EPONYMOUS FAMILIES OF DORSET. 141 



BUBB OR BOBBE. 



Very little is known of this family, which seems to have been 

 of rather humble social position, and possibly of Saxon or even 

 earlier origin. They do not seem to have been of armorial 

 rank, but they held property in Dorset at an early date, as in 

 12 Henry II. (1166) Peter Bubb and Walter Bubb owned 

 between them two knights' fees in Dorset, and in 1283 one of 

 their name feoffed Alan de Plunkenet, of the hamlet of Melbury. 



It would be interesting to know more of this family name, 

 which is believed by at least one able antiquary to be of Roman 

 origin on the ground that "Bubba" was the name of a family 

 during the later period of the Roman Empire. If the name 

 happened to be a shortened form of" Bubulcus," the ox plough- 

 man, there would, at least, have been some appropriateness in 

 its connection with old Dorset, where the ox plough, represent- 

 ing the " Caruca" of Domesday, has survived up to recent years. 



CARENT OF CARENT'S COURT. 



The ancient family of Carent owned the Manor ol Carent's 

 Court, in the Isle of Purbeck, for several generations ; but 

 William Carent is the first to whom we can give a precise date ; 

 he died in 1346, and his widow, Johanna Carent, then married a 

 Thomas Thorn hall. 



The son of this William and Johanna Carent was another 

 William Carent, who lived at Carent's Court, and was a man of 

 some wealth and standing in the county ; he was for some time 

 one of the Knights of the Shire for Dorset, taking his seat in 

 1421. 



He married Alice, the heiress of the Toomers, of Toomer, in 

 Somerset, and his son (also William) had similar good fortune in 

 marrying Catherine, heiress of the Pains, of Painshay. This 

 William Carent held the lucrative post of King's Escheator for 

 the county, and was High Sheriff of Dorset, and at another time 

 member of Parliament for Somerset. He died in 1476 at 

 Toomer, in Henstridge, where he erected in his lifetime a hand- 

 some tomb to himself and his wife, who was probably a 



