, and help was given by the corporation. At an unknown date, but not long before 1843, a small chancel without aisles was extended eastwards. Between 1865 and 1867 restoration was carried out by Sir George Gilbert Scott. The chancel was rebuilt with sacristy on the north and chapel on the south, the former east walls of the 15th century aisles being taken down and re-erected to form the east end of the new extension. At the same time the box pews, galleries, and a three-decker pulpit were removed. In 1913 the south chapel was converted into a chapel in memory of the Revd. F. W. Folliott (d. 1901) and the Revd. A. T. Douglas (d. 1911). In 1954 the chancel was re-modelled, to provide more space, by W. H. Randoll Blacking.
Traces of painting remain above the arch in the middle of the south wall. There is a panel of Swiss glass dated 1617 showing the story of the Creation, and an 18th-century mace stand. In 1475 there were 'a pair of organs' in the church. New organs were bought for £16 in 1517. In 1567 the building of a new organ by an organ-maker from South Molton (Devon) was completed. An inventory, which from internal evidence has been dated 1476, shows that St. Edmund's then possessed as many as fifteen chalices with patens. By 1531 there were apparently only five, and Edward VI's commissioners left the church with only one. By 1554, however, St. Edmund's had acquired a silver-gilt chalice with paten, and this paten, which can be dated 1533, was still in the church in 1960. It is thought to be one of the latest pieces of preReformation plate to have survived. Besides two silver chalices, bearing the date 1687, the parish now possesses a number of 17th- and 18th-century pieces including an almsdish dated 1732 given in memory of Richard Naish, Purveyor of the Royal Navy, who was born in the parish. Most of the plate was remodelled in 1867. As early as 1500 St. Edmund's had six bells. A new ring of six was cast in 1656, three years after the fall of the tower, and four of these are among the eight bells which make up the present peal.
The registers begin in 1561 and are complete. There is a set of churchwardens' accounts beginning in 1443 and extending in an almost unbroken series until the beginning of the 18th century. These have been printed, partly in full and partly in abstract. The early registers and churchwardens' accounts are kept in the Council House, Salisbury. The churchyard was evidently included in the sale of the college premises by William St. Barbe to John Beckingham in 1549, and this led to protracted disputes between the vestry and the successive owners of the premises. In 1551 the vestry brought a suit against Beckingham for felling trees in the churchyard. Between 1625 and 1638 it made several vain attempts to reach a settlement either by friendly negotiation or by litigation. It was complained that cattle grazing in the churchyard strayed into the church, and trees, which should have been used for the repair of the church, were felled by Sir Giles Estcourt, then owner of the college premises. In 1638 Estcourt agreed to convey the churchyard to the parish.