ECORDS OF YARLINGTON

THE LIBRARY

THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

RECORDS OF YARLINGTON,

RECORDS OF YARLINGTON:

Being

THE HISTORY OF A COUNTRY VH^LAGE.

T. E. ROGERS, Esq., M.A.,

Chancellor of the Dioceae of Bath and Wells, and Recorder of Wells.

LONDON :
ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.

HALLETT, BATH. JACKSON, WELLS.

BARNICOTT, TAUNTON. SWEETMAN, WINCANTON.

1890.

l^Jo

To THK COUNCIL AND MEMBERS
OF THE SOMERSET RECORD SOCIETY,

10 RESUSCITATE, FOR THE PURPOSES

OF A PARISH HISTORY,

THE DRY BONES OF SUNDRY OLD DEEDS

AND MUNIMENTS OF TITLE,

§ls rcspccffuUe gnscvibeb;

IN THE HOPE THAT THEY WILL NOT DISDAIN

A WHOLLY UNAUTHORISED OFFERING,

WHICH THEIR OWN EXAMPLE IN SIMILAR RESEARCH

HAS SUGGESTED TO THE WRITER.

ENGLISH LOCAL

PREFACE.

* The dullest of all dull books is a conscientiously compiled
parochial history.' — Sahirday Review^ May nth, 1889.

Undeterred, if not undismayed, by the above sweeping
criticism, and without questioning the truth of it — of which,
indeed, the following pages are only too likely to afford an
additional illustration — the writer has nevertheless ventured
to send them to the press, as containing the substance, in a
somewhat expanded shape, of a lecture on ' The Records of
My Village,' recently delivered by him at the neighbouring
towns of Castle Cary and Wincanton.

T. E. R.

Yarlington House,
Michaelmas^ 1889.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

I. The Manor of Yarlington, from Domesday to 154 i - i

Pedigree of Salisbury, Plantagenet a7id Pole - - - ^S

II. Yarlington and its Owners from 1541 to 1592 : the

Parrs, Sir Thomas Smith, the Rosewells - - 20

III. Yarlington and the Berkeleys, from 1592 to the Death

OF Maurice Berkeley, Esq., January, 1673-74 - 28

Pedigree of Berkeley, of Bruton and Yarlington - - 39

IV, Madam Jael Berkeley (her Trials and Triumphs) : the

Roynons and Godolphins, from 1673 TO 1712 - 45

Pedigree of Godolphin -.-... 60

V. The Marquis of Carmarthen, Vendor, 1782 - - 63

Appendix : The Incumbents of Yarlington - - 77

Sepulchralia - - - - - 82

Index ---.-- - 94

RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

THE MANOR OF YARLINGTON.

Yarlington, at the time of the Conquest, as we learn from
Domesday, was known as ' GerHngtun.' This interchange
of the initial ' Y ' and the hard ' G ' was, as we know,
and is, of very common occurrence, from the similarity of
the sound in Saxon and modern German pronunciation.
Yarnfield is Gernefelle, Yeovil is Givele, and the sur-
name of Yeatman, well known in the neighbourhood, is
nothing more nor less than ' Gate-man ' ; and their arms
are charged with two gates. Yarlington was also some-
times spelt with the initial letter J — Jarlington — as
* Yatton ' is Jatune ; the J, of course, being pronounced as
the initial Y.

But what is Gerling^tun ? Is it the town of the Girlinofs ?
There is a village of Girlington in Yorkshire, and Girling
survives to this day as a surname in East Anglia ; and a
Mrs. Girling, a woman of extraordinary force of character,
was, only the other day, the life and soul of the little
community of ' Shakers' who squatted in the New Forest,
to the delectation and edification of the Hon. Auberon

RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

Herbert. However this may be, and whoever gave the
name to the place, such eponymous person had ceased to
hold it at the time of the Conquest, when, as Domesday
tells us, one Alnod held it, and was promptly dispossessed
by the Conqueror ; and the Manor, with many others in
the county, was conferred on his half-brother, Robert, Earl
of Morton, or Mortain, in Normandy. The Domesday
account is :

'The Earl himself holds Gerlingtun. Alnod held it
T.R.E., and gelded for 7 hides. The land is 7 carucae.
In demesne is i caruca and 6 serfs, and 8 villeins and
6 bordarii, with 2 carucae. There is a mill which is worth
7s. rent, a wood 6 quarentines long and 3 broad. It was
worth ^7, is now worth lOos.'

These dimensions are reduced by the learned Mr. Eyton
('Somerset,' vol. i., p. 118) as follows: '7 quasi-hides,
plough-lands, 840 acres ; wood, 180 acres. Total measure-
ment, 1,020 acres.'

The Manor passed from this powerful Earl Robert to his
son William, who was, however, deprived of all his estates
by his cousin, Henry I., in consequence of his siding with
Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy, in the contentions
between him and Henry ; and all the Morton estates in
Somerset were then granted by the King to the baronial
family of Montacute, which was now attaining to great
power. Its ancestor, Drogo of Montacute, was the confi-
dential friend and comrade-in-arms of Robert, Earl of
Morton, and already possessed many manors under him as
his feudal lord, as Shepton Montague, Sutton Montis,
Donyatt, a hide of land in Montacute, etc., and the Barons

THE MANOR OF YARLINGTON.

of Montacute now fairly step into the shoes of the Earls of
Morton. The second Earl of Morton had, however, parted
with many of his Manors before the confiscation of his
estates, and amongst the estates so parted with was that of
the Castle of Montacute and Manor of ' Bishopstonc,' by
which latter name the parish of Montacute was then
known.

'The Earl himself (says Domesday) ' had in demesne
Bishopstone, and there is his castle, which is called
Montagud.' This manor and castle had been granted by
William, second Earl of Morton, to a priory of Cluniac
monks which he there established. Amongst the estates
thus made over to the priory, Collinson (vol. iii., p. 312)
enumerates ' the church of Yarlington.' The Montacutes
must, however, in some way have recovered the advowson.
In the earliest register existing at Wells, Bishop Drokens-
ford's {teiiip. Edward II.), so admirably edited for the
Somerset Record Society by my old playmate (' for we
were nursed upon the self-same hill ') and college contem-
porary, Bishop Hobhouse, the presentations to the living
are duly entered as by the Montacutes '} and in 131 5 one
William (de Glideford), Rector of Yarlington, and Sir
Simon de Montacute, are commissioned by Bishop Drokens-
ford to take charge of the goods and persons of the nuns of
Whitehall, Ilchester, and to deliver to him an account of
their administration. In the ' Valor ' of 1290 the Prior of
Montacute received a yearly pension of los. out of the
Rectory ; but the advowson at that time was not in the
Priory, which looks as if some compromise had been made

^ And see Weaver's ' Somerset Incumbents :' Yarlington.

I — 2

RECORDS OF Y ARLINGTON.

between the Montacutes and the Priors. In the 'Valor' of
Henry VIII. the pension no longer appears. It may have
been redeemed, or have been only payable for so many
lives or years.

It is abundandy clear that the Montacutes did not take
their designation from the parish of Montacute, where, in
the time of Robert, Earl of Morton, they only held a hide
of land under him as their feudal lord. Shepton Montague,
the neighbouring village to Yarlington, appears to have
been the ' caput baroniae,' although there is no evidence of
any capital mansion there ; and Sutton Montis also takes
its second name from them.

The Manor of Yarlington was held by this powerful
family, Barons of Montacute, and afterwards Earls of
Salisbury, for nearly 450 years, viz., from the end of the
eleventh century (1091) to 1339, when, upon the attainder
of Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, following upon that in
1 52 1 of her son-in-law, Edward, Duke of Buckingham, the
Manor finally reverted to the Crown.

There is no place known in the county of Somerset of
sufficient size or importance to have formed the principal
country-seat of this great and powerful family. There was
a mansion and park at Donyatt (the park is noticed in
Domesday, ' ibi-parcus '), and the mansion there was forti-
fied (2 Edward III.) by William of Montacute, first Earl
of Salisbury. It seems probable that, being constantly
employed in the service of the Crown, they had, when not
engaged in the King's wars, their chief quarters in London,
and only paid occasional visits to their various country seats
in the West of England. Their Manor-house at Yarling-

THE MANOR OF YARLINGTON.

ton, from its situation, could scarcely have had capacity for
the retinue of a powerful Norman nobleman. King John,
however, as appears from his ' Itinerary,' slept there for a
night or two when on one of his hunting expeditions, as
lying between the Blackmoor Vale Forest and Selwood
Forest, where he had a hunting-box at Brewham Lodge ;
and Simon, sixth Baron Montacute, who appears to have
been much at Yarlington, obtained in 1313 (7 Edward II.)
license to fortify his Manor-house here ; and in the Cal™
Rot"' Chartarum (p. 147), Edward II., No. 8, Chart. 47, is a
charter to this Simon de Montacute of a fair, * mercata
feria,' at Yarlington, and also at Chedzoy ; and right of free
warren to these two Manors, and also to Thurlbear,
Shepton Montague, and Donyatt.

The fortification at Yarlington consisted of a moat on
the east and south sides of the church and Manor-house,
which is still plainly visible, and which, being cut through
higher ground in a loop or half-circle from a lake of some
fourteen acres, which extended along the low ground on
the north and west sides of the church and Manor-house,
placed them in a small island, completely detached from the
rest of the village, from which the access was by a draw-
bridge over the moat, where the road by the present
blacksmith's shop leads to the church. Where this moat
again joined the lake, on the west side of the bridge, was
' the pond-head '; and here, in after-days (1562), a mill was
built, with a good fall from the water of the stream, which
was here bayed back to form the lake. The island was
itself so small that the Manor-house could at no time have
been very large. But all the offices, stables, and the like,

RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

were on the other side of the water, where the farmhouse
now stands. This is shown by the names of the fields —
Court Field, Pigeon-house Field, and (of course, much later
on), Potatoe Sleight. In 1875, when the old farmhouse,
which had been burned down, was being rebuilt, the con-
tractor, knowing nothing of its history, came to inform me
that, to his surprise, there were evident remains of a stable
in the old house. There was also a very extensive deer-
park on the whole of the north and east sides of the Manor,
and fields bear the names of Buck Park and Hind Park,
which latter, however, has lost its name and place within
my memory, having been thrown into a larger field of a
different name.

In connection with this park there was a very unusual
right claimed by the Lords of the Manor ; that of ' the
Deer's Leap,' as it was locally called, and which was a
claim to all timber growing within six feet, not from the
stem of the hedge, but from the sheer of the outside ditch,
and in certain parts, adjoining Bratton and Maperton,
within fifteen and a half feet ;^ and in the various perambu-
lations of the Manor the timber-trees so growing are duly
enumerated and particularised as belonging to the Lords of
the Manor of Yarlington ; and in the old parish maps

^ Eg. 'From Whatley Ball — where the park wall formerly stood — the
Lord of this Manor' (Yarlington) 'claims 152^ feet.' — Perambulations, 1754,
1783. The Court Rolls in my possession do not reach back beyond 1746. The
custom of the Manor was that ' at the Court Leet and Court Baron ol the Lord,'
holden annually in the third week of October, a tenant was admitted for three
lives, with a Heriot or Fine upon each life succeeding as tenant, with benefit of
widowhood to the widow of the last surviving life. It was in this 'widow's
estate ' that the customary tenant of the Manor chiefly differed from the ordmary
freehold leaseholder ; except, indeed, that by the mode of assurance he enjoyed
practical immunity as well from the imposition of the Stamp Duty as from 'the
tyranny of parchment.'

THE MANOR OF YARLINGTON.

a dotted line outside the parish boundaries is marked round
that part of the parish to which this right was alleged to
attach ; commencing from ' the Slait Gate ' at the bottom of
'Great Slait,' and going round by Hadspen, Bratton, and
Clapton in Maperton, to a spot since known as Amen
Corner, where Yarlington Manor, Woolston in the parish of
Yarlington, and Clapton in the parish of Maperton, conjoin.
Thus, in 1754, in the ' Record of a Perambulation,' stated
in the caption to be ' in and for the Manor of Yarlington,
then in the possession of Francis, Earl of Godolphin, for
settling the bounds and privileges of such Manor, due
notice beino;' timely given to the respective proprietors of
lands and Manors adjoining,' the account goes on to say :
* We set out from Slait Gate ; from thence the procession
runs six feet on the level round the outside of the fence
bordering on Vickris Dickinson, Esq.,^ in whose first field,
called " Harewells," were three oaks and one elm, adjudged
to belong to the said Earl of Godolphin ;' and so on as
regards specified trees, at six feet and fifteen and a half feet
respectively, in the adjoining lands of Hadspen, and of
Bratton, and Clapton in Maperton, and signed :

' Richard Gapper, Rector,
Geo. Bowyer, Curate,
J NO. Yeatman, Deputy Steward,
Maurice Cornish, Churchwarden,'

and by many other names still known in the parish ;
e.g., Josiah White, James Davidge, Wm. Day, Isaac
Garland, Thos. Bishop, Walter Hix, etc.

^ The then owner of the Hadspen Estate.

RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

This may be a fitting place to note once for all the
peculiar position which Woolston Farm, or Woolston
Manor Farm, holds in regard to Yarlington.^ At no
time does this compact little estate of 230 acres, lying
on the south of the parish, appear to have been com-
prehended under the title of ' the Manor of Yarlington,' if,
indeed, it ever formed part of the Montacute property.
Indeed, it seems doubtful whether it is included in Domes-
day — at least, under the head of Yarlington. Mr. Eyton, as
we have seen, reduces the Domesday quantities to 1,020,
which is within forty acres of the actual extent of the
parish, exclusive of Woolston Farm. The acreage, how-
ever, as given in Domesday, of both Blackford and
Maperton parishes, which also abut on Woolston Farm,
are largely in excess of their modern acreage ; Blackford
being stated at 1,045, ^^ against its modern acreage of
578 acres; and Maperton at 1,715, against 1,534 acres;
so that Woolston Farm may have inadvertently got included
in one of these parishes.

On the other hand, in the oldest description I have of
it, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, the estate
is designated as ' Great Woolston, otherwise Woolston
Gyon ; and in the Kirkby Quest, temp. Edward III., two
persons of the name of Gyon are entered as in Yarling-
ton parish, 2 who were, no doubt, the eponymous owners of
this farm.

^ Woolston proper^ if I may so call it — that is, Woolston as distinct from
Woolston Farm — is a populous and considerable hamlet, wholly comprised in
the parish of North Cadbury.

2 I am indebted for this information to the kindness of my neighbour, Mr.
Dickinson, of Kingweston, whose promised publication of 'Kirkby's Quest' is
expected with interest by his friends of the Somerset Record Society.

THE MANOR OF Y ARLINGTON.

Again, following up this clue, it is noteworthy that when
Dru, or Drogo, de Montacute certified the smaller knights'
fees of his barony, for the purposes of assessment on the
marriage of the daughter of Henry II., he returns, with
nine others, a certain John (or Jordan) Guihane for one
knight's fee. (Collinson, iii. 46.) Now, this Guihane looks'
or, at any rate, sounds, very like an earlier form of Gyon ;
and this knight's fee may very probably be in respect of
Woolston in Yarlington, which was then, or afterwards,
dissevered from the barony. Very early in the seventeenth
century the estate was owned by the Chafins, or Chafyns,
of Chettle and of Folke in Dorset, a family of large
possessions in Dorset, Somerset, and Wilts, and now
represented by Miss Chafyn Grove, of Zeals. ^ It was
purchased from the Chafins in the middle of the last
century, by a Mr. James Harding, of Mere, merchant,
whose family held it for two or three generations, and some
of whom resided there, as yeomen, in the first quarter of the
present century.

