Portsmouth and Quarr Abbey

Although the medieval archives of Portsmouth have been lost, documents survive in the National Archives (E 326, E315) which list the rents payable to Quarr Abbey, Isle of Wight, on various properties in Portsmouth. From these we can identify the names of the leading burgesses of Portsmouth and, as this was the period during which occupational names were becoming family names, we can gain an impression of their businesses. One of these documents in particular (E326/9366), dated 1257, lists the rents of twelve residents due to Quarr. Extracts include: 'the said monks had and recieved in the aftersaid town of Portsmouth two pounds of wax at Michaelmas, by the grant of Herbert Justice, from a dwelling which stands by the sea shoure, namely from the one standing between the dwelling which belonged to the aforesaid Osbert of Lutegaresale (i.e. Ludgershall, Wiltshire) and that of Henry the Fisherman' 'two pounds of wax at the Assumption of blessed Mary (15 August), by the grant of Stephen the Butcher, from the dwelling house standing between the one which belonged to the aforesaid Stephen and that of John Truc'. To find out more read the Portsmouth Archives Review, 1977.