Melcomb Friary
Encyclopedia
Melcombe Priory was a Dominican
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...

 priory in Melcombe Regis
Melcombe Regis
Melcombe Regis is an area of Weymouth in Dorset, England.Situated on the north shore of Weymouth Harbour and originally part of the waste of Radipole, it seems only to have developed as a significant settlement and seaport in the 13th century...

, Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

History

This, the last Dominican foundation in England, was founded in 1418 by Sir Hugh Deverell and John Rogers of Bryanston
Bryanston
Bryanston is a village and civil parish in north Dorset, England, situated on the River Stour one mile west of Blandford Forum. The parish has a population of 968 . The village is adjacent to the grounds of Bryanston School, an independent school.The village was named after Brian de Lisle, a...

, with the license of Pope Martin V
Pope Martin V
Pope Martin V , born Odo Colonna, was Pope from 1417 to 1431. His election effectively ended the Western Schism .-Biography:...

, on the basis that the town of Melcombe Regis was at that time without any church or other religious foundation.

The friars also built part of the defences of the town, in the form of a jetty and a tower, for which they received concessions from the Crown.

The priory was taken into the King's hand in 1538 at the Dissolution of the Monasteries
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...

. In 1541 the site and buildings were leased to Sir John Rogers, grandson of the founder, for 21 years, and bought outright by him in 1543.

The dedication of the priory church was either to Saint Dominic
Saint Dominic
Saint Dominic , also known as Dominic of Osma, often called Dominic de Guzmán and Domingo Félix de Guzmán was the founder of the Friars Preachers, popularly called the Dominicans or Order of Preachers , a Catholic religious order...

 or to Saint Winifred. The buildings were mostly ruinous by 1650, but some still remained in 1803. The site, in Governor's Lane and Maiden Street, with the burial ground apparently to the north, was cleared for building development in 1861.

Sources

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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