To return to the old claim of ' the Deer's Leap,' and the
timber thereon. It formed, more than eighty years ago, the
subject of a characteristic correspondence between my
grandfather, the then owner of the Manor, and two neigh-
bouring squires. My ancestor, desiring to remove what
might prove a source of litigation or dispute in the future,
addressed himself to Mr. Hobhouse and to Colonel Pen-

•^ The Chafins were Sheriffs of Dorset, temp. Elizabeth, and Banifield Chafin
was Sheriff of the same county in 1624. In 1634. through the concession of
Sir Henry Berkeley, he presented to the living of Yarlington.

lo RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

ruddock, the owner of Clapton, with a view to an amicable

adjustment and setdement of all claims. The following is

a copy of Mr. Hobhouse's answer, the original of which is

now in my possession :

* Hadspen,

' Od. 2of/i, 1807.

' Dear Sir,

* I have received your letter of yesterday respecting a claim which
you state the proprietor of the Manor of Yarlington to have upon some
timber growing within certain limits of its border adjoining to Hadspen, and
with which you conceive me to be well acquainted.

'With the existence of such a claim I am certainly not wholly un-
acquainted, because you once hinted at it in a conversation with me
several years ago, but of its foundation or its extent I am completely
uninformed. And, to say the truth, as I have never since heard of it
again, I concluded you had abandoned it as untenable. It struck me
when you first alluded to it as a claim so very extraordinary, that I took
some pains to see whether I could find any vestige of it in any documents
in my possession. But so far have I been from tracing it, that, on the
contrary, I find my land has been uniformly conveyed from seller to buyer,
together with all timber and other trees growing thereon. Nor have I been
able to learn that the claim has ever been either exercised by the owner of
Yarlington, or recognised by the owner of Hadspen.

* You dome but justice in supposing that I shall be inclined to settle the
matter amicably. No one can be more strongly disposed than I am to
avoid disputes with my neighbours, and 1 trust that none will arise out of
the present question. But, in the absence of all information on the subject,
you will excuse me for saying that at present I see nothing to ask any
common friend to decide on. If you will have the goodness to point out
to me how your claim originated, or in what manner or at what period
the supposed right has either been exercised by the owner of your estate
or admitted by the owner of mine, it may lay the foundation of an enquiry
more successful than I have hitherto instituted, or of a different deter-
mination from any I can form in my present state of darkness.

'As my stay at this place is unfortunately limited to the present week,

THE MANOR OF Y ARLINGTON. ii

you will do me a favour by enabling me by an early answer to make such
an enquiry within that period.

' I am, dear Sir,

' Yours most faithfully,

' H. HOBHOUSE.'

A negotiation entered upon in such a spirit on both sides
could not fail of a satisfactory result. My ancestor set no
value on his claim, and only wished to secure his descendants
from any temptation to embark on any litigation in the
assertion of it. It was therefore agreed that, in considera-
tion of my grandfather's cutting down a tree, he should
release all claim, Mr. Hobhouse sagely suggesting that, as
it purported to be a release of right in realty, it ought to be
under seal, and that he would therefore prepare a short
deed for my grandfather's signature, which no doubt is
to this day in the Hadspen archives.^ My ancestor's

^ It would ill accord with my feelings as a man, not to say a Somersetshire
man, if I were to pass over the name of the Rij^ht Hon. Henry Hobhouse with-
out some notice of this late eminent owner of Hadspen. An elegant scholar (as
is evidenced by his Greek translation in the ' Musje Etonenses ' of Milton's ' Invo-
cation to Light '), a most accurate and profound lawyer, whose opinion, whether
as chamber counsel, or as legal adviser to the Treasury and Home Office, was
regarded as second to none of the Judges on the Bench, a diligent and pains-
taking investigator and collector of all records and facts bearing upon the
history of the county, a well-informed and conscientious Churchman, he was,
perhaps, nowhere seen to greater advantage than as a resident country gentle-
man, a magistrate of the county, and chairman of Quarter Sessions. Whilst
in the successive offices of State which he filled, he so recommended himself to
the highest authorities, that he was selected as one of the executors of his will
by Sir Robert Peel, whom he survived, although the Prime Minister was by
many years his junior. To his kindly precepts and advice, readily given at all
times, no less than to his powerful example, as landlord, neighbour, and friend, I
have ever felt and acknowledged that I owe my early aspirations to employ
whatever small abilities I might possess in the immediate sphere of my own
people, amongst whom I was born ; and thus to utilise and illustrate to the best
of my power the rather limited and narrow conditions of the line of life — the
' fallentis semita vitcC ' — which it is the lot of the country gentleman to pursue
In the course of a long life, and whilst in chambers ?t Lincoln's Inn, 1 have,

2 — 2

12 RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

application to Colonel Penruddock met with a more militant
response. ' If the Lord of the Manor of Yarllngton thinks
that he has any claim to timber growing on my estate at
Clapton, he had better take steps to enforce such claim.'

Here the matter ended ; but in the next Perambulation
entered on the Court Rolls, in 1811, the old specification of
the timber trees outside the boundary of the Manor is dis-
continued ; and, indeed, for all practical purposes, the only
usage in later times had consisted in the custom of keeping
outside the boundary-fence for shooting or coursing pur-
poses, without feeling the guilty consciousness of commit-
ting a trespass. Although, indeed, upon reflection, it seems
more than doubtful whether this practice could have been
justified as within the alleged claim, which appears not to
have extended to a general right over the land, but to have
been limited to a right to the timber growing within the
prescribed area. Such a claim as this, to timber on another
man's land, was of course in violent antagonism to common
law, but it affords evidence of the pretensions of these old
Norman barons.

To continue the history of the Manor. The grandson of
Simon, sixth Baron of Montacute, was William, eighth
Baron, who had license to fortify his mansion at Donyatt,

had the good fortune to be thrown into terms of intimate acquaintance and
friendship with Lord Chancellors and others who have achieved the highest
position in Church and State (including, indeed, two of his own distinguished
sons, Bishop Hobhouse and Lord Hobhouse), yet I desire to place on record
that the matured convictions and experience of my manhood only tended to
sustain and confirm my youthful impressions ; and that I never met with
anyone who so completely realized my ideal of 'the great and good man,' the
' vir pietate gravis ' — ' justissimus unus qui fuit '—a tower of strength in himself,
four-square against ail surrounding circumstances, as did the late Right Hon.
Henry Hobhoute. ' Ex abundantia cordis os loquitur.'

THE MANOR OF Y ARLINGTON. 13

where, as we have seen, he had a park, mentioned in
Domesday. He was created first Earl of Salisbury (10
Edward III., 1336-37). His son William, second Earl of
Salisbury, married Elizabeth, daughter of John, Lord
Mohun of Dunster, and it was in honour of this fair lady
that the too susceptible King is said to have founded his
Order of the Garter, in 1349. Her sister, Philippa, married,
as her third husband, Edmund Plantagenet, Duke of York,
the King's third son. Her second husband, Sir R. Golofre,
was called Lord of Langley ; and it would seem that, by
reason of his marriage with her, Edmund Plantagenet
assumed the surname of De Langley. (See Sir H. Nicolas,
'Historic Peerage,' note at p. 324, under 'Mohun of
Dunster.')

Thomas, the fourth Earl of Salisbury, and ninth Baron
Montacute, married Alice, daughter and heiress of Thomas
Chaucer, and grand-daughter of the poet Chaucer. The
Earl was killed at Orleans, in 1428, and their sole child and
heiress, Alice, carried the property of Salisbury and the
Montacutes into the house of Neville, by her marriage with
Richard Neville (afterwards created Earl of Salisbury),
third son of Ralph Neville, first Earl of Westmoreland.
Their eldest son was Richard, the great Earl of Warwick,
* the King-maker,' and it is generally considered that the
old church at Yarlington was built by him. The architec
ture was of his period, and there was (as noticed by Phelps)
a rose — the well-known cognizance of York and Lancaster
— sculptured on one of the outside walls. The church itself,
having fallen into decay, was, with the exception of the
chancel and the tower, entirely rebuilt and enlarged in 1878,

14 RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

at a cost of over ^2,000 ; three-fourths of the expense
having been contributed by the HberaHty of the present
Rector, the Rev. A. J. Rogers, who is also patron of the
Hving. The sculptured rose, having become derelict, has
now found a place in some rockwork in my garden.

' The King-maker's ' two daughters and co-heiresses, the
Lady Isabel and the Lady Anne Neville, of whom the first
married George, Duke of Clarence, and the latter Richard
of Gloucester, died — the Lady Isabel in 1476, and the
Lady Anne in 1488. The only son of the Lady Isabel, the
unfortunate young Earl of Warwick, would then, in the
natural course of events, have succeeded to the enjoyment
of the Montacute and Salisbury estates, but the jealousy of
his uncle Richard, and, still more, the gloomy suspicions of
Richmond, doomed this last of the male line of the Planta-
genets to close and life-long custody until his execution, in
1499.

In 1463, the year before his death, 'the King-maker'
had presented, as patron, to the Rectory of Yarlington ; but
in 1493, and again in 1497, ' Henricus VII. Rex' exercised
this right ; he being, in a very strict sense, the custos or
guardian of his imprisoned victim. On Warwick's death,
in 1499, his sister Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, and
wife of Sir Richard Pole, became entitled to the Manor, and
held it until her attainder in 1539, followed by her execu-
tion in 1 54 1, when it finally devolved on the Crown. Col-
linson says it passed through the Poles to the Duke of
Buckingham. Phelps, whose whole account of this parish,
from beginning to end, is a tissue of small inaccuracies,
says, from ' Magna Britannia,' that Margaret, Countess of

THE MANOR OF YARLINGTON.

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i6 RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

Salisbury, settled this Manor, with others, by a covenant
with the Duke of Buckino^ham, in order to a marriage of
her daughter Ursula with the Duke's son. But all this is
not very intelligible. Henry Stafford, second Duke of
Buckingham, who succeeded his grandfather, the first Duke,
was beheaded and attainted in 1483, at the early age of
twenty-eight, and before the Countess of Salisbury became
possessed of the Manor. Edward, his son, the third and
last Duke, was restored in i486, then a minor ; and it is
possible that, on her daughter Ursula's marriage with this
Duke Edward, the Countess may have settled the reversion
on them, subject to her own life ; or, again, she may have
entailed it at once on them, reserving the reversion to her-
self. In either case the attainder and execution of the
Duke, in 1521, would place her in possession of her former
estate, which would thus pass altogether to the Crown on
her own attainder, in 1539. As will hereafter appear, the
estate was regarded by the Crown as that of the Countess,
and not of the Buckinghams, and the two salient facts are
these : (i) that the old Countess of Salisbury was barbar-
ously executed in 1541, and (2) that in 1543-44 — two years
after — we find Henry VHI. dealing with the Manor.

But it is time to turn from the devolution of the Manor
to consider what may be said as to the internal condition of
the parish itself. A parish without a history may be
assumed to be a happy parish, and there seems evidence of
this parish leading the ordinary parochial life.

There is a field called * Revelands,' with a fine slope to
the south, where of course the usual wakes and revels were
duly held. There is, as in so many other villages, a consi-

THE MANOR OF YARLINGTON. 17

derable tract of land called ' Breach-lands,' a name not yet
explained that I am aware of ;^ but a portion of this tract
consists of a field of some twelve acres, which holds on the
parish map the double names of ' Parish Breach ' and
' Lottsome.' This is evidently where the parish allotments
were formerly established. It is unquestionably the poorest
field in the parish, but whether this was the reason, or is
the result, of its public user, it may be difficult to say.
The greater part of the high table-land, commencing on the
north-west side of the main road, opposite the roadside
pump, and stretching on past the present mansion-house,
was open down, or common land, of some fifty acres, upon
which, as appears from the Court Rolls, the farm tenants of
the Manor had common, without stint, from Candlemas to
Michaelmas — from Michaelmas to St. Thomas's Day, no
tenant to stock more than three sheep to an acre, and no
to be folded off; and from St. Thomas to Candlemas to be
* hayned,' or shut off.

For the rest, the little parish has always been as self-
sufficing and self-contained as any village of its size, with a
population of about 220, and an area of some 1,200 acres,
can well be. Besides corn-farmers and dairy-farmers and
farm-labourers, it can boast of its own innkeeper, miller,
baker, blacksmith, carpenter, mason, thatcher, sawyer, and
road contractor — which is what few other small village com-
munities can say.

To Dryasdust's scornful inquiry for antiquities, answer
can only be made with ' bated breath.' But on the north

^ An obvious analogy, indeed, suggests ' Breach ' as a form of ' brecc,'
' brake,' and so ' Breach-land ' as ' Brake-land.'

i8 RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

and north-west of the parish there are well-defined earth-
works or escarpments (locally termed 'lynchets'), which
were probably outposts of the great central stronghold of
Cadbury Camp.

We have also, set up on the brow of a steep eminence,
in a wood called Seamark, a large stone, or monolith,
apparently of forest marble, known to the natives as Sea-
mark Stone ;^ where some British chief may have sum-
moned his followers to lay down the law, or some heathen
priest may have offered his sacrifices. Who knows ?

A stone coffin of large dimensions was found under tlie
chancel floor in 1878, of Hamhill stone, six feet in length,
twenty inches across the shoulder, fifteen inches at foot, ten
inches in depth, with two round holes, one inch in diameter,
drilled in the bottom, at about the small of the back.
There was a thin, flat covering-stone over it, which was
shivered when the coffin was disinterred. It contained a
Hamhill-stone ornament in shape like a figure 8, but with
the much larger or bottom circle solid — or, rather, like a
large earring or a pilgrim's bottle — in dimension, one and
three-quarter inches in length, and one inch in breadth.
This has been shown to many antiquaries, in the hope
that it might denote the age of the cuffin, but at present no
one has been able to make anything of it, or explain its use.
There were no human remains in the coffin, which must,
without doubt, have been previously disturbed and re-
interred on the entire rebuilding of the chancel by Canon
Frankland, in 1822. At first it seemed to me possible that

^ Seamark being the name as well of some adjoining field? as of the wood
itself.

THE MANOR OF YARLINGTON. 19

the coffin might be that of Simon de Montacute ; but that
most careful antiquary, Bishop Hobhouse, informs me that
this is not very probable, since the Montacutes, as a rule,
claimed burial at Bruton Priory — of which they were
regarded as part-founders and as benefactors, and as entitled
to the benefit of intercessory prayers, in consideration of
their donation of the great tithes of Shepton Montague.

No natural curiosities ? Well, yes ; we have a hole,
swallet, or chasm, into which a winter brook discharges
itself, and no mortal can say where the water again issues
forth.

II.

YARLINGTON AND ITS OWNERS

FROM 1 541 TO 1592.
THE PARRS, SIR THOMAS SMITH, THE ROSEWELLS.

