A DORSET ROYAL PECULIAR. 10 



to care less for ecclesiastical censure. Many of the cases 

 now appearing on the Court rolls were citations of the 

 executors, or of the " possessors of the goods," of deceased 

 persons. 



The glory of the Peculiar Court with its exempt Jurisdiction 

 was departing. And at the commencement of the nineteenth 

 century it had become little more than a Probate Court with 

 very little business, and a Registrar's Office for the granting 

 of (local) marriage licences. 



The Peculiar Jurisdiction was finally abolished in the 

 year 1846. The abolition of the jurisdiction of the Peculiars 

 had been recommended by the Commissioners in the reigns 

 of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. It had been suggested by 

 Convocation in the time of Elizabeth. It found a place in 

 Sir Walter Scott's Bill in 1822, which passed the Commons, 

 but not the Lords. 



Various Parliamentary Returns were made on the subject, 

 and the returns were published in Blue Books issued in 

 182932. 



Dr. Stubbs, in his Historical Appendix, I., to the Report 

 of the Commission on Ecclesiastical Courts, 1883 (Vol I., p. 21, 

 &c.), gives the following reasons for the abolition: 



1. They interfered with the beneficial exercise of the 



authority of the Bishop of the diocese. 



2. The Emoluments were too small, and the causes too 

 few for the Judges to be efficient and experienced. 



3. They did not afford safe custody for wills. Conse- 

 quently titles to real and personal estates were 

 endangered. A knowledge of law was essential ; but 

 the practice was too small for its acquisition. Further- 

 more the costs of search in so many Probate Courts 

 was great. 



The Wimborne wills, administrations, and inventories are 

 now at Blaiidford. The date of the earliest will is 1511. 

 That the custody of the local courts, as stated above, was 

 not sufficiently safe is shown by the fact that, with the ex- 

 ception of some wills proved here during the years 1511-12, 



