This fanciful view of the Queens Arms was painted by Thomas Carter Galpin in 1827. He would have known the house well as he assisted the Rev. Benjamin Jeanes with its restoration. It is very useful as it shows the house as it would have looked before it was extended on the west side. It clearly reveals an ancient building, most of which has survived to this day. The house is now almost five hundred years old and I hope through my researches to uncover its almost complete history from its construction in 1525.

I am quite confident that there was an even earlier building on the site as in 1295, William, Abbot of Forde decided to create a Borough with a number of half acre burgage plots on either side of The Street. This would have included this area of land. It is astonishing that vestiges of this layout can still be seen today with the stone wall to the north of the Street and boundary walls leading up to it. The original plots proved to be too small and were later amalgamated into one acre plots with a further Acre of Common Land, as was the case with the Abbots House. 

The title of  “The Queens Arms” must refer to its brief ownership by Queen Elizabeth I until her selling it with the rest of the village to Sir William Petre in 1564. The original Charter was included in the deeds to the Manor and in 1853 it was copied out by Matthew Liddon to prove his ownership of the foreshore. It is very long and seems to apply to all the lands and buildings in the villagethat Queen Elizabeth in the 6th year of her reign (1564) granted to Robert and William Caldwell. They were acting as Agents for Sir William Petre, who soon after added Charmouth to his huge Estate.

Thomas Charde  was elected to the abbacy of Forde in 1521 a position he was to hold for eighteen years. He  devoted great energy and vast sums on the improvement of their monastic buildings at a time when the writing was  already on the wall for their demise. Although complete dissolution was probably a way off, it was plain that some sort of re-organisation of the monasteries was bound to come, particularly of their revenues, and royal requests for 'free gifts and loans of money” were the first sign. This probably prompted the Abbot to spend the income of the Abbey on its enlargement and adornment rather than hand it over to the royal exchequer. He had in fact already faced two demands in 1523 and 1525, the latter with which he bravely showed he was unwilling to comply. He built an entirely new wing at Forde Abbey with carved panels  including his initials T.C. as well as a new Hall and Lodgings for himself. The richly carved tower he constructed above the entrance still has a Latin inscription above the tall oriel window that reads ”made in the year of our Lord 1528 by Thomas Chard, Abbot”.

He was to do likewise in Charmouth where his cousin, Ralph Tibbes (his mother's surname) was Steward, which still has his T.C. initials above the former entrance to his House.

The Survey taken by Sir William Petre, the new owner of the Village in 1564  can now be seen at the Record Office in Exeter(123M/E30) . The translation by  Steven Hobbs reveals the village in great depth in that year. The reference to The Abbots House is as follows:
William Bowdythe holds by copy dated 22 Jul 1546, a messuage or cottage and 2 acres of land viz; a curtilage and le Common close. for lives of himself and brother Robert; fine 40s , rent 20s  ‘this is fairest house [in] the town and buylded by the last abbot of Forde.’ This house granted to Roger Collwill and his children, Nicholas and Rebecca, by copy 28 1561; fine £6.  This provides some useful information as it shows the house with an acre of land and an acre of Common land which corresponds with later estimates being rented by William Bowditch in 1546. It was later occupied by Roger Colwell in 1561, who appears in 1588 on the List of Merchants contributing towards the Queens Ships as paying the highest Tax of 10 shillings and 8 pence, the same as Edward Limbry. This is the year of his death and in his Will which has survived he is described as a Clothier whose bequests included his wife, Alice and children Nicholas and Rebecca.

The Lay Subsidy of 1525 which includes Ralph Tibbes, revealed a population of about 200. It was shown to account for less than 10% of the total income of the Abbey. Abbot Chard’s masterplan was interrupted in 1539 by the dissolution of the larger monasteries. He handed Forde Abbey quietly over to the Crown, becoming vicar of Thorncombe until his death in 1543.Ralph Tibbes and his son Thomas were to become  Bailiffs and Stewards of the Manors of Charmouth, Toller and Turnemouth, with an annuity of £5 in the year 1535. They were no doubt to hold that role in the fine house, Thomas was to have built for them. Ralph with his son Edward was later to appear on the 1542 Muster Roll List for the village possessing suits of armour. Thomas was to improve other buildings in the village including the present Manor House and Charmouth House which both have roof timbers dating back to the 16th Century. Hutchins in his history of Dorset writes that the Church was almost entirely rebuilt at that time