To resume our narrative. It has been mentioned that
Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, was executed in 1541, and
that Henry VIII. proceeded to deal with the forfeited
Manor about two years after this ; and from henceforth
the history of the Manor has been entirely made out by
myself, by the aid of old title-deeds and documents in my
possession.

On 25th February, 1543-44 (anno regni 35), Henry VIII.
granted this Manor and the fairs and markets there, on the
nativity of our blessed Ladye the Virgin, to Queen
Katharine Parr for her life, as part of her dower. On
20th August, 1547 (i Edward VI.), the reversion in fee
of the Manor and advowson (i.e., subject to the Queen-
Dowager's life) was granted under the great seal to her
brother William, Lord Parr, Marquis of Northampton,
subject to an annuity of ^3 3s. S^d., payable to the Court
of Augmentations. Possibly this amount was fixed as
being a tenth of the annual value of the property. In the
same year (20th October, 1547) the Marquis of Northamp-
ton obtained license to alien, and on the 14th November

YARLINGTON AND ITS OWNERS FROM 1541 TO 1592. 21

of the same year did alien, his reversion to Thomas
Smith, Esq., D.C.L., for £2^^ 8s. gd. The seal to this
conveyance is in the most perfect state of preservation.
It gives the arms of Lord Parr, surrounded by the Order of
the Garter. ' Sigillum Will-mi Comitis Essex Dmi Parre
Dmi Marmion & Scti Quintin et de Kendal.' The seal
had not been renewed to add the title of Marquis de
Northampton, which he had been created the previous
February (i Edward VI.), and by which title he is duly
described in the deed itself.

This Thomas Smith, or Smyth (for his name is in-
differently spelt both ways, and in the deed of conveyance
to him is spelt both Smyth and Smythe), born in 15 12, was
knighted in 1548, the year after his purchase of Yarlington.
He was a man of great learning and experience in State
affairs. Before attaching himself to the interests of the
Protector Somerset, whose secretary he was, he had been,
in 1 53 1, Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge, and gave
Greek lectures there, in which language he was a great
proficient. In 1536 (being twenty-four years old), he was
University Orator; in 1542, D.C.L. and Regius Professor
of Civil Law. He was employed in 1548 as Ambassador
at Brussels, and in 1551 as Ambassador to France. While
in PVance he wrote in Latin and EnMish his work on
' The Commonwealth of England,' a book still to be seen
sometimes on old bookstalls. It was not published, how-
ever, till after his death, which happened in 1577. Wood
says he was Provost of Eton, but was dismissed by Queen
Mary with a pension of ^100 a year. He adds that he
was a native of Essex, and was, with his wife, buried at

22 RECORDS OF YAR LING TON.

Theydon Mount, in that county. Strype, who pubHshed
in 1698 a ' Life ' of Smith, says that ' he purchased for ^300
the Manor of Yarhngton, worth ^30 a year, from the
Marquis of Northampton, with monies he had gotten at
Cambridge before he entered the Lord Protector's service.'
But this usually accurate writer, when suggesting that
Smith was getting ten per cent, on his purchase-money,
io-nores the fact that it was a reversion that he had bought.
It was, however, a fortunate purchase for Smith, as the
reversion fell into possession by the death of Queen
Katharine in the following year. There must have been
an absence of refinement, not to say a positively coarse
fibre, in this Queen's constitution, which, however, does not
appear to stand in the way of her being a general favourite
with the writers of her time. Hume, in his dispassionate
way, contents himself with describing her as ' a woman of
virtue, and somewhat inclined to the new doctrine.' Born
in or about 15 10, she had married, first, Edward Burgh, and,
secondly, John Neville, Lord Latimer ; Lord Latimer
having died in 1542, she was married to Henry VHL,
as her third husband, in July, 1543 ; and the breath was
scarcely out of the King's body when, to quote Hume once
more, ' forgetting her usual prudence and delicacy,' she
again married, as her fourth husband, the Lord High
Admiral, Lord Seymour, of Sudeley, the violent and
turbulent younger brother of the Protector Somerset, and
died in childbed, her last moments being embittered, if not
actually hastened, by the knowledge that her ill-conditioned
lord was already actively engaged in transferring his atten-
tions and caresses upon her step-daughter, the Princess

YARLINGTON AND ITS OWNERS FROM 1541 TO 1392. 23

Elizabeth, a young lady who had herself inherited from
both her parents a palpable strain of indelicacy and a
lamentable pruriency of imagination, which were constantly
in evidence all through her life, to the disfigurement of her
other great qualities.

Our narrative gladly turns from these two royal favourers
' of the new doctrine ' to say a word in behalf of another
Queen of a very different cast of character, and who pro-
bably has been more rancorously and persistently maligned
by history than any one of our sovereigns. I refer to
Mary Tudor. In 1520, when she was five years old.
Bishop Fox^ could write to the King her father, then in
France, that he and the Duke of Norfolk ' were on Satur-
day last at Richmond with the Princess Mary, who, lauded
be Almighty God ! is right merry and in prosperous health
and state, daily exercising herself in virtuous pastimes.'
But seven years after this, when she was twelve years old,
the Divorce question began to agitate the royal breast, and
thenceforth nothing but contradictions, vexations, and dis-
appointments fell to the lot of this sorely-tried Princess.
The cruel treatment of her gentle-natured mother filled her
with a dutiful resentment against those whose tenets she
not unreasonably regarded as responsible for such treat-
ment ; while, as concerned herself, she found herself suddenly
and shamefully degraded from the position of Princess
Royal of England to that of an illegitimate daughter of the
King. A serious and settled gloom thenceforward took

^ Quoted in a very full life of this prelate, prefixed to his register as Bishop of
Bath and Wells, recently edited with great care by another old school and form
fellow of mine, Mr. Chisholm Batten, of Thorn Falcon.

24 RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

the place of her natural gaiety of heart, yet her conduct at
all times appears to have been dictated simply by a sense of
religious duty, and by a desire to redress some of the many
acts of wrongful violence which had been committed by her
royal father, without the imputation of any personal con-
siderations or the admixture of private or revengeful
feelings ; and her character is now receiving more and
more favourable lights, thrown upon it by every fresh State
document or record which modern research brings to our
notice/

It has been stated that Henry VIII. confiscated all the
Salisbury property on the attainder and execution of the
old Countess of Salisbury, the King's first cousin once
removed. At the accession of Mary the heirs of the
Countess were her two granddaughters, daughters of
Henry Pole, Lord Montague, viz., Katharine, wife of
Francis, Earl of Huntingdon, and Winifred, wife of Sir
Thomas Hastings, brother of the Earl of Huntingdon;^
and, in the first year of Queen Mary, the castles, manors,
lordships, and lands therein specified were granted by
letters patent from the Queen to Francis, Earl of Hunting-
don, and Katharine his wife ('our cousin' and heir of
Margaret, Countess of Salisbury), and the heirs of her
body, with remainder to Winifred, wife of Sir Thomas
Hastings, Knight (another such cousin and heir), and the
heirs of her body, remainder to the heirs of the body of the

^ The depth and warmth of Mary's feelings are shown, as a daughter, in her
devotion to her discarded mother ; as a wife, in her touching affection for her
unsympathetic consort ; and as a queen, by her heart-searching distress that her
reign should be signalized by the loss to the nation of Calais.

^ See pedigree, supra^ p. 15.

YARLINGTON AND ITS OWNERS FROM 1541 TO 1592. 25

Countess, to be held of the Queen as they were held of
Henry VIII. ai the attainder of the said Countess.

The Manor of Yarlingron, having been already granted
by the Crown, was not, of course, included in this grant,
but the grant carried the fee-farm rent of £2, 3s. So^-,
which had been reserved by i Edward VI.

In 1555 Sir Thomas Smith presented one Roger Boydell
to the living, and the year following, under the description
of ' Sir Thomas Smith, of Ankerwicke, in the county of
Berks, Knight,' he, by deed of 6th July, 1556, sold the
Manor and advowson to William Rosewell, of Loxton, in
the county of Somerset, gentleman, and William Rosewell,
his son and heir apparent, 'of the Middle Temple, in the
suburbs of the Citie of London/ for ;^ 1,000, whereof ^100
is paid down, and the remaining ^900 to be paid 'on the
Feaste of Seinte Michael Th'archangel, at the house
of Sir Thos. Smith's brother, George Smith, in the
parishe of St. Margarette, in Lothbury.' Sir Thomas
covenants that Dame Philippa, his wife, shall release
dower ; and by deed of 4th November, 1556, reciting that
the money had been duly paid, the release to the Rosewells
is executed accordingly.

This William Rosewell, the son, a barrister of the Middle
Temple, came to reside at the Manor-house (presumably
during the long vacations), for by a lease, dated 1562, in
which he is described as ' Solicitor-General to our Sovereign
Lady the Queen's Majesty,' the two Rosewells, father and
son, demise to Richard Fitzjames, of Woolston, and Mary
his wife, the capital messuage and farm of Yarlington, late
in the occupation of Williani Rosewell the son, for ninety-

26 RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

nine years, if Fitzjames and his wife, and their son, John
Fitzjames, should so long live. The premium paid down
was ^360, and a yearly rent of £\\ 12s. 8d., and the best
beast as a heriot. The Solicitor-General died in the life-
time of his father, and by a deed, dated i8th April, 1569,
reciting this fact, the Fitzjameses, in consideration of a pay-
ment of ^700, reassign the estate for years to the elder
Rosewell, still described as of Loxton, gentleman. It is
clear from the difference in the two sums, £^(^0 and ;^700,
after an interval of only seven years, that Fitzjames had
been an improving lessee ; and it is mentioned in the lease
of 1562, that * Fitzjames was minded to build a Mill at the
Pond-Head,' which accounts for the increased value of the
premises. In the meantime the Solicitor-General, who had
evidently prospered in his profession, had purchased, on his
own account, Forde Abbey, in Devonshire, from the Sir
Amias Paulet who had charge of the unfortunate Queen of
Scots. In 1573, April nth, a William Rosewell is pre-
sented to the Rectory of Yarlington, by Wm. Rosewell, of
Loxton, gentleman. This presentee was apparently a
nephew of the Solicitor-General, and a son of Thomas
Rosewell, of Dunkerton, who is concerned in the presenta-
tion, and the living was held by him until 1627.

And in 1592, the Rosewells having held the Manor for
thirty-six years, and the death of the father having followed
that of the Solicitor-General, the William Rosewell of the
third generation, the son of the Solicitor-General, and who
is described in the deed of conveyance as * William Rose-
well, of Forde, in the county of Devon, esquire,'^ sells the

^ Sir Henry Rosewell, of Ford Abbey, was Sherifif of Devon in 1628 ; and in
1649 Ford passed from him by sale to Edmund Prideaux. Mr. Pulman in his

YARLINGTON AND ITS OWNERS FROM 1541 TO 1592. 27

Manor and advowson of Yarlington to Sir Henry Berkeley,
of Bruton. The conveyance was dated 8th February, 1592,
and the purchase-money was ^2,400, and WiUiam Rose-
well's wife, • Anne,' is to join in a fine.

Before parting company with the Rosewells, it is perhaps
only fair to them to say that the rose sculptured in the
church may possibly be their rebus, in allusion to their sur-
name ; but this is not very probable, although the family
were not altogether averse from this kind of canting or
punning reference to their name. Collinson (iii. 341) gives
the following inscription from a stone in Inglishcombe
Church to one of the family, in after-years :

* This grave's a bed of roses ; here doth ly
John Rosewell, gent, his wife, nine children, by.

.^tatis suae 79. Ob' i"° die Dec', Anno 1687.'

Burke, in his * Armoury,' gives Rosewell (' Somerset,
Wilts, and Devon,' temp. Conqueror) : Palegu. and ar. a lion
rampant ; and Rosewell, in his conveyance to Sir Henry
Berkeley, seals with this seal.

* Book on the Axe,' says that this Sir Henry Rosewell was son of the Solicitor-
General ; but from a comparison of the dates it seems pretty clear that he was
a grandson of the Solicitor-General, and son, rather than younger brother, of
William Rosewell, the vendor of Yarlington, in 1592.

4—2

III.

YARLINGTON AND THE BERKELEYS,

From 1592 to the Death of Maurice Berkeley, Esq.,

January, 1673-74.

Sir Henry Berkeley, of Bruton, who purchased the Manor
of Yarlington in February, 1592, was the son of Sir
Maurice Berkeley, of Bruton, who was standard-bearer to
Henry VHL, and a staunch adherent of his Vicar-General,
the unscrupulous Cromwell, Henry's principal tool in the
destruction of the monasteries ; and Sir Maurice had been
greatly enriched from these sources. The family was an
offshoot of the great house of Berkeley, of Berkeley Castle,
descended from a second son of Maurice, seventh Baron of
Berkeley, temp, Edward II., whose eldest son, Thomas,
eighth Baron, was owner of the castle at the time of the
horrid death there of Edward II. Sir Maurice, of Bruton,
had married, as his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of
Anthony Sandys, of Kent ; and, by virtue of his will,
she continued to reside at her husband's principal seat
at Bruton ; Sir Henry, the heir, meanwhile residing at Nor-
wood Park, the lease of which Sir Maurice had obtained,
after unavailing remonstrance, from the reluctant Abbot
Whiting, the last and cruelly murdered Abbot of Glaston-

YARLINGTON AND THE BERKELEYS. 29

bury, by dint of sheer pressure, and certainly with Crom-
well's sinister influence at his back. In Ellis's 'Letters'
(vol. iii., 3rd series, p. 6, Lett. 258) there is an explanatory
letter from the Abbot to Cromwell himself, in answer to his
written desire, ' that I should indelayedly graunte unto
your servaunte, Mr. Maurice Berkeley, under my Convente
seal, the Maistershippe of the game, th' office of the Keper,
and the herbage and pannage of my Parke of Northwode.'
Perhaps Sir Henry had been a little nettled by this arrange-
ment of his father's respecting Bruton ; for by his own will,
of date 30th May, 1600, he gives ' to his wife. Dame Mar-
garet, for her jointure, the Manor-house of Bruton wherein
he dwelt, in as ample a manner as his mother-in-law ' (he
means his step-mother) ' had the same, and his parsonages
of Bruton, Bruham, Redlynch, Wick, Cole, Pitcombe, and
Hatchpine,^ and the tithes.'

* Item, I do give and bequeath to Harry Berkeley, my second son, all
that my Manor of Yarlington, to him and his heirs for ever. Item, I do
give to my son Harry all such household stuff as I shall have at my house
at Yarhngton at the time of my death.'

From this bequest it would appear that Sir Henry Berke-
ley, of Bruton, had occasionally used as a residence ' his
house at Yarlington,' as well as his principal seat at Bruton ;
and, in fact, in a deed of conveyance of nine acres of land in
Cary Moor, in 1601, he is described as Sir Henry Berkeley,
of Yarlington, knight, and the land as ' lands which he had

^ Hadspen, in Sir Henry Berkeley's will, is called 'Hatchpine,' in accordance
with the barbarous pronunciation of the name which was universally prevalent
in the neighbourhood up to wiihin the last fifty years.

RECORDS OF YARLIXGTOX.

purchased, in 1582, of Robert Sedborough, of Gallington/
deceased.'

