By Ven. Archdeacon Macdonald. 



127 



See of Salisbury without further disturbance for about 500 years, 

 and, as usual with this kind of property, has passed through the 

 hands of successive Lessees, under the Bishop. The Lessee, called 

 the Lord Farmer, held his two courts annually, a Court Baron and 

 a Court Leet, on the site of an ancient Manor House, which has 

 long since disappeared. 



In 1 Richard II. (a.d. 1377) Bishop Erghum 1 obtained leave 

 from the Crown to make castellated houses, ("crenellare sua man- 

 eria") at Cannings and Potterne: adding as it would seem, in this 

 parish, a ditch and rampart: for of these some traces are still per- 

 ceptible. 



At the Court of Cannings, the Farm of Bupton (in the parish of 

 Cliff Pypard, but Hundred of Potterne) used formerly to render an 

 annual payment, as holding of the Bishop. Bupton belonged for 

 a great many years to an old family of the name of Quintin : so 

 far back, it would seem, as the Domesday survey: for in the ex- 

 tract from that Record relating to the Bishop's manor of Cannings 

 (or Kainingham) given above, among the landowners under the 

 See, appears the name of "Quintin, 3 hides." (See p. 125.) The 

 payment of Is. 6d. "Lawday silver," for Bupton, continued to be 

 made so late as 1661. 



Among the " Lords Farmers" who have held this episcopal estate 

 on lease, the oldest name that has been met with, is that of Thomas 

 Southam: who in 1402, as "Firmarius de Canyngges," also nom- 

 inated the vicar. 2 



In 1616 Robert Drew, Esq. of Southbroom was a Lessee. In 

 1637 Thomas Shuter. In 1639 Mr., afterwards, Sir Robert Hen- 

 ley, of Henley, Co. Somerset. [See Burke's Extinct Baronets.] 



In 1646, under the temporary domination of the anti-church 

 party, an Act was passed for abolishing Archbishops and Bishops : 



1 Ralph Erghum, Bishop of Salisbury 1375 — 1388, seems to have been a timid 

 man, or to have lived in unsettled times: for he fortified, not only his houses at 

 Potterne and Cannings when Bishop of Salisbury, but also, when removed to 

 Wells, the Episcopal palace there: surrounding it with the moat and walls, &c, 

 as seen at the present day. 



2 Sarum Registers. In the same year a Thomas Southam (perhaps the same 

 person) appears as Magister Choristarum and Patron of Preshute, 