After the dissolution of Forde Abbey in 1539, the village was to be owned by the Crown until Queen Elizabeth sold it to Sir William Petre for just £25.He was immensely wealthy and used his position as Secretary of State for King's Henry VIII, Edward, Queen's Mary and Elizabeth to increase it with the dissolution of the monastic estates. He was known to have 36,000 acres in Devon alone which included the Town of Axminster. When Sir William died in 1572, his widow continued to reside at Ingatestone Hall in Essex, and so his son John then resident at Writtle Park, looked for another property to suit their status. In 1574, John added West Thorndon Hall and a further 12,000 acres. To finance this he was to sell a number of his Manors which included Charmouth. He was a good friend of William Pole who resided at Shute, near Axminster who was to buy Charmouth Manor and Mill from him in 1575.

After studying the Records for Frances Limbry,I have found that her maiden name was Frances James and she was living in Ratcliff, Stepney in London when she married John Limbry, son of John Limbry of Charmouth in 1634. John Limbry the Elder was a son of Edward Limbry who had originally bought the Abbots House with other properties in 1575 from Sir John Petre. After his early death, his wife Joan was to move to Ratcliff with her 4 children and marry Walter Whiting, a Mariner. This would explain why her eldest child, John never returned to Charmouth. Walter Whitting`s Will is very extensive and refers to her previous marriage. There is also a deed in Dorset Record Office (D-FRY/83) where in 1625 John Lymbry  the Elder assigns Land in Charmouth to Walter Whiting of Limehouse, Middlesex which confirms their earlier link.

The family tree shown above is based on all available information from Wills, Court cases and Deeds. They were a large family and a
number of individuals do not appear on it.

It is Frances ,wife of John Limbry who  is relevant to the Abbots House and the earliest Deed is very important as it is very descriptive and reads as follows:
”An Indenture between Frances Limbry of Ratcliff in county of Middlesex, widow, William Thwaites of Ratcliff( lime house), aforesaid Mariner and of Frances, his wife of the one part and John Stoakes of Lyme Regis in the county of Dorset, gentleman and Elizabeth, his wife of the other part for the sum of eighty pounds sell all that Messuage at Charmouth in the county of Dorset commonly called or known by the name of the Queens Armes and all houses, outhouses, stables, barns, orchards, etc. and all those two little plots of ground containing 3/4 acre out of the common land of Charmouth with the plot of waste land lying by the Havenside on one part where a lime kiln formerly stood and containing by estimation 1/4 acre 23rd December 1671”.

After studying the Records for Frances Limbry,I have found that her maiden name was Frances James and she was living in Ratcliff, Stepney in London when she married John Limbry, son of John Limbry of Charmouth in 1634. John Limbry the Elder was a son of Edward Limbry who had originally bought the Abbots House with other properties in 1575 from Sir John Petre. After his early death, his wife Joan was to move to Ratcliff with her 4 children and marry Walter Whiting, a Mariner. This would explain why her eldest child, John never returned to Charmouth. Walter Whitting`s Will is very extensive and refers to her previous marriage. There is also a deed in Dorset Record Office (D-FRY/83) where in 1625 John Lymbry  the Elder assigns Land in Charmouth to Walter Whiting of Limehouse, Middlesex which confirms their earlier link.
Sadly John Limbry the Younger and Frances would lose their first child, Martha in the Plague that swept  London in 1637. They were to have another daughter in 1638, whom they christened Frances after the Mother. She in turn was to marry William Thwaites in 1658 and to go on have two children. John Limbry was to die in 1670 and his widow decided to sell the Abbots House which she had previously let to George and Margaret Wade.