After the date of his will, viz., in 1 60 1 (43 Elizabeth), by an
indenture dated 27th xAugust, and made between himself of
the one part, and Henr}' Berkeley, gentleman, of the other
part, Sir Henry covenants to stand seized of the Manor and
advowson of Yarlington, and lands situate at Castle Gary,
Bratton, Shepton Montague, and North Cadbury, ' all being
lands known by the name of the ?^Ianor of Yarlington, and
purchased by him of William Rosewell, esquire,' to the
use of himself for life: remainder to his son Henry, in tail
male, remainder to his heirs female in tail, remainder to Sir
Henry's eldest son, Sir Maurice Berkeley, in tail male, with
remainder to himself in fee. Power is reserved to Sir
Henry to avoid this deed on payment of 5s. at the north
porch of Bruton Church.

Sir Henry left at his decease three sons, viz. : Sir
INIaurice, his heir, Henry of Yarlington, and Edward.

To the last-named son, Edward, who became the ancestor
of the Portmans, Sir Henry devised his estate of Pylle.

1 By ' Gallington ' in this deed is meant Galhampton. The place was very
generally called ' Gallington,' in the corrupt pronunciation of the neighbour-
hood, in my youthful days. Galhampton is a very considerable hamlet comprised
mainly in the parish of North Cadburj', but also, as to part, in the parish of
Castle Car)-. It abuts on the north-western boundary of Yarlington, and since
the time of Sir Henry Berkeley has been much associated with that parish. It
appears fi-om Mr. Green's 'Somerset Charities' (Somerset Record Soc),
pp. 121, 304, that two acres of land lying in the fields of Galhampton within the
parish of ' North Cadbur>- ' were part of the possessions of Yarlington Church,
rendering a ' rent of xvi'^.' for the use and maintenance of a light in the parish
church ' there perpetually burning.' The expression, * in the fields of Gal-
hampton,' is not so vague or indefinite as at first sight appears. It applies to
two large tracts of land in the hamlet of about forty acres, unenclosed until the
beginning of this century, and known respectively as Galhampton Field, and
North Field, being separated from each other by a road running through them
east and west, leading from Yarlington to South Cary.

YARLINGTON AND THE BERKELEYS. 31

Collinson (vol. iii., p. 281) remarks of Maurice, the eldest
son of Sir Henry Berkeley, and who was himself knighted in
his father's lifetime, that * by his wife Elizabeth, daughter
of Sir John Killegrew, he had five sons, all knights.' Their
names are given below.^

But we have now to confine ourselves to Henry Berkeley,
Sir Henry's second son, who comes into possession of Yar-
lington at his father's decease, in 1602 or 1603. In a deed
dated 6th August, 1603, he is described as Henry Berkeley,
of Yarlington, esquire ; but at this time he was engaged in
military service in Ireland — both he and his brother
Maurice having attached themselves to the service of the
Earl of Essex — and it is probable that he did not come into
permanent residence at Yarlington until after his marriage,
some years later.

However, in Michaelmas Term, 1606 (3 James I.), he suf-
fered a recovery,^ to Joseph Earth as demandant, of the
Manor of Yarlington, and lands in Yarlington, Castle Gary,
North Cadbury, Bratton, and Shepton Montague, and the
advowson of Yarlington — with the object, of course, of
barring the entail created by his father's deed of covenant
of 1601.

^ Sir Maurice Berkeley,=t=Elizabeth Killegrew.
father of the five
knights.

1 1

Penelope Godolphin=Sir Charles. Henry. Maurice. William, John,

Admiral, Lord Ber-
killed at keley, of
sea, 1666. Stratton.
- As the term ' recovery,' or ' common recovery,' will be of frequent recur-
rence, it may be as well to say here that it denotes the legal process — or
solemnly constituted farce — by which the entail on an estate was barred^ that is,
enlarged into a fee simple, prior to 1834 ; when, by 3 and 4 \Vm. IV., c. 74,
' simpler modes of assurance ' were substituted for fines and recoveries.

32 RECORDS Of YARLINGTON.

Henry Berkeley married Elizabeth, one of the daughters
of Sir Henry Neville, knight, and by an indenture dated
1 2th February, 1609 (being of the nature of a post-nuptial
settlement), in which he is described as Henry Berkeley, of
London, gentleman, of the one part, and Sir Wm. Kille-
grew, of Hanworth, county Middlesex, knight, and Henry
Neville, esquire, son and heir-apparent of Sir Henry
Neville, of Billingbere, in the county of Berks, of the other
part, the said Henry Berkeley, in consideration of a com-
petent jointure to be made unto Elizabeth Berkeley, now
his wife, and for her increase of livelihood if she should
happen to overlive the said Henry Berkeley, and for the
contimiance of the lands and hereditainents m his name and
blood if he should die without issue of his body, thereby
covenants with Killegrew and Neville, to stand seized of
the Manor and advowson of Yarlington, to the use of him-
self and his wife Elizabeth, and the heirs of their bodies,
with remainder to his younger brother Edward in tail, and
with remainder to his eldest brother Sir Maurice in tail, with
rem.ainder to himself in fee.

Sir Henry Neville, of Billingbere, Berks, it may be said,
was a brother of Edward, sixth Lord Abergavenny, and ances-
tor of the Lord Braybrookes. The Killegrews were already
connected with the Berkeleys by the marriage of Elizabeth
Killegrew with Henry Berkeley's eldest brother. Sir Maurice.

In connection with the desire, in the foregoing deed,
expressed * for the continuance of the lands in his name and
blood,' it is interesting to note the avowal of a similar
motive as influencing John, fifth Lord Berkeley of Stratton,
and last male descendant of Sir Maurice, the elder brother

YARLINGTON AND THE BERKELEYS. 33

of the covenantor in the above deed. Lord Berkeley, by
his will in 1772, devised his valuable London property, con-
sisting of Berkeley Square, Bruton Street, Stratton Street,
etc., not to his nearest relatives on the female side, but to
the very distantly related head of the Berkeleys, the Earl
of Berkeley, of Berkeley Castle, in tail male, adding ' and
all this I do, being the last male of my family, and desirous
of nourishing the root from which it sprung, and wishing the
stock may continue to flourish and put forth new branches
as long as any form of civil government shall subsist in this
country.' It is, however, to be noted, that although Lord
Berkeley of Stratton, the testator, was * the last male of his
family,' as descended from Sir Maurice Berkeley, yet male
descendants of Sir Maurice Berkeley's father. Sir Henry
Berkeley of Bruton, were and are existing in the Port-
mans, as lineal male descendants of Edward Berkeley of
Pylle, Sir Henry's third son. Possibly Lord Berkeley may
have considered them as out of his purview, by reason of
their having taken Portman as their surname, in lieu of
Berkeley, or he may well have deemed that branch to be
already so well ' nourished/ as to need no extraneous assist-
ance whatever.

Soon after his post-nuptial settlement Henry Berkeley
must have been knighted ; for by a deed dated 30th May,
16 1 2, the Rev. William Rosewell, of Yarlington, clerk, and
Margaret his wife, convey to Sir Henry Berkeley of Yar-
lington, knight, and his heirs in fee simple, for ^1,000, their
interest in a messuage at Galhampton, occupied by the said
William Rosewell^ and their one-fourth share, or sixty-four
acres, of Foxcombe Grounds, or the Manor of Foxcombe.

34 RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

And from this time forward there is constant evidence of
Sir Henry's living in the parish as a resident country-
gentleman, and perpetually busying himself in making addi-
tions to his property.

In 1613, in consideration of ^90, Henry, Earl of Hun-
tingdon, great grandson of Francis, Earl of Huntingdon,
and Katharine Pole,^ releases to Sir Henry Berkeley the
annual rent-charge of ^3 3s. S^d., to which previous refer-
ence has been made (pp. 20, 25). In 16 17 Sir Henry's eldest
brother, Sir Maurice Berkeley of Bruton (father of the five
knights) died, and Sir Henry then, by deed of 4th October,
in the same year, purchases from his brother's widow, Dame
Elizabeth Berkeley, Henry Bayntun, of Stavordale, gentle-
man, and Toby Pearce, of Bruton, gentleman, as executors
of Sir Maurice, the residue of the renewable lease, for sixty
years, of Smalldon Farm, consisting of 199 acres, which had
been left to Sir Maurice by his father. Sir Henry of Bruton.
The consideration for the purchase is ^600. This property
was afterwards the subject of considerable distraction to the
Berkeley family.

^ Sir Richard Pole=pMargaret, Countess of Salisbury.

I
Henry Pole, Lord Montague,

I attainted and beheaded, 1539.

I 1

Francis,=Katharine. Winifred=Sir Thos. Hastings.

2nd Earl of
Huntingdon

Henry, Earl of Huntingdon, George, Earl of Huntingdon,

d. s. p. I d. 1604.

Francis, d. v. p.

I
Henry, Earl of Huntingdon,

succeeded, 1604 ; releases

rent-charge, 1613.

YARLINGTON AND THE BERKELEYS. 35

In the same year, 16 16-17, 9^^ February, but before the
death of her eldest son Sir Maurice, the mother of the
Berkeleys, ' Dame Margaret Berkeley, of Bruton, widdowe,'
made her will ; she, it will be remembered, was by her
husband's will to enjoy the chief residence at Bruton, in as
ample a manner as the stepmother had done. She leaves
her eldest son. Sir Maurice, not only her household stuff at
Bruton, but also such household stuff as remained at the
lodge at Norwood Park (where Sir Maurice was living),
' praised at his father's death at ^40, and now in Sir
Maurice's possession.' She appoints as executors and resi-
duary legatees her two sons, Sir Henry Berkeley, knight,
and Edward Berkeley, esquire. Dame Margaret Berkeley,
nde Lygon, had married, as his second wife, Sir Thomas
Russell of Strensham, whose widow she was when she
married Sir Henry Berkeley ; and she bequeaths ' to her
son, Thomas Russell of Russhock, in the county of Wigorn,
esquire,' one basin and ewer of silver, which was his father's,
Sir Thomas Russell, deceased. She had a considerable
dwelling-house, with a lodge, gardens, and orchards, at
Wells, where she passed much of her time, and this pro-
perty she directs to be sold to pay the very numerous and
handsome legacies given by her will, many of them to resi-
dents at Wells. The will is attested by Henry Southworth,^

^ Although the attesting witnesses of Dame Margaret Berkeley's will can have
but very slight connection with the history of Yarlint;ton, yet tlie names of two
of them are of sufficient interest to the county of Somerset to justify a short
reference to them. The third, William Cole, was her confidential servant, and
a.legatee under the will.

The Southworths were a family well settled in Wells. Thomas Southworth
and Henry Southworth (the attesting witness) were two brothers residing there,
Thomas Southworth was appointed Recorder of Wells, 1608-9, was M.P. for

5—2

36 RECORDS OF YA RUNG TON.

Francis Cottington,^ and William Cole. It is beautifully
transcribed on three sheets of paper, and is endorsed
in an easy running hand, with rather touching simplicity,
' My Mother's Will ' — no doubt in the handwriting of Sir
H. Berkeley, of Yarlington, one of the executors.

In 1629 a considerable prospective addition was made to

Wells in 1613 and again in 1619 ; he died in 1625. Henry Southworth was a
great benefactor to the city of Wells. He was Lord of the Manor of Wyke Champ-
flower, and rebuilt in a very handsome manner the chapel of ease there, abiittmg
on the manor-house. He had two daughters co-heiresses : Jane, who married
William Eull, of Sh.ipwick, by which marriage the Manor of Wyke passed by
descent to Mr. H. Bull-Strangways, who some twenty-five or thirty years ago
sold it to the principal tenant, Mr. Mullins ; Margaret, the other daughter,
married Dr. Arthur Ducke, a very celebrated civilian of his day, who was
Chancellor of the Diocese of Bath and Wells, and also of London, and M.P. ior
Minehead in 1640. Henry Southworth died the same year as his brother, the
Recorder, and was buried at Wyke in May, 1625.

1 Francis Cottington can be none other than Sir Francis Cottington, after-
wards (in 1 631) Lord Cottington of Hanworth, who fills so large a space in
Clarendon's History, and who {lemp. Commonwealth) went with Hyde Irom the
Hague to Spain on an embassy from Charles IL, Cottington then being seventy-
ti\ e years old. Laud, Strafford, and Cottington had been the three principal and
mo-t intimate advisers of Charles L ; and it is said that the tenrr 'Cabinet
Ministers' was first applied to these three Ministers, on account of their jomt
and close influence with the Sovereign. The Cottingtons had been for m. ny
generations settled at Godminster, in the parishes of Pitcombe and linaon.
Clarendon says of Lord Cottington : ' He was born a gentleman both by father
and mother ; his father having a pretty entire estate near Bruton, in Somerset-
shire, worth about ^200 a year, which had descended from father to son for
niany hundred years, and is still in possession of his elder brother's children,
the family having been always Roman Catholic. His mother was a Stafford,
nearly allied to Sir E. Stafford, Vice-Chamberlain to Queen Elizabeth, by whom
this gentleman had been brought up.' According to another account (Lodge's
'Illustrious Personages'), his mother was Jane Byfleet, the daughter of a country
gentleman of that name living in the neighbouring parish of Bratton Seymour.
' Utram harum mavis, accipe.' Many of the Cottingtons were buried in Pit-
combe Church. Lord Cottington himself died at Valladolid, in 1652, having
obtained permission from Charles to remain in Spain, where he had spent many
years of his early life in connection with various embassies. At Valladolid he
declared himself a Roman Catholic, and his epitaph in the Jesuits' Church there
concluded with an expression of his will that ' his body be deposited in this temple
till such time as God restored to his Church the kingdom of England.' 'In
May, 1678' (says Kennet), 'his bones were brought over to England upon a
prospect of popery coming in about that time.'

YARLINGTON AND THE BERKELEYS. 37

Sir Henry Berkeley's estate, by a conveyance from Roger
Earth, of Dinton, in Wilts, of the capital mansion of Brooks
Court and estate, in Ilchester (let shortly afterwards to a
Mr. Giles Raymond for ^120 per year) to Henry Bayntun,
of Roundhill, gentleman, and another, in trust for the use of
the settlor, Roger Earth, for life ; then fur Joseph Earth,
the son of the Rev. Wm. Earth, of Mildenhall, Wilts, clerk,
deceased, for life ; remainder to Sir Henry Berkeley, in fee,
with a proviso that, if Joseph should impeach Roger Earth's
will, the trustees should stand possessed of the property to
the use of his executor. And by his will, dated 21st
January, 1630-31, and proved in the Prerogative Court,
1 6th May, 1634, Roger Earth made 'his beloved friend,
Sir Henry Berkeley, his executor and residuary legatee.'
And on the 19th May, 1634, Joseph Earth, described as of
Ramsbury, Wilts, and Sir Henry Berkeley, gave bonds to
each other to abide by the award of W^illiam, Earl of Hert-
ford. This W^illiam, Earl of Hertford, was great-grandson
of the Protector Somerset, and he was restored to the title
of Duke of Somerset in 1660.

The family of the Earths, so far as I have been able to
unearth them, consisted at this time of three brothers, viz. :

Joseph Earth, Roger Earth, The Rev. William Earth,

of High Holborn, of Dinton,

d. 1609. d. 1634.

of Mildenhall, clerk,
d. before 1629.
Joseph Earth,

of Ramsbury, gent.

