a charter of Walter de Dunheved. Here 'Hugh son of Edward' and 'Gocelin his brother' attest among the clergy, and late in the list comes Edward of Wells.[1] Wells charter 10 [1186–8] is a confirmation by Bishop Reginald of land purchased in Wells by Edward of Wells; and Wells charter 9 [1187–90] is a similar confirmation of half a virgate of land at Lancherley, a few miles out of Wells, by Edward of Wells and Hugh his heir. This is all that we know for certain of the father of Hugh and Jocelin: but it seems reasonable to suppose that he is the same Edward of Wells who attests a grant made by Abbot Laurence of Westminster to Richard archdeacon of Poitiers; for this Richard of Ilchester, afterwards bishop of Winchester, was a great man in Somerset, and the grant is also attested by William of St Faith, afterwards precentor of Wells.[2]
5. Hugh's attachment to Wells and to his brother Jocelin is shown by his large gifts after he had become bishop of Lincoln. K. John had given to him, when he was archdeacon of Wells and in the royal chancery, the manors of Cheddar and Axbridge, with the hundreds of Winterstoke and Cheddar.[3] These hundreds are found in Bishop Burnell's time belonging to the churches of Bath and Wells, and in the hand of the bishop.[4] The manor of Cheddar and the advowson of Axbridge Hugh gave to his brother; also lands at Rugeberg (Rowberrow), Draycot, and Norton.[5]
6. There is an interesting charter by which Hugh of Wells, with assent of Bishop Jocelin, grants to the church of St Andrew of Wells and the said Bishop Jocelin a site with houses (or a house) in Wells, between that late of Odo and that of Nicholas of Wells, to dispose thereof as of the sites and houses of the canons. This is attested by Hugh bishop of Lincoln, and among others by Master William of Wells. The charter must be dated between 1215 and 1220.[6]
This Hugh of Wells is described as 'clericus H. archidiaconi Wellensis' in the Patent Rolls, 15 March 1208. In 1222 he attests a charter as canon of Lincoln, being then also archdeacon of Bath;[7] and in 1225 he was present as one of the canons of Salisbury, and again described as archdeacon of Bath, at the first service held in the new church of Salisbury on Michaelmas Day, 1225.[8]
What relation this Hugh was to the two episcopal brothers does not appear, but there is reason to think that Nicholas of Wells, whose house adjoined that which Hugh gave with Bishop Jocelin's consent to be a canonical house, was Bishop Jocelin's son, born no doubt before his father became a bishop. For we have the charter[9] by which Nicholas had already given his own house at Wells 'ante magnam portam canonicorum'[10] to be permanently a canonical house; and in it he addresses the bishop as 'venerabili patri meo J. dei gracia Bathonie episcopo'. The absence of
- ↑ Wells ch. 13.
- ↑ Westminster 'Domesday', f. 392.
- ↑ R. iii. 390 ff.
- ↑ R. iii. 3.
- ↑ R. i. 108 ff., iii. 343, 339 b, 350.
- ↑ R. iii. 385 b.
- ↑ Sarum Charters (Rolls Ser.), p. 122.
- ↑ Reg. Osm. ii, 37.
- ↑ R. i. 19.
- ↑ 'The great gate of the canons' is commonly understood to mean the beautiful north porch of the church: but this would have been described as 'ostium septentrionale'. It must mean a gate of the close: the house probably stood outside it, and the bishop grants that it shall be included in the 'Liberty'.
