The old monastery of the Black Friars, or Friars Preachers, which formerly stood on a site near Fisherton Bridge was, in many ways, a formidable rival to the monastery of the Grey Friars which lay on the south side of St. Ann Street.

The Grey Friars, or Franciscans, were the first to settle in the city, under the patronage of Bishop Richard Poore in 1224. They were followed in 1245 by the Black Friars, or Dominicans, who settled at Wilton (in West Street), and subsequently moved into Salisbury in 1280, by which time the city had grown in prosperity, though the Friars retained Wilton as a “cell” to their new house at Fisherton Anger.

There is often a tendency to confuse monks and friars, whereas the two fraternities were diametrically opposite in their constitution. The monk, as such, retired from the world, to lead a contemplative life. The friar lived and worked in the world, among the poor, tending the sick and preaching. The Monk sought retirement in the countryside; the friar plunged into populous cities and especially into the medieval slums. The monks lived securely together in their monastries; the friar was a wanderer in poverty, living on alms. The ideal of the friar was higher than that of the monk, and his eventual degeneration was more complete. As a wanderer he owed obedience to the head of his order who might be miles away, and if it was too fatally easy for him to cease to live upon alms, and to adopt begging as a means of livelihood until he sank to becoming a “pardoner,” or trader in indulgences. But the friars were necessary for the times, and were the natural product of their age. Until the 12^th century the ecclesiastical system had been modelled on the Feudal system, with Bishops as spiritual and feudal barons, as well as great landlords. The growth of towns called for something different. The parochial system had broken down in the cities, and people were living in spiritual and moral, as well as physical destitution. The friars were a reaction against the abuses of spiritual feudalism, but their ideal of poverty was unworkable in practice. Reforms were continually taking place, but were never practical or lasting.

The Black Friars were established at Toulouse in 1215, and had already arrived in England by 1227; within the next twenty-four years they had established fifty-two principal houses in England, the house at Wilton being one of them. This stood on a site of about six acres of land, with a church and other buildings which took nearly 26 years to complete. The Friary was fenced in with wattled thorns. Of course the brothers had their benefactors, chief among whom were the King (Henry III), William Longespée, Earl of Salisbury, whose tomb is in the Cathedral, and William de Maudult, whose enamelled horse trappings were found at Old Sarum. Their benefactors mainly took the form of oaks from the various forests, which were usually carted free of charge and toll to Wilton. The King gave fifteen cartloads of thorns from Grovely Wood for the fence, together with dead wood for firing, which was to be taken from where the least damage would be done in the cutting.

On moving into Salisbury, in 1280, the new house was established in the suburb of Fisherton Anger, separated from the city by the river, and communicating with it by the bridge. Edward I bought the land from William Dun. It consisted of several tenements and meadows rented by small owners, many of whom were fishermen. Once again the benefactors came forward; Queen Eleanor of Castile gave a yearly rent of 16s., Henry Fitz Anger added an acre and a half of land, and the Earl of Lincoln oaks. The church of the Friary was a considerable one; it was dedicated to the Holy Trinity and had at least twelve altars, including one to St. Barbara, which had an alabaster statue of the saint above it. It had also a belfry with two bells and a “pair of organs.”  There was a “goodly feretory of copper and gilt” in which the relics of saints were carried in procession. Despite the poverty of the Dominican habit, the ceremonial vestments were very sumptuous; a set of three were of “velvet, with many pearls, with bears and castes, very precious.”

The friars of Fisherton were men of action on occasion. In the days of Edward II, a certain man, John, son of William of Tynhide, was imprisoned at Old Sarum and condemned to death for felony. On his way to the gallows at Fisherton five of the friars rescued him by force, cut his bonds, and delivered him from justice. It is also interesting to learn that they received a Royal pardon for this transgression of the law. So popular were the friars that many people left instructions that they were to be buried in the Friary church. Alice Meriot , in 1406, after directing that she was to be buried in the church, left to the brothers a mazer bowl “to be kept and used for drinking.” Mazer bowls, which are today rare and of great value, were used for ceremonial drinking, much like the “loving cup” was employed among the city companies of London.

The friars also had a library of manuscripts which was examined by Leland in 1536, just before the Dissolution. At that time the Black Friars of Fisherton were not financially flourishing. The King’s visitor for the suppression of mendicant friars was Richard Ingworth, Suffragan Bishop of Dover, and in 1538 the Prior and 13 friars surrendered their house to him.

The Friary was £80 in dept, mostly due to the Prior. But the creditors had to be content with £18 16s. which was realised by the sale of two old feather beds, six poor cushions, and some kitchen stuff, which were sold for £3 15s. 9d., the remaining £5 3d. being advanced by the visitor, who took away with him 303ozs. of silver plate, leaving the rest of the monastic property in the hands of the bailiff of the city to keep for the King. Some of this property was claimed by the friars as their own, notably, “two great candlesticks of latten, which Father Browne claimeth, but this twelve years they have been in the inventory of the convent, wherefore I would not allow it, but caused him to bring them again.” Apart from the actual belongings of the church, there were the contents of the kitchen, brass pots and pans, kettles, spits, gridiron, pothooks and colander. There was the baking outfit, and in the buttery, four tablecloths, ewer and basin for washing the hands at meals, with towels and salt cellars. In the dormitory “sheets or blankets none,” which speaks of the spartan rule of the order.

The sites of the friaries being situated in populous centres, had a monetary value, which the more sequestered monasteries and abbeys had not; that is why there are so few remaining ruins of friaries. In the case of the Black Friars at Fisherton, the property was sold to the Earl of Bath, who seems to have demolished a good many of the buildings, for it was let as fifteen gardens, two tenements, a dwelling and the “Prior’s Lodging,” which with its garden and buildings brought in a rent of £1 5s. 5d. The Wilton “cell” also fell to the Crown. Four acres of land, the site of the house and the churchyard were let for £1 11s. a year, and the property was eventually conveyed to Sir William Herbert by Edward VI.