No mention of the castle occurs till the reign of John, who held the castle and Honour during the minority of Lord Reginald, when the fines, &c., for the Honour were levied by the king’s officers. In the Chancery roll of 1201–2, Nicholas Puinz accounts for 15s. 2½d., half a year’s pay allowed to the janitor of the castle, and the same to the watchman; and these payments are repeated by Reginald de Clifton, who, in 1204, was ordered to place Reginald de Moyon in possession of the castle of Dunster and the heritage then in his custody. A very little before this, the coming of age of Reginald, Hubert de Burgh was in charge, and had accounted “de finibus militum” of the Honour; and 25th February, 1202, John called upon the knights and free tenants to contribute through De Burgh for strengthening the castle. “Our castle,” the king calls it, probably not merely as holding it in wardship, but as asserting the general rights of the crown to all castles. A second Reginald seems to have founded a mass for the weal of his ancestors, to be said daily by a monk or a secular priest, to be provided by the prior, in the upper or St. Stephen’s chapel, in the castle, or during war in the chapel of St. Lawrence, within the priory. If the same was neglected, power was reserved to distrain upon the goods of the prior. Leland mentions St. Stephen’s chapel as connected with the keep. There seems also to have been a second chapel, as usual, in the lower ward. Upon the death of Lord Reginald, about 1213, the Honour again fell into the hands of the Crown during a long minority. Henry Fitz Count was placed in charge, and Alice the widow was allowed dower and “maritagium.” It is curious that John does not appear to have visited Dunster, although he was at Stoke-Courcy. Henry III., in 1220, placed the forest of Dunster in charge of Peter de Maulay. He retained the castle in his own hands, and there occur several charges for the payment of Roger and William de Vilers, as “balistarii regis,” who dwelt in the king’s castle of Dunster. A specific order in 1222 places the Mohun lands in Carhampton in charge of William Briwer, probably next of kin to the widow, but reserves to the king’s hands the castle and vill of Dunster. Soon after, Watchet market, being unlicensed and injurious to Dunster, was put down (Close Roll I., 137, 418, 605). The above were not the only persons to whom from time to time this valuable wardship was committed.