©Clive Barnes, March 2026
It is well known that the Milton Abbas almshouses were first built in the old town of Milton Abbas and hen moved to the new village in 1779. But when exactly were they first built?
If you research this, you are likely to come across two dates: 1647 and 1674, confusingly, and for reasons explained below, somewhat similar. Historic England gives 1674. The Tregonwell Almshouse trust gives 1647. The confusion over the dates goes back over two hundred years to the first account of the village’s, and the county’s, history in John Hutchins History of the Antiquities of the County of Dorset, published in 1774. In this voluminous and ground breaking history, Hutchins gives the foundation of the almshouse as taking place in 1674 according to a will of John Tregonwell. But this date is contradicted only sixty years later, when the 1647 date appears in The Report of the Commissioners, Charities and Education of the Poor: Vol. 30 Dorset in 1839. This also refers to a will of John Tregonwell, but dated 1647. And, from the provisions set out by these wills, it is likely that they are not two different wills but one and the same and one of the given dates is wrong. No copies of this will survive. So how can we be sure which of these dates is correct?
John Tregonwell’s will and the inspector for the Charity Commissioners 1835
We know that it was last looked at by the inspector for the Charity Commissioners in 1835. The inspector was one of several travelling all over the country reporting to Parliament on the multitude of local charities for the care and education of the poor that had been set up over the previous centuries, among them the Tregonwell almshouses. As you can imagine, this was a huge job. It was begun in 1818, progressed county by county, and was not completed, in the first instance, until over twenty years later. The inspectors, who arrived in Dorset in 1835, were charged with finding out how the charities were run and who they benefitted, and with examining any documents relating to their foundation and administration. And we know how the inspector for Milton Abbas went about his task because his notes remain among the papers of the Charity Commissioners at the National Archives. The inspector arrived in Milton Abbas with the information that he had found in Hutchins about the foundation of the almshouse: that it had been set up by the 1674 will of John Tregonwell. Accordingly, the inspector approached the then Lord of the Manor, Henry Dawson Damer, to see if he had any knowledge of the will. After a search, it was found, Dawson Damer admitting that he had no idea it was in his possession. But the will, as Dawson Damer told the inspector, and the inspector was able to verify for himself when the will reached him, was dated 1647 not 1674. Nevertheless, it was clearly the correct will, as its provisions for the administration of the almshouses were exactly as laid out by Hutchins. The inspector did not note that Hutchins had recorded the wrong date, transposing the 4 and the 7, but this is the obvious origin of the confusion. Historians make mistakes, after all.
The inspector’s findings and laying the ghost of 1674
According to the inspectors’ notes, the will also states that the almshouses were already built – “lately erected” – when the will was drawn up in February 1647. The inspector’s findings were accurately written up in the subsequent report of the Commissioners for Dorset in 1839, which gave rise to the new – and correct – date of 1647 for the will. Both this and the provisions of the will are now set out accurately on the Tregonwell Almshouses Trust website. However, since no one corrected Hutchins’ mistake, and it was repeated in subsequent editions of his work, the incorrect date of 1674 has continued to haunt the history of the village and the almshouses for nearly two hundred years to the present day, when it still appears on the Parish Council website and in the reprinted village guide (as well as the Historic England website). It is well time it was laid to rest.
Why John Tregonwell of Anderson?
It may seem odd that John Tregonwell of Anderson had built an almshouse in Milton Abbas. In fact, this John Tregonwell (1573-1650), the great grandson of the John Tregonwell who bought the Abbey lands at the Dissolution, had begun as Lord of the Manor of Milton Abbas. In 1620, he had bought the Manor of [Winterborne] Anderson, built the manor house that still stands there, and moved to Anderson, leaving Milton Abbas to be administered by his son John (1601-1667), although the father seems to have retained the lordship. At his death in 1650, the Tregonwell line split between the Milton Abbas line of the eldest son, John and his heirs, and the Anderson line, headed by second son Thomas. The death in 1650 of this John Tregonwell of Anderson gives further corroboration to the 1647 date for his will and for the building of the almshouses before that date. Comparison with the Wimborne St Giles almshouses The confirmation of the 1647 date for the Milton Abbas almshouses perhaps draws attention to their similarity in design to the larger set of almshouses endowed by Sir Anthony Ashley at Wimborne St Giles in 1624. These originally sheltered ten residents, and now only 5. They, too, were designed with a central common room and loggia, and single storey rooms on either side, and may have provided a local template for Sir John and his builders at Milton Abbas.
Milton Abbas Local History Group, Dorset, UK 