Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jocelin of Wells
JOCELIN or JOSCELINE of Wells (d. 1242), bishop of Bath and Wells, was born and educated at Wells. The ‘Margam Annals’ (Annales Monastici, i. 28) call him Jocelinus Troteman, but he is more usually, like his brother Hugh, bishop of Lincoln [q. v.], distinguished by the name of his birthplace. He probably held some office in the camera regis, or exchequer. In 5 John, 1203–4, he was one of the custodes of the bishopric of Lincoln during a vacancy (Hardy, Rot. de Liberate, p. 97). He also attests a number of charters between February and September 1205. For this reason Sir T. Hardy and Lord Campbell have described Josceline as vice-chancellor or keeper of the seal, but it is more probable that he merely acted as the official subordinate of the chancellor, Hubert Walter (Foss, Judges of England, ii. 9–13). From 1203 to 1205 Josceline was one of the justiciars before whom fines were levied at Westminster, and also in the country when the king was present. In 1203–4 he received the benefices of Lugwardine and ‘Urchenefeld’ in Herefordshire (Cal. Rot. Chart. p. 17 a), and he was also a canon of Wells. On 3 Feb. 1205–6 he was elected bishop of Bath and Glastonbury, the canons of Wells, however, concurring in the election (Le Neve, Fasti, i. 130; MSS. of Wells Cath. p. 58). The temporalities were restored on 3 May, and on the 28th (Trinity Sunday) he was consecrated at Reading by William, bishop of London (Ann. Mon. ii. 257). He was one of the five bishops who left England in consequence of the interdict in 1208 (M. Paris, ii. 522–3), and was one of those who in the following year met Geoffrey FitzPeter at Dover to negotiate for peace (Gervase of Canterbury, ii. 103–4; cf. Rot. de Liberate, p. 123). Josceline came back with the other bishops in May 1213, and received 750l. in recompense for his losses (M. Paris, ii. 541, 543). From this time he sided with the king, and was one of the councillors named in the preamble of the Great Charter. He also took part in the agreement for freedom of election in churches (ib. ii. 589–90, 608). Josceline was one of the bishops who crowned Henry III at Gloucester on 28 Oct. 1216, and was present at the battle with Eustace the Monk next year (ib. iii. 1–2, 28–9). In 1218 he was one of the justices itinerant for the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Dorset; and a letter in which he and his colleagues ask for advice about a case in which the queen was concerned has been preserved (Shirley, Royal and Hist. Letters, i. 10, 11). In the same year, on 17 May, the long dispute with the abbey of Glastonbury was settled; the bishop surrendered his claims in return for certain manors, and the see was known henceforward as Bath and Wells (Anglia Sacra, i. 563, 582–3). The bishop's name frequently occurs during the next few years as witness to official letters, which shows that he kept up his connection with the court and the administration of the country (e.g. Shirley, u.s. i. 302, 409). When the great change took place in the custody of the counties and royal castles in the winter of 1223–4, Josceline was one of the witnesses to the orders on 30 Dec., and was himself entrusted with the castles of Bristol and Sherborne, and with the county of Somerset (ib. i. 509–11). In 1224 he took part with Langton and the other bishops in their action against Falkes de Breauté. He is said to have expressed his opinion that the defenders of Bedford Castle deserved to be hanged, and to have censured Falkes for his appeal to the pope (ib. i. 236, 240, 254; W. de Coventry, ii. 267–8, 270). In October 1224 Josceline sat at Worcester to decide a dispute between the bishop and convent as to the election of the prior (Anglia Sacra, i. 543; Ann. Mon. iv. 417). In September 1232 he settled a dispute between the abbey of Tewkesbury and the Bishop of Worcester (ib. i. 87, 89). In 1234 he deprived Abbot Robert of Glastonbury for misconduct, and in 1236 witnessed the confirmation of the Great Charter (ib. i. 95, 103). These are his last recorded acts. He died on 19 Nov. 1242, ‘full of days, and commendable in life and character’ (M. Paris, iv. 233). He was buried in the choir at Wells, under a marble tomb, which he had erected during his life, with a flat brass, which was said to be one of the earliest monuments of its kind in England (Archæol. Journal, i. 199). Even in Godwin's time the tomb was monstrously defaced.
Josceline's title to fame rests on the work which he did at Wells. He may be called the creator of the cathedral as it now stands. His work includes the nave, the choir proper, and the lower portion of the three towers, including the west front. He may or may not have been his own architect. He also built the oldest part of the palace, and the manor-house at Wookey; and joined with his brother Hugh in founding the hospital of St. John at Wells. Josceline was hardly less memorable with regard to the constitution of the church. He largely increased the number of prebends, instituted the body of vicars, and gave various grants for the support of the ‘communa.’
[M. Paris; Annales Monastici; Shirley's Royal and Historical Letters (all in Rolls Ser.); Wharton's Anglia Sacra, i. 563–4, 582–3; Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Angl. i. 130; Godwin, De Præsulibus, p. 371, ed. Richardson; Foss's Judges of England, ii. 7–13, 23, 514–15; MSS. of Wells Cathedral, Hist. MSS. Comm., where a large number of the bishop's charters and deeds are calendared; Freeman's Hist. of the Cathedral Church of Wells, pp. 71–85.]