| Description | THE DIOCESE OF SALISBURY
Until 1542 the diocese of Salisbury covered Wiltshire, Berkshire and Dorset. In 1542 Dorset was transferred to the newly formed diocese of Bristol (except for those parishes which were, and remained, Salisbury peculiars), but in 1836 it was transferred back to Salisbury. Also in 1836, Berkshire went to the diocese of Oxford; and in 1837 the deaneries of Cricklade and Malmesbury, in the north of Wiltshire, were transferred to the see of Gloucester and Bristol.
Each of the counties of Dorset and Berkshire formed one archdeaconry until Dorset was divided into two in 1919. Wiltshire was divided into two main archdeaconries, Wiltshire and Salisbury, covering respectively the northern and southern parts of the county, and a minor one called the sub-deanery of Salisbury. This covered the three city parishes of Salisbury and also Stratford-sub-Castle. The registries and records of the Wiltshire archdeaconries, unlike the others, have always been in Salisbury, and in fact their registrars were often the same person as the bishop's registrar. The archdeacon of Berkshire's registry, however, was in Oxford from at least the early 16th century until some time between 1878 and 1920, when it was moved to Reading. The records, which were at one time kept in St. Aldate's church, are now in the Berkshire Record Office and there are none in Salisbury. The registry of the archdeaconry of Dorset was at Blandford until the latter part of the 19th century, when it moved to Sherborne. In 1919 two new archdeaconries of Sherborne and Dorset were established, whose registries effectively ceased operating by 1995.
There were 11 parishes and chapelries in the bishop's own peculiar. These were: Trowbridge and its chapelry of Staverton (which had, up to the beginning of the 17th century, formed a separate peculiar as well as coming under the bishop), Marlborough St. Mary and St. Peter, Preshute, Devizes St. Mary and St. John, Potterne, West Lavington, Stert and Berwick St. James. The archdeacons were excluded from these parishes, but the bishop dealt with them in the ordinary course of his business, as well as visiting them at extra times.
There were about 27 peculiar jurisdictions in the diocese, nearly all with their separate registries; from all but two or three of these the bishop was completely excluded so far as judicial and administrative matters went, as were the archdeacons, so that their records contain nothing about the parishes in these jurisdictions. By far the biggest was that of the dean of Salisbury; this covered not only more than 40 parishes and chapelries in Wiltshire, Berkshire and Dorset, but had supervisory authority over about 38 more, being the parishes in the prebendal peculiars or in peculiars which had originated as prebendal ones. There were a few peculiars which were quite independent of the dean as well as of the bishop, and never inhibited. They were those of the dean and chapter, the precentor, the treasurer, Gillingham, and the prebendary of Chute in respect of his jurisdiction over Winterbourne Dauntsey. Three more have left no trace among the diocesan archives: Ansty was a royal peculiar and there are no records for it before the latter part of the 19th century, either separately or with those of the bishop; and neither Castle Combe nor Corsham has left a separate collection though they occur in the ordinary way among the bishop's records. The reason for this is not known in the case of Castle Combe, but with Corsham it was because the bishop had concurrent jurisdiction with the vicar, to whom the peculiar belonged. The peculiars were abolished in 1846, by Order in Council, though that of the dean lingered on for some time. |