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Clje Pbtorg of tlje '^riotg of Iponfitou J^iulejr. 



By the Rev. J. E. Jackson, F.S.A., 



Hon. Canon of Bristol. 



^^^HIS place is about four miles east of the city of Bath, on the 

 ^ £ff way to Bradford, and lies at the back of the high ground 



way to Bradford, and lies at the back of the high ground 

 called Farley Down, celebrated for its freestone quarries. The 

 geological position is curious, and the view on all sides extensive 

 and beautiful. 



Of the village and principal estate nothing of much importance 

 is known, until, about fifty years after the Conquest, it appears 

 among the possessions of the great Norman Family of Bohun. 

 Humphrey Bohun came over to England with the best introduction 

 for a share of plunder, being kinsman to the head plunderer, King 

 William I., and was soon provided with a pleasant perch whereon 

 to rest his foot, after his flight across the water. He was the 

 founder of the English family (at first Barons Bohun, but in 1199 

 created Earls of Hereford,) which continued till 1372, when it 

 ended in two daughters, one of whom, Mary, married Henry Earl 

 of Derby, afterwards King Henry IV. 



It appears to have been the second Humphrey Bohun who first 

 became a landowner in North Wilts. At the desire of William 

 Ilufus he married Maud, daughter of the greatest landlord in the 

 county, Edward of Salisbury, who, at the marriage, endowed his 

 daughter with several estates belonging to the Honour of Trow- 

 bridge. Farley is not named among them, so that he obtained it 

 in some other way. His wife's family were, at various periods, 

 founders of the Abbeys of Bradenstoke, Lacock, and Hinton. Maud 

 of Salisbury, the wife of Humphrey Bohun the Second, was cer- 

 tainly tlio person who designed the Priory of Monkton Farley. 

 The land which she gave for the purpose was an estate called the 

 Buries, at Bishopstrow, near Warniinsicr, in later times the pro- 



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