INDUSTRIES 



were required for a considerable time, as at 

 Exeter, a tendency existed as at Westminster 

 towards the formation of a school of craftsmen 

 trained in the tradition of the marble workers 

 of Corfe. 



By the limited scope of this paper we are 

 absolved from trying to account in detail for the 

 artistic skill of the Purbeck craftsmen. Oppor- 

 tunity in the main calls forth latent faculty, and 

 at Corfe, maybe, an indigenous Celtic strain, 

 possibly reinforced later by Breton immigration,^^ 

 tempered Saxon heaviness. Again, the later 

 settlement of foreign artisans'' may have fur- 

 nished a certain stimulus; but this, even reckoned 

 at its highest value, did little more than whet the 

 already keen edge of native craftsmanship. 



It is impossible to catalogue here the names 

 of known masons, marblers, and merchants who 

 hailed from Corfe and its neighbourhood during 

 the Middle Ages. But one family was so pro- 

 minently connected with the marble industry of 

 Purbeck for nearly a century and a half that it 

 may be cited as in some measure typical, though 

 the precise relationship between the different 

 members of it is often a matter of doubt or 

 even quite unknown. The first William Canon 

 whose connexion with the Purbeck marble in- 

 dustry is certainly known was already apparently 

 an owner of property there before 1288, and is 

 found associated with John le Mayr of Corfe 

 and others in certain litigation,'' and on the 

 death of Queen Eleanor supplied marble for 

 some of the crosses erected in her memory, 

 especially that of Charing.'^ In 1 291 (Thurs- 

 day before Quindene of Easter, 19 Edward I) he 

 was sitting with other fellow burgesses on a jury 

 to determine the extent of the castle and chase 

 of Corfe.'' About this time he was also con- 

 tracting for the marble required in the recon- 

 struction of the cathedral church of Exeter, and 

 it is most likely that he was the William Canon 

 who paid for marble supplied there in 1310.*" 

 The William Canon, however, who was men- 



'■" Cf. Eng/. Hist. Rn: Oct. 1907. 



'* Cf. the case of Durand ' the carpenter,' of Domes- 

 day, from whom probably descended Gerard ' the 

 carpenter ' of the thirteenth century and the De Moul- 

 hams. John, as we know, introduced foreign artisans 

 into Corfe. Cf. Pipe R. 17 John, m. id. and Close, 

 16 John, m. I 5. 



" Assize R. 210, m. i 3 </. 



^* Accts. Exch. K.R. bdle. 363, No. i. John and 

 Robert de Corfe and the brother of the second of 

 these, William le Blund, are also mentioned in this 

 connexion. Robert de Corfe supplied worked marble 

 for the crosses at Waltham, Northampton, and Lin- 

 coln, and with Robert Pavy, ' asshelers,' for the cross 

 of Charing. 



" Hutchins, op. cit. i, 496. 



'» P. Yrtcmm, Archil. Hist, of Exeter Cathedral, 28. 

 William Canon also wrought the marble of the choir 

 screen, though an imager was later brought down 

 from London pro imaginibus talliandis. 



tioned in the Vicesima Roll of 1327 (i Ed- 

 ward III) was possibly his son, who had 

 succeeded to his father's business and was carry- 

 ing on the great work at Exeter. If this is the 

 case William Canon the second, even in 1327, 

 was one of the more substantial men of Corfe, 

 a deputy collector (suhtaxator), and paying 2J. 

 towards the subsidy, the amount contributed 

 also by John Vicary, and these ratings were 

 only exceeded by the 2s. bd. levied on William 

 de Moulham ^^ and the 31. levied on William 

 Steynor. By 1334 the great contract for the 

 supply of marble to Exeter carried out by William 

 Canon (junior) in succession to his father was 

 practically completed,^^ and in the subsidy-roll " 

 of 1334 (7 Edward III) William Canon is found 

 paying the highest rate of all in the town of 

 Corfe, \s. o\d. John Canon also, perhaps a 

 brother or cousin, who had figured in the sub- 

 sidy of Edward's first year assessed at bd.., now 

 paid \7.d. And the same amount was also paid 

 by a certain Adam Canon at Welle in Bindon 

 Liberty. About twenty-three years after, Wil- 

 liam Canon,*^ if he may be identified with the 

 second William Canon of Exeter, now full of 

 years and honours, was mayor of Corfe, and 

 commissioned with a certain clerk, John de 

 Kingston, to survey all defects in the king's 

 castle there. He may have died about this 

 time, as his colleague alone appears to have 

 acted in handing over the work to William of 

 Derneford, the next mayor.^' In the last decade 

 of the fourteenth century a third William 

 Canon ^' is found carving angels at Westminster 

 at 20J. apiece, but whether or no he was the 

 son of the great contractor does not appear. 

 Other members of the family are occasionally 

 heard of, as Master Edmund Canon,^' master 

 stone-cutter, who was paid ^^27 6j. for working 

 from 5 June, 1357 (31 Edward III), until 4 June 

 of the following year, on the stalls of St. Stephen's 

 chapel at the daily wage of u. bd. ; Richard 

 Canon,*' who sells marble; and as late as 1422 

 John Canon,*' evidently a master mason, who is 

 ordered with the assistance of William Wilflete, 

 clerk, to select and take stone-cutters and other 

 artisans for royal works at Hertford Castle and 

 elsewhere. 



All through the fourteenth century the export 

 of marble from the Purbeck quarries continued 



*' Lay Subs. R. bdle. 103, No. 35. 



" Exeter Fabric RR. cited by Oliver, Lives of 

 Bishops of Exeter, 383. 



" Lay Subs. R. bdle. 103, No. 5. This assessment 

 was for a fifteenth and a tenth. 



" Accts. Exch. K.R. bdle. 460, No. 30. 



" Various mayors of Corfe were on several occa- 

 sions chosen as viewers when repairs at the castle were 

 required. No doubt they were or had been in most 

 cases engaged in the quarrying industry. 



" B.M. Add. R. 27018. 



" Smith, Antiq. ofWestm. 200. " Ibid. 203. 



" Pat. 2 Hen. VI, pt. 3, m. 25 d. 



335 



