110 A DORSET ROYAL PECULIAR. 



(1870) George Evans. 

 (1872) until 1885, William Druitt. 

 1885 until his death in Jan., 1886, Charles R. Rowe. 



There seems to have been no formal appointment made, 

 after the death of Mr. Rowe, until 1915, although successive 

 Chairmen of the Governing Body appear to have acted in the 

 capacity of Official, and the Rev. G. H. Billington, Rector of 

 Chalbury, who was appointed " Surrogate " in 1887, held 

 that office until his death in 1905. But, with the passing 

 away of the old order of things at the Minster, and when a 

 Vicar with his staff of assistant curates took the place of the 

 three " Presbyters," and when the fashion of being married 

 by licence was dying out and marriage " after banns " became 

 popular amongst the moneyed classes, the applications for 

 licences from the Wimborne Official or his Surrogate became 

 very few and far between. When needed they were obtained 

 from the Diocesan Registry at Salisbury instead. 



1915 James Michael John Fletcher, M.A. (Vicar of Wimborne 

 Minster from 1906, R.D., and Canon of Salisbury). 



Dr. Pocock, Bishop of Meath,* tells of his visit to Wimborne 

 on September 13th, 1750, and speaking of the Minster, its 

 Clergy, and the Official, &c., he says " out of the Ministers the 

 company (of Governors) name a Judge, who holds his courts 

 and the common people call him Bishop." The same " title " 

 was in use for the Official nearly 70 years later ; for, on Sept. 

 29th, 1818, the Rev. James Mayo, who at the time was Usher 

 and afterwards Head Master of the Grammar School at 

 Wimborne, in a letter to his brother Thomas, writes : 



To morrow will be a very gay day here, as the Bishop of Salisbury 

 holds a Confirmation, the first that has been held in this church (Wim- 

 borne Minster) for more than a century. He was invited by Bp. 

 Bankes. f 



* The Travels through England of Dr. Richard Pococke (Camden 

 Society). 



f The Family of Mayo, by Rev. C. H. Mayo, p, 207 (n). 



