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A brief history of Bratton Fleming

Part 2: After the Norman conquest, Henry de Bracton and the le Fleming family

In the years after the conquest Bratton was a small community of a dozen or so farmers and smallholders. The church (if there was one) was probably to the south of the present building, somewhere just outside the current churchyard boundary. In 1213 William de Raleigh became the first recorded Rector of Bratton Fleming. De Raleigh was an influential and wealthy man who had a stormy and combative relationship with the King (Henry III) – he became Treasurer of Exeter Cathedral, a Justice of the Kings Bench and Bishop of both Norwich and, eventually, Winchester.

For any lawyer or legal historian the name Henry de Bracton will probably be a familiar one; Henry de Bracton was the first person to seriously attempt to write down or codify the practice of English common law. De Bracton’s treatise ‘De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae’ was the principal text book on the laws of England for over 500 years. No other lawyer has had such influence on the laws of our land.

So was Henry de Bracton from Bratton Fleming? Two other places can lay claim to him Bratton Clovelly and Bratton Court (near Minehead). In his lifetime Henry signed himself de Bratton which could of course apply to any of the locations, however it is known that his principal patron was William de Raleigh our first Rector who had no connections with either of these other locations – it seems at least probable that Henry was a village boy whose intelligence and aptitude came to William’s attention when he was Rector and who he took into his service. Henry de Bratton died in 1268 and is buried on the north side of the nave under the altar of St Mary in Exeter Cathedral.

The le Fleming family were Lords of Bratton Fleming for nearly 400 years until Thomas le Fleming (6th Baron Slane) who died childless in 1471. On his death Bratton passed effectively to the Dillon family. The Dillons lived at Chimwell (Chumhill), just outside the main village community, and in the main seem to have been good Lords of the Manor. In 1599 the manor was sold, for £9,900 to the Chichesters of Youlston (near Shirwell).