Poore

Poore (or [[Poor), Richard]] (d. 1237), English bishop, was a son of Richard of Ilchester, bishop of Winchester. About 1197 he was chosen dean of Sarum and, after being an unsuccessful candidate for the bishoprics of Winchester and of Durham, he became bishop of Chichester in 1214. In 1217 he was translated to Salisbury, where he succeeded his elder brother, Herbert Poore, and in 1228 to Durham. He died at Tarrant Monkton, Dorset, said by some to be his birthplace, on the 15th of April 1237. Poore took some part in public affairs, under Henry III., but the great work of his life was done at Salisbury. Having in 1219 removed his see from Old to New Sarum, or Salisbury, he began the building of the magnificent cathedral there; he laid the foundation stone in April 1220, and during his episcopate he found money and forwarded the work in other ways. For the city the bishop secured a charter from Henry III. and he was responsible for the plan on which it was built, a plan which to some extent it still retains. He had something to do with drawing up some statutes for his cathedral; he is said to be responsible for the final form of the "use of Sarum," and he was probably the author of the Ancren Riwle, a valuable "picture of contemporary life, manners and feeling" written in Middle English. His supposed identity with the jurist, Ricardus Anglicus, is more doubtful.