Burke, in his ' Armoury,' gives ' Earth (Dinton, co.
Wilts), argent three stags' heads, couped sa., attired or.'

Brooks Court, or Place, was the cradle of the family of
Brook, Lord Cobham, from tetnp. Henry HI,, as given in

38 RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

Collinson (vol. iii., p. 302), who adds that it was inhabited by
\Vm. Brook, Lord Cobham, Ambassador to France (i Eliza-
beth) ; and that his son Henry, Lord Cobham, succeeding him
(39 Elizabeth), was attainted and his estates forfeited to James
L, for being concerned with Sir Walter Raleigh and Lord
Grey of Wilton, in the alleged conspiracy against the King
for the purpose of setting the Lady Arabella Stuart on the
throne, and that he died, in 16 19, in great poverty.^

After the attainder of Henry, Lord Cobham, Joseph
Earth, of High Holborn, became possessed of Brooks
Court, whether by direct purchase, or whether in considera-
tion of moneys advanced or services rendered to James L,
does not appear. Joseph Earth has already (p. 31) been
mentioned as demandant to Henry Berkeley's recovery of
1606, and probably he was an attorney; all that does
appear is, that by his will, dated 17th February, 1609, and
proved in the Prerogative Court, 9th September, 1609, this
Joseph Earth, of High Holborn, devised Brooks Court, in
Somerset, to his brother Roger in fee. Joseph Earth the
younger was probably of weak intellect, and Sir Henry
Berkeley was to look after him ; there was no provision for
any eventual marriage. In 1636 Sir Henry Berkeley
leases portions of Brooks Court estate, and thenceforth deals
with it as his own property.

1 This mysterious plot in 1603 has never been elucidated. Two Roman
Catholic priests were executed, as was George Brook, brother of Lord Cobham.
Lord Cobham himself was attainted, and all his estates forfeited. Raleigh, the
most accomplished man of his age, was kept in confinement for thirteen years.
Sir Edward Coke, afterwards a flaming patiiot and Liberal, conducted the case
for the Crown against Raleigh, and with even more than his usual virulence
denounced him as ' a traitor,' ' a monster,' ' a viper,' ' a spider of hell.' It was
with reference to Raleigh's long imprisoment that Prince Henry remarked,
' Sure, no king but my faiher would keep such a bird in a cage.'

YARLINGTON AND THE BERKELEYS.

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40 RECORDS OF YA RUNG TON.

Although we are now reaching the period of the Great
RebeUion, in which many of his nephews, sons of his
deceased brother Sir Maurice, took such a strenuous and
decided part on behalf of the Crown, yet Sir Henry himself,
whether by reason of advancing years or from natural dis-
inclination, appears to have kept himself entirely aloof, and
altogether free from any engagements in connection with
either side.

In 1648 he grants a lease of the tolls of Yarlington Fair^
for fifty shillings, payable i6th August, ten days in advance.
At this period the family of this prosperous knight consisted
of one son, Maurice, and four daughters, Jael, Dorothy,
Margaret, and Frances. His second daughter, Dorothy, ^
was married to Sir Francis Godolphin, with which family
the Berkeleys were already connected through the Kille-
grews, and also by the marriage of Sir Charles Berkeley,
Sir Maurice's eldest son and Sir Henry's eldest nephew,
with Penelope Godolphin, sister of Sir Francis.

In 1665 a marriage is arranged between Frances
Berkeley and Peter Roynon, Esq., and Sir Henr)' agrees
to advance a sum of ^1,200. The Roynons, or Ronyons,

^ This fair, held on 26th August, was, during a lengthened period, largely-
attended, and of constantly incre<ising importance, until, in quite recent limes,
it became altogether superseded by the modern and more rational system of
market-day auctions, and of periodical repository sales of live stock, held for the
convenience of purchasers, at the principal railway centres. Falling at a season
when the weather is usually more settled for fair than at any other time of the
year, it formed an epoch in the local calendar, giving rise to a proverbial saying
known to all the country-side : ' The first rain after Yarlington Fair brings
winter.'

2 Bishop Wilberforce, in his second and fifth tables of pedigrees attached to
' Evelyn's Life of Mrs. Godolphin,' published in 1847, gives Dorothy
Berkeley as the daughter of Sir Charles Berkeley of Yarlington ; and it was
with a view to correct this error that I was first led at that time to examine the
old Yarlington documents in my father's possession.

YARLINGTON AND THE BERKELEYS. ^\

were a good Somersetshire family, originally of Shepton
Mallet and West Harptree. The Smalldon renewable
leases for sixty years, now possessed by Sir Henry Berkeley,
had been, just 150 years before (viz., in 1505), originally
granted by Adrian, Bishop of Bath and Wells, subject to a
rent of ^9, to Richard Ronyon, of Shepton Mallet, who
by his will bequeathed the same to the church of Shepton
Mallet, to the intent that the churchwardens might pray for
the souls of the said Richard, and Agnes his wife, and all
faithful defunct. The churchwardens had entered on the
land as wardens and trustees of Ronyon's Charity, and sold
the leases in 1535 to Chief Justice Fitz-James, of Redlynch,
and Elizabeth his wife, subject to the payment of the rent
of £(^ to the Bishop, and of £(i 6s. 8d. to the Chantry
Wardens of Shepton Mallet for the sustenance of the
chapel. Smalldon itself, or Smalldown, as it is now
called, is a farm of 200 acres, on very high ground to the
north of Evercreech, to which parish it belongs. Well, the
marriage of Miss Frances Berkeley with Peter Roynon,
Esq., duly took place, and on 2nd December, 1656, a little
Peter Roynon was baptized in Yarlington Church, to be
followed in due time by another boy, Harry.

But now deaths are beginning to occur. Dame Elizabeth
Berkeley is buried at Yarlington, 4th January, 1656-5 7, just
one month after the birth of her grandson, Peter Roynon ;
and two years after, in 1659, Margaret, the third daughter
(named, of course, after her grandmother. Dame Margaret
of Bruton), is also buried there. His youngest daughter,
Frances Roynon, then dies in Sir Henry Berkeley's life-
time. And at last, on 31st August, 1667, the parish

RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

register records the death and burial of Sir Henry himself,
having ' overlived ' his wife, Dame Elizabeth, more than
ten years. He must himself, at his death, have been very
close upon ninety years of age. He had made his will in
1663. In this will, so far as his lands are concerned, he
says :

' I give to my son, Maurice Berkeley, all my lands, goods, and whatso-
ever is mine unbequeathed. But my will is, that if my son shall, by God's
good pleasure, departe this life without lawful issue, that then my daughter
Jael shall have my estate at Ivelchester ; my daughter Dorothy and her
heirs by Sir Francis Godolphin my estate at Yarlington, Galhampton, and
Foxcombe ; my daughter Frances my estate at Babcary, Smalldown, and
Bratton Lines.'

By Sir Henry's death the family residing at Yarlington
are now reduced to his son, Maurice, and his eldest daughter,
Jael, or Madam Jael Berkeley, as she is afterwards
generally designated ; and as Sir Henry's post-nuptial
settlement was made in February, 1609-10, it is reasonable
to suppose that she was now nearing sixty years of age.

As no executor was named in Sir Henry's will, adminis-
tration with the will annexed was granted to his son
Maurice by the Prerogative Court, on the 7th of September,
1667 — in fact, just seven days after his father's funeral.
Now, of this son, Maurice, we have absolutely no informa-
tion whatever as to what he was doing in his father's
lifetime. His cousins. Sir Charles and Sir John, sons of his
uncle Sir Maurice, had been deeply engaged for the royal
cause ; but of this particular Maurice Berkeley nothing
whatever is known to the writer.

As we have seen, he loses no time in taking out adminis-

YARLINGTON AND THE BERKELEYS. 43

tration to his father, and he immediately sets to work
at letting out his lands for high premiums, instead of at
a yearly rack-rent. In November, 1667, the year of his
father's death, he grants a lease of Foxcombe to one John
Lewis for a fine of ;^700 ; in the following year he leases
another part of Foxcombe for a fine of ^50, In 1670 he
renews, for a fine of ^60, a lease to John Clothier of 34^
acres, part of Foxcombe, originally leased to him by Sir
Henry Berkeley in 1651. In 1671 he leases 18 acres
of Foxcombe, for a fine of ^iio and a rent of i6s., to
John Robbins, alias Syms. He had also mortgaged the
Ilchester property (Brooks Court) to a Mr. Mildmay for
;^500, and on 2nd January, 1673-74, he dies intestate, and
is buried at Yarlington on 8th January.

It is evident that Maurice's reign of six years, if short,
had been disastrous. It looks very much as if he were
merely a thriftless loon engaged in raising money to pay
obligations he had incurred in his father's lifetime. wSir
Henry had left by his will a sum of ^2,000 to his daughter
Jael as her fortune ; ^1,050, part of this sum, consisted of
certain specified mortgages and securities which Sir Henry
held, and the remaining ^950 was charged on the Gal-
hampton and Foxcombe estates, which he devised to his
son Maurice. Of this ^950, it appears that Maurice had
paid off ^150, leaving at his death the remaining ^800,
secured by his bond to Jael. There does not seem to have
been any other charge left by Sir Henry's will, and the
condition in which Maurice's affairs were found to be at his
death seems only to be accounted for by his own improvi-
dence.

6—2

44 RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

There are only two facts which occur to the writer
as worthy of notice with regard to him. First, that at his
decease his principal available assets (as we shall presently
see) consisted of farming stock, sheep, and oxen ; from
whence the inference may be drawn that upon succeeding
to the estate he had engaged pretty largely in those agricul-
tural pursuits in which country gentlemen are often tempted
to embark with more or less — and generally less than more
• — success ; and, secondly, it is observable that the field in
which his operations for raising money were carried on
seems to have been limited to the various outlying pro-
perties which had come to him from his father ; there being
no evidence that he had in any way encumbered his Manor
of Yarlington.

However, the male line of the Berkeleys of Yarlington is
now extinct, and henceforth Madam Jael Berkeley alone
represents the family at Yarlington — a woman of super-
lative strength of will, of extraordinary energy, and of the
most indomitable resolution.

IV.

MADAM JAEL BERKELEY,

(Her Trials and Triumphs) :

the roynons and godolphins, from 1673 to 1712.

Mr. Walter Shandy, as we know, in the early part of last
century, propounded the philosophical theory, ' that a great
deal more depended upon names than what superficial
minds were capable of conceiving.' It was Mr. Shandy's
declared opinion * that there was a strange kind of magic
bias which what he called good or bad names irresistibly
impressed upon our character and conduct.' Now, it is
tolerably certain that, if Mr. Shandy could have been
aware of the circumstances and the conduct of Jael
Berkeley, he would at once have claimed her as an apt
illustration of his philosophical theory. Without going
into the question of the goodness or badness of the name,
it is undoubtedly a peculiar name ; and the Shandean
theory would have unquestionably broken down if a lady
of the name of Jael had been other than a person of con-
siderable determination and decision of character — one who,
having a doubtful and difficult task before her, would
address herself to the despatch of business without flinching,
and who would knock the nail on the head in a thorough

46 RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

and workmanlike manner. And so it was with JaeP
Berkeley.

In the first place, as a security for her claim of ;!^8oo in
her late brother's hands, she obtains administration from
the Prerogative Court on 23rd of February, the month
following her brother's death ; and Sir Henry Berkeley's
will is at once submitted to the celebrated Serjeant May-
nard for his opinion ' as to the estates taken by the three
sisters, now that their brother Maurice has died without
issue.' Serjeant Maynard is well known as the great legal
authority at the time of the Revolution, some fifteen years
after this. Jointly with Somers, he took a prominent part
in the convention which had to settle the terms on which
William should take on the regal government. He was
then ninety years old, and on being introduced to the
Prince, William addressed him, ' Well, Mr. Serjeant, you
must have survived all the lawyers of your time.'

' Yes, your Highness,' said Maynard; 'and if you had
not been pleased to come to our aid, I believe I should
soon have survived all the laws as well.'

Serjeant Maynard, whose autograph opinion with the
'case' is now before me, says * Jael takes Ilchester in fee,
Frances Smalldon in fee, and Dorothy an estate tail in
Yarlington.' But the ' case ' submitted to Serjeant Maynard
omitted the important fact that Frances Roynon had died in
her father's lifetime.

Meanwhile sore troubles are crowding round Madam Jael.
Maurice's creditors were clamorous on every side, and even
before taking out administration to his effects she had sold

^ The name is spelt indifferently Jael and Jaell.

MADAM JAEL BERKELEY, HER TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS. 47

'many sheep and oxen of Maurice's to the value of ^120,'
to appease the more pressing of them ; and in order to stay
an action against herself, had paid a debt of his of ^83.
Her sister Dorothy, and her husband, Sir Francis Godol-
phin, are now both dead, and Sir William Godolphin, as
their eldest son and heir, proceeded to file a bill — no doubt
a friendly bill — in Chancery against Jael Berkeley, his aunt,
and against young Peter Roynon (now eighteen), the infant
son of Frances Berkeley and Peter Roynon, to establish
their respective rights under Sir Henry Berkeley's will ;
while Peter Roynon, the father, on his part, in right of his
eldest son, had already entered bodily ' on the ground called
Smalldon,' and had cut a turf there, and had forbidden the
tenant to pay any rent to Jael as the administratrix of her
brother Maurice — Smalldon, as we have seen, being a lease-
hold, or chattel real.

But now comes a really extraordinary incident.

Sir William Godolphin, as has been said, had instituted
a family suit in Chancery to give effect to Sir Henry Berke-
ley's will, to which Jael and the Roynons put in separate
answers, when the Roynons discover, for the first time, the
post-nuptial settlement of 1609, sixty-five years old (of
which previous mention has been hereinbefore frequently
made), by which Sir Henry Berkeley had made a settlement
of Yarlington on his heirs in tail general. Consequently
the devise in his will of Yarlington, to Dorothy, was of
none effect; and, tmder the iviil, Sir William Godolphin only
becomes entitled in tail to the lands at Galhampton and
Foxcombe, acquired by Sir Henry after the settlement of
1609. He therefore ceases to go on with the suit, and Jael,

48 RECORDS OF Y ARLINGTON.

in perplexity, submits a fresh case to Mr. William Jones
(afterwards Sir William Jones, and Attorney-General to
Charles II.), a lawyer of great eminence, as to her interests
generally, * now this last entayled deed hath appeared, for it
hath been lately found.' The deed had been in the custody
of the Nevilles, Dame Elizabeth Berkeley's brothers ; and
she herself having been now long dead, it had been entirely
lost sight of by Sir Henry Berkeley, or regarded by him as
a nullity. Indeed, so completely had the deed been ignored
by both Sir Henry and his wife, that so long back as 1633
they had taken quite unnecessary steps to repeat what that
settlement had already effected ; for by a deed of ist July,
in that year, between Sir Henry and Dame Elizabeth of
the one part, and Edward Biss, of Spargrove, esquire, Henry
Bayntun, of Roundhill, esquire, and John Lovell, of
Shepton Montague, gentleman, of the other part, the Berke-
leys demise Yarlington for ninety-nine years to the three
others as trustees, wath intent to levy a fine, and, subject
thereto, to the use of Sir Henry for life, remainder to Dame
Elizabeth for life, remainder to the right heirs of Sir Henry
Berkeley. And in Trinity Term of the same year a fine is
levied accordingly ; the object being simply to make that
very provision for Dame Elizabeth, ' if she should happen
to overlive her husband,' which had already been secured
to her by the post-nuptial indenture of 1609. And inde-
pendently of this action on their part, it is certainly matter
for comment, if the genuineness of this deed had been in
question, first, that Henry Berkeley's wife was not a party
to it ; and, secondly, that Henry Berkeley himself, who, if
not at the time resident at Yarlington, had nevertheless for

MADAM JAEL BERKELEY, HER TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS. 49

several years been recognised, in all deeds and documents,
as ' Henry Berkeley, of Yarlington, esquire/ should have
received so vague and indefinite a description therein as
' Henry Berkeley, of London, gentleman.'

