At the time the Longforth manor house was built (the ‘late 12th-early13th century’), the bishops of Bath had not only an episcopal interest in the parish and church in Wellington but also, as tenant-in-chief and lord of the manor, in the land and its administration (and productivity!). What evidence is there that successive bishops showed any interest, spiritual or temporal, in Wellington?
Victorian restoration: church of St John the Baptist, Wellington; formerly of St Mary the Virgin
According to Domesday (and of course over 100 or so years the situation may have changed) Taunton was the biggest settlement in the archdeaconry by some distance, but this very wealthy manor belonged to the bishop of Winchester, not the bishop of Bath.
Apart from Taunton, Wellington was then one of the most important settlements in the archdeaconry of Taunton: it was of greatest annual value to the lord and had by far the highest number of households (158 – Winsford with 84 was the second biggest), and therefore ‘souls to be cured’.
Looking at roughly 140 acta of Bishop Reginald fitzJocelin (1174-1191), just one related to Wellington; of about 85 of Bishop Savaric (1192-1205), there were none.
Under Bishop Jocelin (1206-1242), Wellington was elevated to town status by a charter of King John in 1215 (one might suppose the bishop played some part in this). Of Jocelin’s 177 acta, ten refer to the church, vicarage, manor or lands.
These merit closer attention; the majority date from the latter part of Jocelin’s episcopate – 1234 onwards. Would this still rank as ‘early in the 13th century’? Is anything known which might have prompted the building of a new manor house?
Old Somerset 
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