ST. john's prioky, avells, 13 



"The Priory was dedicated to St. Joha the Baptist, 

 and owes its foundation to Hugli de Welles, BIsliop of 

 Lincoln, and Jocelyne de Welles, Bisliop of Bath and 

 Wells, Avho (as Godvvin informs us) ' laying their purses 

 together,' endowed it with considerable possessions, includ- 

 ing the parsonage of Evercreech, and lands in Wookey, 

 East Wells, and Southover. CoUinson states that Hugh 

 de Welles was the sole founder of the Hospital, and that 

 Jocelyne 'made considerable additions ' to the Institution. 

 The same author, in his memoir of Bishop Jocelyne, ex- 

 pressly says that the Hospital was the Joint foundation of 

 the tvvo brothers (Jocelyne and Hugh). By his will, 

 Bishop Hugh gave the Hospital 500 marks ; a most liberal 

 donation at that early period. Some persons have been 

 led to suppose, from the language of this bequest, that the 

 Hospital was in fact built after Bishop Hugh's decease, 

 though most of our local historians assume that the estab- 

 lishment was completed in his life-time. 



" The two Bishops were natives of Wells, and both men 

 of the greatest eminence, as well as active pai'ticipators in 

 some of the most important events of the times in which 

 they lived. The names of both appear in Magna Charta, 

 [" Joscelini Bathon. & Glaston. Hugon Line." ''•''] and both 

 have an historlcal fame from the part they took in Oppo- 

 sition to King John, when that monarch refused to recog- 

 nise Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury. To 

 Bishop Jocelyne we owe most of our present Cathedral, 

 including its unequalled West Front. 



" Besides the estates before referred to, the Hospital 



* Bishop Joceline succeeded to the See in 1206, and took the title of 

 " Bath and Glastonbury," which had been assumed by his predecessor, 

 Savaric. This title he continued to use until 1218, when he relinquished it 

 for the valuahle consideration of divers rieh manors, &c., giveu up to him 

 by the Abbot of Glastonbury. 



