STAFFORDSHIRE AND DORSET 49 clergy tried to break the agreement, to cut down the vicar’s income and strip him of almost everything by an appropriation which “ appears to have been irregular and unusual." " Since the Reformation," says Hutchins, " some aug- mentations have been made; for in Mr. Bailey’s time (insti- tuted 1692) the value of the vicarage was considerably more than now; but its ancient fate of being plundered has again attended it, and some late improprietors have copied the monks’ example"-See Hutchins, vol. ii, p. 766. Note.-—The vicar’s contention was that the composition made between the Abbot and Convent of Abbotsbury and the Vicar of Portesham was still in force and that the monks’attempt to break the agreement was illegal and therefore they could not hand on to their successors the tithes which did not belong to them. i CHANcERY Pizocsrnmes (AFTER THE REsToRA·r1oN) Golping v. Were, 1662 The several answers of William Were, Gent., to John Golping, Clerk, complaining. Defendant says about nine years since, the said Essex Pawlett did present to the Vicarage of Portisham Joseph Ash, Clerk, the complainant (Galpin) having many years before absented himself from the charge and cure of the said Church of Portisham and taken the charge of the church of Durweston aforesaid, and that the said Joseph Ash constantly served the cure of the said church until about two years since the said Joseph Ash did resign, after which resignation one Henry Bartlett, Clerk, was instituted and inducted who served the cure there to the time of his death. ————— about May last, since which time the complainant hath obtained possession of the said church and vicarage. ·——— the complainant was soe many years absent from the church and vicarage of Portisham aforesaid (the former lease of the said ifarme and parsonage above recited being made null and void as aforesaid) [the complainant] hath obtained a lease of the said Andrew Richards of the said Earme of Portisham with its appurtenances for the term of one and twenty years at a 1;