104 Passages in the History of Downton. 
was the bishop’s bailiff, an officer not necessarily identical with the 
“alderman” in later times called “ mayor,” the latter being repre- 
sentative by election of the people of the borough. The bishop’s 
bailiff, however, was the officer for the return of burgesses to 
Parliament, and in later times we find this duty in the hands of 
the “mayor.” In Hoare’s History of Wiltshire, the first visit of 
King John is recorded to have been made on January 2nd, 1206. 
On the 7th February in the same year the King wrote to the 
Bishop of Bath from Lexington, saying that he is sending to 
him, among other things, six palfreys and two grooms (garcones) 
which are at Downton.! Of the two other visits mentioned in 
Hoare’s history, there is additional proof of one, and mention of 
another, making four in all. The second, then, was on January 
30th, 1207,? and the third, about the beginning of July, 1209,3 
when the King left Odiham on a Wednesday, arrived at Clarendon 
on the following Saturday, and the next day stayed at Downton 
on the way through Gillingham, Wells, Bristol, &c., to the north. 
Three payments are made during his stay at Downton two 
through the Bishop of Winchester, whose guest he was, and who 
seems to have accompanied him through the greater part of this 
journey. Another visit was made on the 19th of August, 1215, 
that is, a few months after the sealing of Magna Charta. On the 
above date he wrote, at Downton, a letter to Hugh Mortimer ; 
and on the following day three others, to Geoffrey Luttrell, to the 
Justiciary of Ireland, and to Geoffrey de Mar respectively. 
In order to account for these visits of King John, which may 
have been made much more frequently than these records show, it 
will be well to recall shortly the circumstances of the time. 
Peter des Roches, or de Rupibus, Bishop of Winchester, and 
hence the owner of the castle at Downton, was one of the most 
devoted of King John’s adherents, and in the time of his successor, 
1 Rot. Lit. Claus. 
2 Hoare’s Wilts. 
3 7.¢., the first Monday after the festival of SS. Peter and Paul. 
+ Rot. de Liberate, Misis et Praestitis. 
> Rot, Lit. Patentium, 1215. Government Ed. 