It is Margaret Wade who would be forever famous as being the Landlady of The Queens Arms on the 22nd day of September in 1651 when King Charles stayed for one night in disguise at The Inn before setting out to meet Stephen Limbry on the shore and to be taken  into exile in France. Sadly It was Stephen`s Wife who was suspicious of her husband’s actions and had locked him in their house until it was too late to meet up with the King who would carried on to Bridport and eventual freedom following the most secluded routes across Dorset, Wiltshire, and Hampshire to Shoreham in Sussex. There, on the 15th October 1651, the King made his great escape.
It was William Ellesdon, Lord of the Manor of Charmouth, who had planned the escape and later in a  letter to the Earl of Clarendon he writes a contemporary account which includes a reference  to Margaret’s meeting with the Village Parson, Bartholomew Wesley, who was to be the grandfather of the famous John Wesley. “The parson thereupon hastens to the Inn, and salutes the hostess in this manner : " Why how now, Margaret you are a maid of honour now." " What mean you by that, Mr Parson quoth she. Said he, "Why Charles Stuart lay last night at your house, and kissed you at his departure ; so that now you can't but be a maid of honour." The woman began then to be very angry, and told him he was a scurvy- conditioned man to go about to bring her and her house into trouble. "But," said she, "if I thought it was the king, as you say it was, I would think the better of my lips all the days of my life ; and so, Mr Parson, get you out of my house, or else I'll get those shall kick you out." I have presented this discourse in the interlocutor's own words, by this means to make it more pleasant to your lordship.”

I have been fortunate in finding out more about Margaret and her husband and how they feature in the story of the Abbots House. It would seem that although John Limbry owned the House he was to let it to Margaret and George Wade. The 1641 Protestation List has Andrew, Edward, Henry, John and Stephen Limbry all living in the Village, who would no doubt be his relatives. It also lists  George Wade who also appears on the 1664  Hearth Tax List living at The Abbots House with 5 Hearths. This is only second to The Manor House, opposite the Church owned by William Ellesdon with 6 Hearths.  William Limbry occupies the  west part of Charmouth House with 4 hearths and his brother the east part with 3 hearths, Stephen Limbry at Mill View has just 1 Hearth. Sadly the huge Chimney Stack containing some of the hearths at the rear of the Abbots House  was demolished in the last century. Clarendon writes “the small Inn was kept by a man who was reputed honest, to which the Cavaliers of the county often resorted, and the London Road passed that way, so that it was seldom without company.

Returning back to the Document relating to the sale of Queens Inn in 1671, I tried to find out who exactly were John and Elizabeth Stokes from Lyme Regis, who had bought the property and its land for £80, as they were only there for just 2 years until selling it on Eleanor Floyer for £140. It would seem that they were closely related to Margaret Wade. The following is a Petition from the same Elizabeth to King Charles II soon after his return to the Throne in 1670  which reads as follows in old English:
These are to certify to whom those present shall come, that the bearer hereof Elizabeth Stokes a near kinswoman to Margaret Ward of Charmouth in the county of Dorsett, in whose house his Majesty was secured for one night in his great distress – it being a common Inn and then known by the sign of The Queens Arms there – the said Margaret being in sickly and mean condition and not being able to travel at so great a distance, and much less able to redeem her son who was taken in October last past in a vessel belonging to the town of Lyme Regis in the county of Dorset by the Turks belonging to Algeria and there kept in woeful slavery doth desire our certificate to pass from Lyme to London to petition his majesty on the behalf of John Ward son of Margaret who is still in woeful slavery, and there like to remain, without the charitable assistance of others, his mother and father being aged and in weak condition and not able to maintain themselves, which said Margaret Ward is the same woman that secured the King at Charmouth, and that the bearer hereof, Elizabeth Stokes is her near kinswoman, the Mayor and Burgesses of Lyme Regis aforesaid do testify under our hands to be a certain truth.

The King may well have remembered Margaret Ward`s service to him at the Inn and rewarded her after reading this Petition as he had already given William Ellesdon a pension of £300 a year for his life time. George was to die in 1679 and Margaret Wade in 1685 and both were buried in Charmouth`s Churchyard. John and Elizabeth Stokes were to do well with their purchase of The Queens Arms and made £60 profit on the transaction. In July, 1671, it seems that Charles II revisited the scene of his adventures in the autumn of 1651. The Lyme Regis Archives reveal that "King Charles being about to pass through Charmouth on July 2 1671 a party at the head of which was our well known townsman Captain Gregory Alford went forth to meet his Majesty”. He no doubt met up with both Margaret and George Wade who were still at The Inn as well as William Ellesdon at The Manor House in Charmouth.