However, Mr. Robert Neville now produces a deed
which he declares to be a true 'copy of the original, then
remaining in his possession. This identical attested copy,
examined with the original 8th June, 1674, is now lying
before me, as no doubt, 2 1 5 years ago, it was laid before
Sir William Jones, to accompany the ' case.' Sir William
Jones, it may be observed, was a Somersetshire man, a son
of Richard Jones, of Stowey and Chew Magna, and a
neighbour of the Roynons of West Harptree. The original
'case' and 'opinion,' dated 7th November, 1674, with
thirteen questions affecting Jael's duties and interests in this
state of affairs, with Jones's answers to each question, is in
my possession, and is a most exhaustive document. One of
the questions relates to a very old matter — the effect of the
common recovery, suffered by Sir Henry, in 1606, to Joseph
Earth — and the point was whether he had effectually cut
off the entail, created by Sir Henry the father under the
deed of covenant of 1601 : 'there being no Deed to be
found to lead to the uses of the said Recovery, nor any
Deed or Fine to make a Tenant to the Praecipe ' ? And
Jones answers : ' I think the intayle was well cut off, for
though there was no Deed to lead to the uses, the law
implies a use to Sir Henry and his heirs, and you needed
not deed or fine to make a tenant to the praecipe, if the
praecipe were brought against Henry, who was tenant in tail
in possession.'

50 RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

On the general question as to Yarlington, Jones is of
opinion that * Yarlington being entayled ' {i.e., by the deed
of 1609) ' doth descend to the heirs of the body of Henry
and Elizabeth Berkeley, so that Jael and the two sons of
her two deceased sisters have equal right to the Manor, as
coparceners in tail'

Sir William Godolphin, therefore, only gets, under Sir
Henry's will, the lands at Galhampton and Foxcombe, and
Jael, as the person chiefly benefited by the will, is recom-
mended to prove it by examination of witnesses in
Chancery.

Another question was, 'As to the land at Ivelchester '
(Brooks Court), * which was given to Jael by her father, by
his last will, which it appears was mortgaged by her brother
to a Mr. Mildmay, for ^^500. Mr. Mildmay hath not
entered upon the land, but hath forbidden the tenant to pay
the Rent to Jael' What course shall a distracted Jael take
in this case for the recovery of the rent ? Answer : ' If the
father gave the land ' (to Jael), ' the Mortgage will be void.
But the Mortgagee may have remedy on his bond or
covenant, if there be assetts.'

Another subject which was a cause of uneasiness to Jael,
was in reference to her own position as regarded Maurice's
debts. She had not only taken out administration with a
view to obtain priority for her own debt of ^800, secured
by Maurice's bond, but even before administration had dealt
with the intestate's goods, selling (as we have seen) many
of his sheep and oxen, to satisfy his more clamorous credi-
tors, thereby constituting herself what is called in law
* executrix of her own wrong.' And a question in the case

MADAM JAEL BERKELEY, HER TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS. 51

was, whether this would make her liable beyond the goods
of Maurice which came into her hands and were fully-
accounted for.

To which Jones makes answer : ' She will be no further
liable than the goods she took into her hands will amount
to. Therefore if she have paid to the value of the goods,
there is no question but she is safe.' But as to the securing
priority for her own debt, Jones sees that here ' a difficulty
will arise.' ' When she did, before administration taken,
administer as executrix of her own wrong, and did after take
out administration, yet she may be sued still, as executrix of
her own wrong, and then she cannot retayne for her own
debt.'i

But now comes the crucial point as to Smalldon. ' Small-
don is a chattel lease, and was given by Sir Henry Berkeley,
in his will, to his daughter Frances, she dying before the
will took effect. Qucere, whether shall this go to the pay-
ment of the debts of the said Maurice, or to the adminis-
trator of Frances ?'

'■ It cannot go to Frances, but will go to Maurice ' (that
is, it had lapsed), ' to whom the residue of the estate of Sir
Henry was devised, and so will be assetts as to Maurice's
debts,'

Again : ' Whether the heirs of Frances, she dying before
the will took effect, have right to any more than the third
part of the land which was given to Frances by the will of

^ ' For otherwise the creditors of the deceased would be running a race to
take possession of his goods, without taking administration to him.' — Coulter's
Case — Williams Executors, vol. i., 198, 3rd edition.

7—2

52 RECORDS OF Y ARLINGTON.

Sir H. Berkeley, her father, viz., at Babcary and Bratton
Lines ?'

Answer : ' The devise to Frances being void, the lands
intended to be devised do descend, and her issue have but
a third part by descent, there being three sisters.

' (Signed) W. JONES, 7th Nov., /74.'

Here, then, is a triumphant result for Madam Jael. With
the exception of Galhampton and Foxcombe, which go to
her nephew Sir William Godolphin, she alone of the three
sisters takes any benefit under the will. Yarlington, which
was devised to the Godolphins, being governed by the
entail general of the post-nuptial settlement, passes to the
three sisters or their heirs in tail ; viz., one-third to Jael,
one-third to Sir William Godolphin, and one-third to young
Peter Roynon, which last third, however, passes on to
Harry Roynon on the death, under age, of his elder
brother Peter. Jael takes the estate at Ilchester (Brooks
Court) under the devise, Babcary (an estate of sixty-six
acres, bought by Sir H. Berkeley of Francis Petre, esq.)
and Bratton, having been devised to Frances, have lapsed,
and this portion of the property passes to the three sisters
or their heirs, as coparceners in fee, as the heirs of their
brother Maurice ; while Smalldon, in which the too im-
petuous Mr. Roynon had cut a premature turf in right of
the devise to his wife, being a chattel lease, vests wholly in
Jael, as administratrix of her brother Maurice, and as
assets in her hand for the payment of his numberless
debts.

The parties now, therefore, settle down to their respec-
tive rights. In less than six months after the ' case ' and

MADAM JAEL BERKELEY, HER TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS. 53

* opinion,' Jael, * as administratrix of her brother Maurice,'
by indenture dated 14th April, 1675, assigns for ^300 the
Smalldon estate to the Rev. Joseph Barker, of Sherborne.
Sir Henry Berkeley had renewed the lease, in the form of a
lease for ninety-nine years, determinable on three lives, and
it was now determinable on Jael's life, as the last of the
three sisters, his daughters, whom Sir Henry had named as
the lives in taking out his renewal. Moreover, Jael, as the
eldest of the coparceners, having claim to the first presenta-
tion to the living, enters into a contemporaneous arrange-
ment, that one of the Rev. Joseph's sons by Katherine, his
then wife, shall be admitted to the Rectory at the first
vacancy at her disposal ; and on 12th June a bond passes
between herself and Barker, in a sum of ^500, for the
more effectually emphasising this stipulation.

I am afraid that our modern Church reformers, who
seem desirous that all presentations should be at the
absolute disposal of the Bishop, or, still worse, of some
Diocesan Board of Presentations, if not of our all-sufficient
County Councils, will turn up the whites of their eyes at
this transaction. Possibly Madam Jael Berkeley took a
simple matter-of-fact view of the whole arrangement, under
the impression that if she could do a good turn as well to
herself as to Barker (and Katherine Barker, from the
special introduction of her name, was probably also some
female friend), no great harm would be done by killing two
birds, as it were, with one stone ; having regard also to the
fact that whoever was nominated must be, after all, a fully
qualified person in holy orders, and duly accepted by the
Bishop, before admission to the preferment. But it is also

54 RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

extremely probable that, like her Kenite namesake, our
Jael, having an object of paramount importance in view —
that of getting free from her brother Maurice's entangle-
ments — was not over-squeamish as to the means of attaining
her end. The outlook for the Rev. Joseph Barker's son
was certainly speculative rather than cheerful, as Jael herself
was getting into years, and her brother Maurice had so
lately as the September of the previous year presented one
John Randall, A.B., to the living. Barker himself died
about two years after this, and the Rev. John Randall
having also happened to die in 1679, Joseph Barker, the
son, is duly instituted to the Rectory on the 2nd of August
in that year, ' by Katherine Barker, by reason of Jael
Berkeley, as daughter of Sir Henry Berkeley, having
granted the advowson to the said Katherine's husband,
Joseph Barker.'^ Joseph Barker, the son, held the living
for forty-four years, until his death in 1723, and, it may be
hoped, without offence or any injury to his usefulness as a
parish priest, by reason of the conditions affecting his
presentation.

But the year before his appointment to Yarlington, viz.,
by deed of 30th May, 1678, Jael was enabled, by repay-
ment of the sum of ;^3oo, to obtain from Katherine
Barker, as ' widow and administratrix of Joseph Barker,
late of Sherborne, deceased,' the reassignment to herself of
the Smalldon estate. Thus we see that, in the space ot
four years from her brother Maurice's death, Jael had
emerged from all her difficulties, and had cleared off her
brother's debts ; and we may have good hope that the too-

^ Mr. Weaver's * Somerset Incumbents,' p. 226 : Yarlington.

MADAM JAEL BERKELEY, HER TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS. 55

confiding Mr. Mlklmay recovered his doubtfully-secured
loan of ^500, with all lawful interest.

Madam Jael has now no occasion to betake herself to
Brooks Court, which her father had left her for a residence ;
she remains at the old Manor-house as the representative of
the Berkeleys, and was buried at Yarlington in extreme old
age, 26th September, 1705, being duly entered in the parish
register as ' Madam Jael Berkeley.' Her father, as we
have seen, must have been pretty well on ninety at his
death, and Jael herself must have had quite as long a life,
and the whole of it passed in the parish of Yarlington.^

It has been mentioned that Harry Roynon, described as
of Lincoln's Inn, had succeeded his brother Peter in the
right to the third share of Yarlington. But Jael had very
little to do with the Roynons ; she ever resented that cutting
of the turf on Smalldon Hill by Peter, the father.

There are many transactions between her and Sir William
Godolphin, all tending to secure to him Jael's share and
interest in Yarlington and her estate of Brooks Court, to the
exclusion of the Roynons. Thus, by indenture, dated

^ The old monument of stone, with the Berkeley arms, on the south side of
the chancel, whose record had become illegible even when CoUinson wrote, had
probably been erected by Jael Berkeley and Sir William Godolphin to the
memory of Sir Henry Berkeley and Dame Elizabeth his wife, both buried at
Yarlington ; while the canopy, which in 1822, on the rebuilding of the chancel
by the then Rector, Canon Frankland, had been absurdly placed over the
chancel door, was at my suggestion restored as a sort of cenotaph to the
chancel in the renovation of 1878, although now on the north side. The stone
in the chancel floor, noticed both by CoUinson and Phelps, as inscribed to the
memory of the Rev. Richard Capper, A.B., ' a worthy parish priest and sincere
honest man,' has been (I say it with grief and shame) transferred to outside the
church porch, where it is fast becoming obliterated by the effects of the weather
and the feet of the church-goers, so slight — or so slighted — appear to have been
the precautions taken in the faculties issued by my immediate predecessors in
the Chancellorship of the Diocese !

S6 RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

15th January, 1679, between Jael Berkeley of the first part,
Sir William Godolphin, baronet, of the second part, and Charles
Godolphin, esquire, of the third part, Jael Berkeley, for the
love and affection which she did bear unto the said William
Godolphin her nephew, did convey all her lands in Gal-
hampton and Foxcombe, and her third part of the Manor of
Yarlington, to Charles Godolphin and his heirs, to the use
of Jael Berkeley for life, with remainder to the use of
Sir William Godolphin, his heirs and assigns.

This was followed by an agreement, dated ist October,
1693, between her and Sir William Godolphin, by which it
was arranged that he should grant her an annuity of ^300
a year for life, and should receive from her a conveyance in
fee of Brooks Court, or Place, of Galhampton, Foxcombe,
and of her one-third of Yarlington, and her interest in the
lease of Smalldon, which now remained on her life alone,
but with power to her to inhabit two-thirds of Yarlington
House, and to cut necessary fuel, which agreement was
during the same month carried out by various deeds.

And in 1696 a lease was granted for three years by
Sir William Godolphin and Harry Roynon of Yarlington
Farm, except the mansion-house, fish-ponds and gardens,
for ^170 a year, the rents received being ;^iJ3 6s. 8d. to
Godolphin, and ^56 i;5s.<^. to Roynon.

The Roynons, as has been said, were a well-established
family in the county, and at this time were connected by
marriage with the Spekes of Jordans, as well as with the
Berkeleys. Peter Roynon himself seems to have been an
efficient county magistrate, and in 1685, after the battle of
Sedgmoor — ' there being many poor prisoners taken in or

MADAM JAEL BERKELEY, HER TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS. 57

for the late rebellion in the West, and committed to custody
in the cloisters of the cathedral church, and in the parish
church of St. Cuthbert in Wells, and also in several other
places there' — he was named on a committee, or com-
mission, with three other persons, the Right Hon, Francis
Poulett, Edward Berkeley, Esq., and John Bailey, Doctor
of Laws, * four of his Majesty's justices of the peace of the
said county ' (of Somerset), to investigate the charges for the
maintenance of these prisoners, and to rectify and adjust
the several accounts of such charges, ' and the true state of
the same accounts, when so rectified and adjusted, humbly
to certify the same unto his Majesty, under their or any
two or more of their hands, in writing.'^ But young Harry
Roynon, the son, Jael Berkeley's nephew, was evidently no
credit to the family. Coming of age and into his share of
the property in 1679, he suffers, in Hilary Term, 1685, a
common recovery to John Davis,^ of Wells, gentleman, of
his * one-third share of the Manor and advowson of Yar-
lington,' the uses of which recovery he declares, by an
indenture of the i8th July following, between himself,
described as Harry Roynon, esquire, of Lincoln's Inn, and
George Dodington, esquire, of Wells, to be to himself in fee.
Lnmediately after this he commences a series of assign-
ments by way of mortgage of his share. During the next
five years there are eleven such deeds for various sums

1 Serel's ' Church of St. Cuthbert in Wells,' p. 32.

^ This John Davis, a solicitor, of Wells, married Margaret, a daughter of
Christopher Dodington, Recorder of Wells, a member of which family is the
George Dodington, of Weils, esquire, party to the deed declaring the uses of the
recovery. John Davis was four times Mayor of Wells, in 1672, 1679, 16S9 and
1690. He was father of Peter Davis, Esq., barrister, Recorder of Wells (1705),
and a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn.

