CHURCHILL, a parish in the hundred of WINTERSTOKE,
county of SOMERSET, 4 miles (N. by E.) from
Axbridge, containing 824 inhabitants. The living is a
perpetual curacy, within the jurisdiction of the peculiar
court of Banwell at Wells, endowed with £200
private benefaction, £200 royal bounty, and £1400 parliamentary
grant, and in the patronage of the Dean and
Chapter of Bristol. The church, dedicated to St. John
the Baptist, is a handsome structure, with an embattled
tower, and contains a fine altar-piece representing the
Lord's Supper, and several interesting monuments. This
is a very ancient place, occurring in old deeds under the
names of Curichill, Cheuchill, and Cherchill: immediately
after the Conquest it was held by Roger de Leon, who
eame over with the Conqueror, and who appears to have
assumed the name of Courcill, or Curcelle, from this property;
he is said have been the remote ancestor of
John Churchill, the great Duke of Marlborough. On a
very high point of the Mendip range of hills, above the
village, is an old encampment, called Dolberry Castle,
forming a parallelogram of five hundred and forty
yards by two hundred and twenty, and enclosed by a
ditch, varying from sixteen to thirty feet in depth, on all
sides but the south-east, where the steepness of the
hill rendered it unnecessary; within it many Roman
and Saxon coins and some fragments of weapons have
been found. -In 1820, James Symons, Esq. left three
acres of land, directing -the income to be applied to the
education of eight poor children; there are several benefactions
for the relief of the poor.