PECULIAR OF THE DEAN AND CHAPTER

Description: The dean and chapter of Salisbury had two more or less distinct functions. In the first place they were a corporation established for the maintenance and service of the cathedral, and for this purpose endowed with estates and property. Their activities included the appointment and admission of dignitaries and officials, the making of regulations and enforcing of discipline, the upkeep of the cathedral fabric, the distribution of their common fund, and the administration of their estates. The records resulting from these activities are in the care of the Cathedral Librarian in Salisbury. The second function of the chapter was the administration of its peculiar. This covered the six parishes and chapelries of Bishop's Cannings, Bramshaw, formerly Wilts. now Hants., Britford, Homington, Southbroom and Stourpaine, Dorset, and over these the dean and chapter, mainly through their officer, the communar, exercised much the same administrative and judicial control as the bishop did over the diocese as a whole; it was not inhibited by bishop or dean, and had no connection with the dean's peculiar. Probably the two functions of the chapter - cathedral and peculiar - were not kept rigorously apart: the chapter act books contain references to the business of the peculiar, and the records listed here under the heading Cathedral consist of chapter acts and other definitely cathedral documents.

Last import: September 11, 2017