58 RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

thus borrowed by him from various persons, and at length,
in 1 70 1, Sir William Godolphin pays off the encumbrances
by buying up the share for ^1,815. And Jael Berkeley is
not only relieved from all anxiety as to her uninterrupted
enjoyment of Roynon's one-third share of the Manor-house,
but has the inexpressible satisfaction of living long enough
to see her father's Manor of Yarlington and his other pro-
perty, all of which had been the subject of so much
dissension and of such conflicting interests, preserved from
threatened dissipation, and altogether consolidated, and in
the good keeping of a worthy owner. And in this rather
ignominious manner Harry Roynon quits the scene, so far
as Yarlington is concerned ; to reappear, however, in
shadowy and spectral guise after an interval of some 120
or 130 years, when (about 1827) a certain Peter Roynon
Lewis, a gentleman employed as a clerk in some Govern-
ment office in town (Excise or Audit, I rather think),
came down from London to call upon my father, with the
object of obtaining from him, as a Governor of Christ's
Hospital, a promise for a nomination for a son, on the
strength of his claim as a lineal descendant and legal
representative of Harry Roynon, formerly of Yarlington !

As regards Sir William Godolphin, who lived and died a
bachelor at his seat in Cornwall, I would record one small
matter. It has been mentioned that Maurice Berkeley, in
1670, for a fine of ^"60, renewed to one John Clothier, of
Woolston, a lease of thirty-four and a half acres, part of
Foxcombe, which had originally been granted to the same
John Clothier, in 165 1, by Sir Henry Berkeley ; and it is
pleasant, and speaks well for all parties, to be able to add

MADAM JAEL BERKELEY, HER TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS. 59

that on 1st August, 1686, Sir William Godolphin renews
this lease to William Clothier, ' in consideration of his good
service to Maurice Berkeley, esquire, uncle of Sir William
Godolphin.' What those services were, who can say ?
Whether he had served under Maurice in the wars, or had
done him a good turn at a pinch in his money difficulties,
is nowhere recorded.

Sir William Godolphin's next brother, Sidney Godolphin,
the second son of Dorothy Berkeley and Sir Francis
Godolphin, was the well-known courtier, of whom Charles II.
remarked, in his witty phrase, ' that he was never in the
way, and never out of the way.' After filling the highest
offices of State, he had been made a peer with the title of
Baron Godolphin, and was created Earl of Godolphin in
1706. He died in 1712, leaving a son, Francis, second
Earl of Godolphin, who had succeeded to the Manor and
estate two years before, under the will of his uncle, Sir
William Godolphin.

There is little more of personal interest in connection
with the devolution of the Manor. It was originally, as we
have seen, the appanage of a very great family, the Barons
of Montacute, then of the Nevilles, the Plantagenets, and the
Parrs ; and it now once more passes into high ducal families ;
Francis, second Earl of Godolphin, and grandson of Dorothy
Berkeley, having married, in 1698, the Lady Henrietta
Churchill, daughter of the great Earl, afterwards Duke, of
Marlborough, and who herself became in her own right
Duchess of Marlborough. On the occasion of this marriage,
articles of settlement were entered into on i8th April, 1698 ;
in pursuance of which a settlement was duly executed, on

8—2

RECORDS OF Y ARLINGTON.

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MADAM JAEL BERKELEY, HER TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS. 6i

20th July, 1723, of the Manor of Yarlington and other lands
on the issue in tail of the Earl of Godolphin and Henrietta,
then Duchess of Marlborough. They had two daughters
co-heiresses, Henrietta and Mary, who married each a duke ;
Henrietta became Duchess of Newcastle, and Mary
Duchess of Leeds. The Duchess of Newcastle suffered a
recovery of her moiety in Hilary Term, 1769 (9 George
HI.), and dying without issue, by her will, proved in the
Prerogative Court, 22nd July, 1776, devised her share to
her nephew, Francis, Marquis of Carmarthen, who had, in
Hilary Term, 1772 (12 George HI.), suffered a recovery
of the other half-share entailed upon his mother, the
Duchess of Leeds, who had died some years before, in the
life-time of her father, Francis, Earl of Godolphin. Lord
Carmarthen thus became possessed of the entirety in fee.^

But to these great personages Yarlington was but as a
drop in the ocean ; probably they knew nothing of it beyond
its name. After the death of Madam Jael Berkeley, in
1705, the Manor-house was allowed to dwindle into a farm-
house, and is so described in a deed of 1723. There is,
however, a small marble monument in the church to the
memory of ' Mrs. Evelyn' (in the parish register entered
as ' Susannah, wife of Charles Evelyn, esquire '), ' daughter

1 As a specimen of the absolute worthlessness of Phelps' history, it may be
as well to compare his statement with the above account. He says : ' Francis,
Earl of Godolphin, who was Lord of the Manor in 1719, in pursuance of the
articles made on his marriage with Henrietta, Duchess of Marlborough, in 1723,
settled it in strict entail.' The marriage, in fact, took place in 1698 ; when the
articles for a settlement were entered into. Phelps goes on to say : ' The
Duchess of Newcastle, on her death, in 1772, left her moiety to her nephew, the
Marquis of Carmarthen — the Marquis having likewise succeeded to his
mother's moiety in 1782 ;' etc. Every date in the above statement is inaccurate,
except the entirely irrelevant one that Francis, Earl of Godolphin, was Lord of
the Manor in 17 19 — a position which, in fact, he held from 17 10 to 1766.

62 RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

of Peter Prideaux, esquire, of Solden, in Devonshire, wife
of Charles Evelyn, esquire, who died 4th June, 1747, in
the 39th year of her age.' The monument was erected by
her husband ; and the register records his own burial there
on the 15th January, 1748, as that of ' Chas Evelyn, Esqre.,
son of Sir John Evelyn, of Surrey.' Their bodies were
interred in a vault in the churchyard, which had necessarily
to be disturbed on the occasion of the rebuilding and
enlarging of the church by an additional aisle, in 1878.
All that is known of them by tradition is, that the wife died
whilst on a tour in which she passed through Yarlington.
But as the Evelyns were closely connected, and on terms of
intimate relationship with the Godolphins (John Evelyn of
Wotton, in Surrey, being the well-known author of the
life of Mrs. Sidney Godolphin, Dorothy Berkeley's daughter-
in-law), it is only reasonable to suppose that the Evelyns
were not chance travellers merely passing through the place,
but that, in the course of their tour, they were spending a
few days at the Godolphins' old Manor-house when Mrs.
Evelyn was taken ill and died.

V.
THE MAROUIS OF CARMARTHEN.

VENDOR, 1782.

Lord Carmarthen himself, as a personage who at one time
occupied a considerable space in public life, ought not to be
passed over without notice. He was a man of varied
accomplishments and of many talents, but ' high-falutin,'
vain, and egotistical to the last degree. Born January,
1 75 1, he married, in November, 1773, Amelia D'Arcy,
only child of the Earl of Holdernesse, and in her own
right Baroness Conyers, by whom he had two sons and one
daughter. At the age of twenty-five he was, on his own
pressing solicitations and those of his friends, called up to the
House of Lords.^ In the following year he applied for and
obtained (December, 1777) the office of Lord Chamberlain
to the Queen, and in July, 1778, was appointed Lord-Lieu-
tenant of the East Riding of York. In May of this year
' poor Lord Holdernesse died.' And it is matter, perhaps,
rather of regret than of surprise, that in the same year the
fascinating and accomplished Lady Conyers, the idol of her
father-in-law, the old Duke of Leeds, who was never so
happy as when expatiating to his friends upon her merits

^ The particulars in regard to Lord Carmarthen are mainly derived from the
'Political Memoranda of the Duke of Leeds,' edited by Oscar Browning, M.A.,
Camden Society, 1884.

64 RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

and charms, wearied of the vanities and conceits of her
somewhat feminine-natured lord, should have left him and
her children to run off with plain Captain Jack Byron.
The Marquis obtained a divorce in May, 1779; the lady
married Captain Byron and had a daughter, afterwards the
Honourable Augusta Leigh ; and after the death (in 1784)
of this, his first wife, Captain Jack Byron married Miss
Gordon, and by her was father of Lord Byron, the poet.

In November of this year, 1779, in his character of Lord-
Lieutenant of the East Riding, Lord Carmarthen made
himself active in putting the coast and county on the defen-
sive, against the attacks of Paul Jones ; and the Marquis
summoned his deputy-lieutenants and justices to a meet-
ing at Beverley. In reference to this there is in Walpole's
' Letters' (vol. vii., p. 262) an amusing letter from his great
friend and correspondent, Mason, written quite in Horace's
own vein, and dated * York, 12th November, 1779:'

' My Lord Carmarthen called upon me the other day on his return from
the East Riding of this great county, where he had reviewed the whole
coast, and found it so totally defenceless that he had given a ball at
Beverley on the occasion. From York he retired to Kiveton, where, if he
pleases, he may make another ball, and invite Lady Conyers to it, who, I
don't doubt, will be pleased with such a fete ; for you must know, at Lady
Holdernesse's request, I have lent her my parsonage to reside in, while
W. Byron is raising recruits at Sheffield and Rotherham.'

In his conduct of these affairs in Yorkshire, he found
himself at variance with the Government, and consequently,
(jn 27th January, 1780, he resigned the gold key of his
office as Chamberlain ; as Walpole himself writes, two days
after: 'The weathercock Ivlarquis has taken his part, or rather

THE MARQUIS OF CARMARTHEN. 65

his leave, and resigned his key.' And on the 8th of February,
the Marquis, with amusing particularity, notes in his diary :
* As I was gfoinof to dress, in order to attend the House of
Lords, I received an official letter from the Secretary of
State containing my dismissal from the offices of Lord-
Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of the East Riding of
Yorkshire. My surprise would scarcely have been greater
had it been a warrant of commitment to the Tower.' He
was appointed, in January, 1783, under Lord Shelburne's
Administration, as Ambassador to France ; but the break-up
of the Ministry prevented the appointment from taking
effect. However, upon Mr. Pitt's accepting the office of
Prime Minister, in December, 1783, Lord Carmarthen
received the seals of the Foreign Office, and held them
until April, 1791, when he resigned, as not approving of
concessions made by England to Russia as against the
Turks, to which concessions our ally, Prussia, was also
strongly opposed. He had succeeded to the dukedom in
I 789. After resigning office he was perpetually scheming
and planning — for it would be hardly fair to call it plotting
or intriguing — to get a strong Government formed by Pitt
and Fox both taking office ; and his seven years' connection
with Pitt gave him so little insight into the grandeur of that
statesman's character, and his magnificent self-reliance, that
he had actually brought himself to believe that such a coali-
tion might be formed under himself as Prime Minister!
Fox, indeed, was apparently not unwilling ; but Pitt met
his Grace's advances, first, with 'a very curt note,' and, finally,
by declaring to him, at another interview, ' that there had
been no thoughts of any alteration in the Government.'

66 RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

The first Earl of Malmesbury, who was a personal friend of
the Duke's, and was thrown into intimate relations with him
at the Foreign Office, took good measure of his character
and conduct on this occasion : ' The Duke of Leeds was in
earnest, but, as he always is, carried away more by his
imagination and sanguine hopes, in which his string of toad-
eaters encourage him, than by reason and reflection ('Malmes.
Diary,' vol. ii., p. 471).

These ' toad-eaters ' pandered to his vanity, and of course
looked up to him as their patron for promotion. Foremost
amongst them was the Rev. Thomas Jackson — 'my friend
Jackson,' as he is termed over and over again by the Duke
in his Diary, and for whom he is never weary of soliciting
preferment. At the time of hissaleof Yarlington, in 1782, to
John Rogers, esquire, the ancestor of the present writer, there
was a stipulation entered into, and a bond given to the vendor
accordingly, that in case at the next vacancy of the living
the purchaser should have no son of his own ready and will-
ing to fill it, Mr. Jackson should have the preferment ; Mr.
Jackson, on his part, entering into a counter-bond to resign
the preferment if, at any time after his presentation, any such
son of the purchaser should wish to be appointed to the
living.^ At that time the living was held by a Mr. Capper,

■^ This is not the first instance in the course of the narrative in which the
right of presentation to the Uving has formed the subject of private or pecuniary
arrangement ; and the writer must plead guilty to being one of those simple-
minded and old-fashioned moralists who fail to see anything worthy of blame in
the transaction. On the contrary, the system appears to him to afford an
opportunity for many a person to procure the presentation to the Bishop of a
worthy friend or relative, who might otherwise be altogether passed over and be
unnoticed. It opens the door to a larger number of fitly qualified candidates,
from different grades of life — fitly qualified, Ije it said, for it must not be for-
gotten that the appointee must be, after all, a person who is already duly
equipped for his work, and against whom no canonical objection can be taken.

THE MARQUIS OF CARMARTHEN. by

one of a good old Somersetshire family. He died in the
August of the same year. In the meantime Lord Carmar-
then had obtained, in July, from Lord Shelburne, a pre-
bendal stall in St. Paul's Cathedral for his friend ; and on
6th September the Rev. Prebendary Jackson was duly
inducted into the living of Yarlington. Early in the same
year, in April, there had been a prospect of Lord Carmar-
then's going to the Hague to negotiate terms of a treaty
with Russia. He saj^s : ' I had an application from the
Bishop of Durham to let his son. Major Egerton, go with
me as secretary, with which I complyed, and was assured
the Bishop would be happy to do soinething handso7ne for
my friend Jackson. '

In due course Mr. Prebendary Jackson (through the

A Bishop or lay-patron is not open to blame if he select for preferment a pro-
perly qualified friend or relation of his own ; and the distinction is not very
palpable where another purchases the right of presentation pro ]idc vice, with a
view to appointing such duly qualified friend or relation. As for any such pur-
chaser being implicated in the sin of Simon Magus, there is really nothing what-
ever in common between his intentions and acts and those of Simon. The
person who, in ojder to get Jiimself ordained, finds himself under the obligation
of feeing the official underlings of the Bishop, is brought much more closely
within the mischief of Simon's offence. The writer is one of those who, far
from thinking that 'establishment is a mere accident of the English Church,'
believe, on the contrary, that establishment is of the essence of a National
Church, that an Established Church and a National Church are in fact con-
vertible terms ; and further, and more especially, that it is precisely in the
character of a National Church that the Anglican Church, as a branch Church,
founds her strongest claims upon the allegiance of her people of this realm, as
against the, perhaps, more imposing pretensions of the great Latin Church to
be an CEcumenical or Universal Church, as distinguished from a National
Church. Our zealous Church reformers of to-day may, doubtless, object that, in
upholding these rights and privileges of patrons, the writer is in like case with
Horace's friend Balbinus, who was enamoured of the polypus of his mistress,
Agnes. It is not, however, to be supposed that the ' fair defects ' — or the ' 7'itia
ipsa! if you please — of the Establishment exercise any fascination over him ;
but he is strongly of opinion that the violent excision of these historic and vener-
able outgrowths would operate dangerously upon the vital interests of the
Establishment itself, as the Church of the Nation.

