but this is an error. It is not clear that he was ever at Wells in his life. But he was Simon archdeacon of Wells. We first find him as archdeacon in a charter of K. Richard given at his new castle of Chateau Gaillard on the Seine, 'by the hand of Simon de Camera, archdeacon of Wells' (15 June 1198).[1] Simon de Camera, then, was his name, and we can trace him thereby a few years back, when he attests as Simon de Camera a charter (not a royal one) which is also attested by Hubert Walter the archbishop.[2] We may perhaps gather that he began his career in the service of the archbishop, and as Hubert Walter was the king's chancellor he thus came to be the king's vice-chancellor. Simon was abroad with K. Richard when he died, April 1199; and he continued to serve in the chancery of K. John. He followed the king everywhere in Normandy, and he was frequently with him as he restlessly moved from place to place in England. Only two Wells documents bear a trace of him. In one he attests a charter of Archbishop Hubert to the abbey of Bee, whose abbot held a stall in the cathedral church of Wells:[3] the other belongs to the city of Wells, being a confirmation of its privileges given by K. John, Sept. 1201, 'by the hand', most appropriately, 'of Simon archdeacon of Wells '; yet given not at Wells but at Chinon.[4]
It must not be inferred that the post of archdeacon at the end of the twelfth century was a sinecure. Archdeacons had a great deal of highly responsible work to do; and it required a special legal training, which often had been gained at the universities of Bologna and Paris. But this very fact had as a consequence that an able young archdeacon was snapped up for the king's business, as by far the best qualified man to be found; and then the archdeacon's work had to be done by deputy. Simon de Camera had probably got his legal training before he became an archdeacon: but it often happened that a new archdeacon went off at once to pursue his studies abroad. We have an example of this in Bishop Reginald, who when he was made archdeacon of Salisbury had gone off to learn his business in Paris.
Another specimen archdeacon of John's reign is also furnished by the Somerset diocese. William of Wrotham was archdeacon of Taunton; but it is startling to find from the Rolls of Letters Patent that for several years his principal function was to superintend the Cinque Ports, and to see that no ships came across or set out without the king's special licence directed to him. And in 1206, when the
