History of Bishops Court

After the Norman Conquest much of the area around Wimborne was owned by the Crown and held by the Earls of Lancaster, Lincolnshire and Leicester. The Doomsday book records a Royal Manor of 45000 acres. This estate was divided into three and the knight’s fee of Shapwick was given to Peter de Champagne as a reward for his support to William at the Battle of Hastings. The village was named Shapwick Champayne and the manor was described as a large dwelling with three farms and a fishery generating an income of £800 per year.

The Manor of Shapwick came into the De La Lind Hussey (Husey, Husee) family through marriage into the families of Champayne and Tourney. The heiress of the Tourney family brought her considerable wealth to the Husseys and they acquired Shapwick Champayne in the 1370’s. The manor stayed in the Hussey family for nearly 300 years until being sold by Joseph Hussey in the 1640’s to Colonel William Wake.

The Wake family gave Bishop’s Court its present name being the birthplace of William in 1657, their only surviving son of five children, who became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1715. Initially called Bishop’s House it eventually became known as Bishop’s Court and slack punctuation during modern times allows Bishops Court without the apostrophe!
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