Soham / Saham

There are five entries for this Soham [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TL5973/soham/] [accessed 26 July 2016], none of which mention cleric or church in it. The Victoria County History (Cambridge and the Isle of Ely, vol. 10, 2002) notes: "In the 11th century it was believed that Felix, first bishop of the East Angles (d. c. 647), had founded at Soham, probably then within their kingdom, a monastery to which his body was eventually translated from the see of Dunwich. That monastery was allegedly destroyed by the Danes. […] Felix's supposed relics, however, remained at Soham, perhaps enshrined in a late Saxon minster church serving the surrounding area, until Aethelric, bishop of Dorchester 1016-34, once a monk at Ramsey, obtained King Cnut's leave for that abbey to remove them to its church. In 1026 its abbot, Athelstan, came by boat to take them from the allegedly ruined church at Soham, evading on the return journey an intercepting boat party sent out by the monks of Ely. Ramsey kept the relics thenceforth. […] The church of Soham presumably belonged to the royal demesne manor throughout the 12th century until Richard I in 1189 gave both the parish church and Barway chapel in free alms to the Poitevin Cistercian abbey of Le Pin (Vienne), whose abbot was his almoner. King John confirmed that grant, adding the tithes of Henney, in 1199. […] Probably in 1189 the bishop of Norwich approved the appropriation of Soham to Le Pin, and the establishment of a vicarage […] In 1848-9 Pembroke College and the vicar had the chancel restored […] A new font was also provided."