[1] It was founded by William de Erleigh (or Erlegh) for Augustinian Canons.
A local spring fed fishponds (or vivarium) and supplied the priory with water and drainage.
The Hospitallers had granted a 50-year lease of their lands in 1539 to William Hawley or Halley.
Following Dissolution Hawley received a lease of the property from the crown, and in 1545 together with Alexander Popham he purchased the freehold, then called "the manor and late preceptory of Buckland Priors".
[7] The property was later the seat of Sir Gabriel Hawley (d.1604), Sheriff of Somerset in 1584.