Eleanor Floyer was to only briefly own The Abbots House until giving it to her daughters. Despite this she was to have a lasting impact on its future. She was born in 1597 to Sir William and Mary Pole of Colcombe, near Axminster. Her family were extremely wealthy and their estates included the Manor of Charmouth. She  married Anthony Floyer who owned Berne Manor, a short distance from Charmouth and there they were to have 1 son and 8 daughters, some of whom were to be christened in Charmouth. Her younger son was killed in the Siege of Lyme Regis in 1644. Her husband, Anthony died in 1672 and the eldest son was to inherit Berne Manor. She in due course bought The Queens Arms for herself and her daughters. She had earlier given shelter to the Rev. John Brice, who had been ejected from the Marshwood living in 1662. He was to join her in Charmouth at her new residence. Mrs. Floyer died in 1675 aged 79. In her will she left John Brice £10 and two pairs of sheets and a bed, bolster and down pillow and two books. She had made over the house to her daughter in 1673.

 

John Brice settled at Marshwood in 1659, but did not long continue there, being ejected in August, 1662, for nonconformity and  was twice in Dorchester jail as a result. One of the earliest licences under the Indulgence of 1672 was taken out by him on April 30th, to hold Presbyterian services in his own house in Marshwood  and in the following June to hold services in the house of Eleanor Floyer at Berne Manor at Whitchurch. He was later to open a place of worship at Charmouth, of which he was the first pastor. The meeting-house was formed out of two mud cottages which adjoined The Abbots House. After Mrs. Bulstrode the older daughter died, Sarah and Grace allowed John to knock down the old cob chapel at the east end of the house and to build another chapel in 1696, a part of which still exists today at the rear.

In 1699 John married the surviving daughter Grace when he was sixty-three and she a year or so older. They lived in the main house until he died in 1716 which was to be the home of non-conformist ministers for many years. At or before his death he conveyed the chapel, house and garden to trustees, and gave money which seems to have been invested in the purchase of Lamberton Plot of two acres of land in Lyme Regis, and the Leys Estate of twenty acres in Symondsbury. The chapel had besides the above a field in Lower Sea Lane, about one acre. Under an Enclosure Act a plot of land in the Axminster Road one acre was allocated to the trustees. The rents from these lands  formed the chief sources of the minister's income.

Benjamin kept a boarding school for the sons of gentlemen to eke out his income. Benjamin died on the 13th August 1838 aged 55 and was buried beneath 'the floor of the pulpit in the chapel which he had built. In 1831 he had bought the newly built  "No. 2 Hillside" for £1150 from its builder, Joseph Wilson, where his wife was to later reside as his widow.

The Chapel was redecorated in 1866 and the pews re­arranged so that about thirty sittings were gained. The Rev. W. Axford. was minister at the time and travelled many miles and wrote numerous letters to friends in order to collect the money to pay for the alterations, which amounted to £128 - 10 - 4d. Owing to the absence of a damp course the walls were often in a bad condition.
several times during this century money has been spent on restoration and painting.  A small vestry was built between the chapel and the Queen's Arms and a school room on the south.
It was the  Rev. H.E. Vickery who single handed re-laid the whole floor both of the chapel and the school room in 1963. A small vestry was built between the chapel and the Queen's Arms and a school room on the south. The floor of this room began to give way in 1962 and revealed what may have "been a tunnel leading from the Queen's Arms to the wall behind the chapel pulpit. The  improvements are all listed on a plaque on the outside of the church today, including the recent restoration by Paul and Jasper Crosby in 2018.

This early photograph of the rear of the Abbots House in 1890 reveals that the building had been split into two parts with a high wall between them. The smaller part which incorporated most of the original building was let out and the Minister occupied the larger portion on the right. The extension built by Benjamin Jeannes in 1815 is to the left of the middle chimney and included a conservatory. 

This view shows the line of thatched buildings that were to be lost in a fire in 1895. Opposite is Pryers stone masons yard . The Abbots House and Chapel are surrounded by fields at that time.
 The 1885 Ordnance Survey map has been added on the left for comparison.

1934

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