104 THE CHtTRCH BELLS OE DORSET. 



privileges were taken away by Act of Parliament in 2 Henry VI., 

 though afterwards recovered. 



As Poole in 14 Edw. III. returned two burgesses to Parliament, 

 it may have possessed some little importance, but Parliamentary 

 representation in those days was rather inflicted on little boroughs 

 than desired by them. 



There seems to have been satisfactory communication by road 

 with Devonshire, Somerset and Wiltshire ; but at present we 

 know little or nothing that we can trace to these counties in the 

 middle ages. Civic archives at Exeter or Salisbury may some 

 day enlighten us. Within home bounds we may conjecture 

 early foundries at Dorchester, Blandford, Sherborne, Wimborne 

 Minster, or the little ports mentioned. 



I may quote here what I said about an ancient foundry on the 

 Devonshire coast and the Dorset bells of that period. Those of 

 the Rural Deanery of Dorchester do not add to the list there 

 given either of " Longobards," as we call those which are in- 

 scribed in capital letters, or to those in ordinary black letter. 

 Of the former we may expect at least two types, probably more. 



There is a village named Paignton, near the mouth of a little 

 creek in Tor Bay, where, at the end of the thirteenth century and 

 in the fourteenth, lived three generations of a family named 

 de Ropeford, who exercised the combined callings of founder, 

 organ-builder, and clock-maker. Here in 1285 Bishop Peter 

 Quivil, of Exeter, granted to Roger de Ropeford, Campanisiarius, 

 and his heirs, for one penny each Easter, a certain tenement, 

 they to perform the work of the aforesaid crafts, receiving all 

 things necessary for the work, with victuals and drink whenever 

 so employed. Roger was succeeded by his son William, and 

 WiUiam by his son Robert, and from one of the three may have 

 come a few of the group of earlier Longobardic bells. Paignton 

 was the greatest lordship that belonged to the See of Exeter, 

 and here was a goodly house of the Bishop's. Under these 

 favourable circumstances, with ready access to the sea, the work 

 of the de Ropefords may well have extended into neighbouring 

 counties. In the course of a century this family disappears, and 