68 RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

influence of the Duke of Leeds when in Pitt's Cabinet)
became Canon of St. Paul's, and Dr. Jackson. He had the
character in the country of being a pompous, consequential
sort of man, and it used to be said of him that whenever a
vacancy occurred in the Episcopal Bench, he would get a
paragraph inserted in the papers ' that it was generally
expected that the lawn sleeves would be offered to Dr.
Jackson.'

The Duke of Leeds was also much addicted to that most
stupid of all pleasantries, the perpetration of practical jokes,
and the following letter, written 17th January, 1810, by one
of the Doctor's sons, George — afterwards Sir George —
Jackson, to his mother, throws a curious light upon the
relations subsisting between his Grace and his Grace's
' toad-eaters ':

' I dined quite cozily and en famille at five o'clock with the Duchess ot

Leeds,'^ her sister, and a young man, a cousin of theirs, of the Anguish

family. Her Grace seems to enjoy these little parties fines, where she can

jaser at her ease of what evidently is a peculiar pleasure for her — bygone

days.

' We had a little music, and afterwards, over a dish of tea, the Duchess
told us some stories of the old Duke, whose fondness for practical jokes I
have heard you speak of. She said that on one occasion, my father having
arrived in London from Yarlington late in the evening and very tired,
instead of going at once to Grosvenor Square, as he had proposed to do,
went to his rooms in Davies Street, and to bed immediately. The Duke,
being informed of this, ordered a cartload of straw to be laid down during
the night under the windows of my father's room, and the knocker of the
house-door to be tied up, to the great astonishment of the neighbours, and
of my father's servant when he was called up next morning to answer the

1 The Marquis of Carmarthen had remarried, in 1788, Catherine, daughter of
Thomas Anguish, a Master in Chancery.

THE MARQUIS OF CARMARTHEN. 69

inquiries of an early message from his Grace respecting Dr. Jackson's
health. Shortly after, other civil inquiries were made by two gentlemen
who had been dining in Grosvenor Square, and by-and-by an invitation to
dinner, in the doggerel rhyme in which the Duke and my father so often
corresponded, was sent by the former. The Duchess could only recollect
a few lines. They ran thus :

' " Dear Doctor, — To-day, if you're out of the hay.
And to crawl to the Square should be able.
At half after five you'll see how I thrive.
With a Landgrave and Prince at my table."

' It went on to press him to " come and handle a ladle," which it appears
he did, and that the joke served to make merry over at the table. I
confess I think the Duke was rewarded for his trouble with but a small
amount of fun.

' At another time, she said. Dr. Jackson having slipped away early from
some entertainment to betake himself quietly to bed, was awakened from a
sound nap by a dismal song, when, starting up in dismay, he beheld, sur-
rounding his bed, a number of people wrapped in white sheets, carrying
each a lighted candle and singing a doleful ditty, meant for a funeral dirge.
It was the Duke and Duchess and other members of their family. Again,
I must say I think the Duke's fun not worth so much trouble, literally
" le jeu ne valait pas la chandelle." But the story made us laugh ; for the
Duchess told it very well, and seemed so much amused at the recollection,
as she said, of the Doctor's bewilderment on awaking, and his jovial laugh
when he found that, instead of being in the lower regions, as he declared
their unearthly bowlings made him suppose, he was surrounded only by a
party of mirth-loving friends.

' G. J.'

Such was the desipientia, out of place and unseemly,
with which this accomplished but rather feather-brained
statesman beguiled his leisure hours. In the latter part of
his life he was beginning to take an interest in the fortunes

70 RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

of that most uninteresting personage, Caroline, Princess of
Wales. Dr. Jackson died ist December, 1797, and his
ducal friend and patron 3 ist January, 1799. But although
Dr. Jackson may have been disappointed in the matter of
the lawn sleeves, yet his patron did him a much greater
service by making use of his influence at the Foreign
Office to get the Doctor's eldest son, Francis, into the
diplomatic service, which was afterwards followed by the
next, and much younger, son, George (the writer of the
foregoing letter), being also engaged in the same depart-
ment ; where they both filled most important positions on
the Continent, being employed at the European Courts
during the eventful period of, and after, the Napoleonic
wars.

Their letters, principally to their mother, and their
Diaries, are comprised in four volumes, two called ' The
Diaries and Letters of Sir George Jackson,' and two
called 'The Bath Archives,' published in 1873 by Lady
Jackson (Sir George Jackson's widow), and are full of
interest. It is abundantly evident that their mother, Mrs.
Charlotte Jackson, who moved from Yarlington to Bath
after Dr. Jackson's death, and who had to look after a
family of sons and daughters, was quite one of ten thousand,
and was held in much respect and devotion by her two
prosperous sons. Her letters in these volumes seem
worthy to rank with the very best specimens of letter-
writing that have been handed down to us. The following,
written to her son George on the loth January, 18 10, and
which was answered in the week after by his letter just
quoted, may serve as an example :

THE MARQUIS OF CARMARTHEN. 71

' loth.

* It is strange that so few letters are received from Francis,^ and that he
omits writing by the regular packets. I always make allowance for more
important avocations, but it would never enter into my head that I was
forgotten, so that your consoling suggestion, my dear George, was not
needed. To forget my children, or to be forgotten by them, will be a
sensation I humbly trust I shall never be sensible of. Of all misfortunes,
that, I think, would be the worst.

' From having other thoughts in my mind, I have let pass two letters
without answering your question of whether Dr. Johnson did not die in the
same year in which you were born. I know not how you could get that
fancy into your head. Dr. Johnson died in 1784, and, I believe, in
December. I remember we used sometimes to meet him and Mrs. Piozzi
at our friends' houses. Your father thought much of him, and used
generally to say, " The Doctor talked grandly to-night," or " growled Mr.
Such-an-one into silence." How young men could admire him I could not
understand, but I must own he was no favourite of mine. He was very
learned, I have no doubt, and his Lexicon proved that he knew the meaning
of most things ; yet, with all that, he never seemed to be able to compre-
hend what good manners meant. He was pompous and overbearing, and
unpardonably untidy — -faults I remarked in other clever men of his day.
But, for my part, I could never see in genius and learning an excuse for a
deliberate breach of decorum, such as appearing amongst less gifted folks
in snuffy shirt-frills and soiled vestments ; or consider rudeness of speech
and rough manners the marks of a superior mind.

' How Mrs. Piozzi could only tolerate so coarse and bear-like a person as
the Doctor used to surprise me, and much more how she could conduct
herself with the levity she did. Their manners were more disgusting than
pleasing to most persons, and I was not alone in my opinion that they both
ought to have been ashamed of themselves.

* I shall think jv<?« ought to be ashamed of yourself if you don't tell me
more regularly what is going on. As you have no despatches to write —

i Mr. F. Jackson was at this time in America, engaged in a difficult and
delicate negotiation with the United States, which, however, proved unsuc-
cessful.

72 RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

though you seem to have taken up your quarters at the Foreign Ofifice, and
write all your letters there, as your father did when the Duke of Leeds held
office — you may at least tell me of the U-iJles that are going on around you ;
for the conviction that you will seize your pen to inform me without delay
of a?iythifig importcmt that may occur does not satisfy me.

'C.J.'

But we seem to have travelled far away from Yarlington.
Let us hasten home before the curtains are closed and the
night has set in.

It has been mentioned that Yarlington had been visited
by perhaps the most vicious of all our kings — King John ;
and the narrative comes to an end with a little anecdote in
connection with one of the most virtuous of our monarchs.

Upon completion of the purchase in 1782, the grand-
father of the present writer, having inspected the ' old
Berkeley Mansion,' as it was then called, pronounced it
* picturesque, but damp,' and somewhat ruthlessly let off
the water of the lake, which had now assumed the character
of a succession of large fish-ponds,^ and did away with
Fitz-James's Mill, bringing away much of the materials of
the old Manor-house to the place where he had decided to
build without delay a new mansion. The site was a treeless
plain, or common, of forty or fifty acres, on a high plateau,
open to every blast, and quite unsheltered from the north-
west winds, which are most prevalent here.

The late Mr. Hobhouse(grandfather of our present M.P.)
has told me, that in his boyhood it was ' the most destitute,

1 In 1687 a lease for seven years is granted by Sir William Godolphin, Jael
Berkeley, and Harry Roynon, of West Harptree, esquire, of Yarlington Farm,
except the mansion-hojcse^ fish-ponds and ga^-dens.

THE MARQU/S OF CARMARTHEN. 73

desolate place he ever beheld.' At the time the house was
building, George III. passed along the main road in front
of it, on his way from Weymouth to Longleat, on a visit
to Lord Weymouth; and my grandfather, who was then
living at South Cadbury Rectory while the house was in
course of erection, came up with his family to the turnpike
road at Yarlington, which runs in front of it, to salute his
Majesty as he passed by. Seeing the building going on,
the King asked who was doing that. On being in-
formed that it was the work of a new Squire who had
recently purchased the Manor, his Majesty observed in his
peculiar style, ' Hah ! hah ! a bold man. a bold man, to
build a house there.'

(Korvigenbuin.

It is mentioned — ante, p. 8 — as on the authority of Mr.
Dickinson, of Kingweston, that two persons of the name
of ' Gyon,' or 'Cyan,' were enteied as living at Yarlington
at the Inquisition held before the Lord Treasurer, John de
Kerkbye, and reference was made to Mr. Dickinson's pro-
mised publication of that ' Quest.'

After the foregoing pages had been well advanced in the
press, this valuable contribution to the ' Somerset Records '
duly appeared, when I discovered that those names were
entered — not in Kirkby's or Kirby's Quest, but — at p. loi,
in the 'Tax Roll of i Edward III.,' which, under the
heading of ' Exchequer Lay Subsidies,' is included, together

74 RECORDS OF Y ARLINGTON.

v/Ith Other documents in the volume, under the general title
of * Kirby's Quest.' The mistake in confusing the two
lists or subjects is entirely my own, and I therefore not
unnaturally make haste to withdraw my hand from the
apprehended ferule of my good friend, Mr. Dickinson.
In fact, 'the Lord John de Kerkbye,' the Treasurer, is
stated in the Preface, at p. xviii., to have died in 1290,
18 Edward I.

Further, in reference to the suggestion hazarded — ante^
p. 8 — that Domesday may have included Woolston in the
adjoining parish of Blackford, it is observable that in the
'Nomina Villarum ' of Edward II., Hamo Fitz-Richard,
who is returned as part-lord of Blackford, is also entered as
Lord of the hamlet of Woolston (' Kirby's Quest,' pp. 53-
59). And we learn from Collinson, iii. 452, that, at an
Inquisition held 35 Edward III., a portion of Blackford was
found to be held of the Earl of Salisbury at a rent service
of 3s. 4d. The Bamfyldes, who inherited portions of Black-
ford, seem to form a connecting link with Bamfield Chafin,
referred to in the note to p. 9, ante. I should add that the
modern acreage of Blackford is, by a misprint, stated to be
578, and is 703 acres.

APPENDIX.

LIST OF INCUMBENTS.
SEPULCHRALIA.

lO-

LIST OF INCUMBENTS.

DATE OF INSTITUTION INCUMBENT.

1 3 14 ... William de Glideford

1321 ... John de Crokes Eston

PATRON.

1323

.. Matthew Husee

... William Pencrich

1340

. . . Jas. Sonford de Stan

lake

1342

.. Thomas Threske

14 1 8, September 5

1452, February 2
1456, March 13
1462, April 3

(Robertus Saunders)
Robert Colbwude
Richard Bailly a/.

Chamberlayne.
Thos. Chauntre, A.M.
Alex Cressingham
Edward Massy

1463, January 31 ... Thos. Chauntre, A.M.

1493, March 22
1497, March 5

John Newman
Thos. Hobbys, A.M.
John Steryge
William Nicholson

Rex, as guardian of
William, son of Wm.
de Montacute.

Wm. de Montacute,

Com. Sarum.
Wm. de Montacute,

Com. Sarum.

John Bailly and others.

Ric. Comes Sarum.
Ric. Comes Sarum.
Alicia, Comitissa

Sarum.
Ric. Com. Warwick et

dom. Sarum.

Henry VII. Rex.
Henry Vll., Rex.

RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

DATE OF INSTITUTION. INCUMBENT.

1555, May 22 ... Roger Boydell

1573, April II ... AVilliam Rosewell

1627, February i .
1634, November 2 7 ..
1673, September 25..
1679, August 2

.. William Clifford, A.M.
. Bernard Bangor,^ A.M.
. John Randall, A.B.
. Joseph Barker, A.M.

1723, July 25 ... Edward Cozens, A.B.

1754, January i ... Richard Capper, B.A.

1765, October I ... Richard Gapper,- B.A.

1782, Septembers ... Thomas Jackson, M. A.
1797, December 23 ... Roger Frankland, M.A.

PATRON.

.. Thomas Smyth, mil.

. Thos. Rosewell de Dun-
kerton and another,
by concession of
Wm. Rosewell de
Loxton, gent.

.. John Thatcher.

. . Bamfield Chafin, arm.

. . Maurice Berkeley, arm.

. . Katherine Barker,

widow, on the grant
of Jael Berkeley.

. . Fran. Comes Godol-
phin.

.. John Rogers, esquire.

. . John Rogers, esquire.

^ It is interesting to note that whatever may have been the circumstances under
which Bamfield Chafin, esquire, obtained this presentation from Sir Henry Ber-
keley, the presentee, Bernard Bangor, was one of those who have the honour
of being named in Walker as having been ejected from his living by Parlia-
ment. The entry by Walker is significant, as suggestive of the confusion and
duplicity prevailing under the oppression of the Puritans. The extract is as
follows (part ii., p. 207) :

' Bangor, Yarlington R.

' He had at that time a wife and family. His successor was one Dorington, a
reputed papist ; who (as himself afterwards confessed to the gentleman who in-
formed me of this) was bred at .St. Omers, and designed for physick. Mr. B.
survived the usurpation, and therefore, in all probability, returned to his living.'

Bangor was, in fact, restored in 1660, and enjoyed the living for thirteen years
afterwards.

^ It appears that for some reason this Richard Gapper must have resigned the
living, and have been re-instituted to it on ist October, 1765, as he is mentioned
in the Diocesan Register to have been presented by Francis, Earl of Godol-
phin, on the cession of him, the said Richard Gapper.

APPENDIX.

DATE OF INSTITUTION.

1826, May 18

1876, June 3

INCUMBENT.

Robert Green Rogers, .

M.A.
Arthur Johnson Rogers,
M.A.

All the foregoing entries, down to and including the presentation of
Edward Cozens, A.B., in 1723, are taken from 'Somerset Incumbents,' a
work quite recently and most carefully edited by the Rev. F. ^^^ Weaver,
M.A., of the Vicarage, Milton Clevedon, Bruton.

PATRON.

Anne Reynolds Rogers,
widow.

The Rev. Arthur John-
son Rogers.

SEPULCHRALIA.

I I

SEPULCHRALIA.

IN THE CHURCH.

NORTH SIDE OF CHANCEL.

Two Brasses.
I .

To the Glory of God

and in memory of

the Rev. Robert G. Rogers, M.A.

Born 6th November, 1800. Died iglh March, 1876

He was Rector of this Parish

for fifty years.

' There remaineth a rest for the people of God

Here lie the bodies of

Mary Theodora, ist wife of the Rev. R. G. Rogers, A.M.,

Rector of this Parish,

the eldest daughter of the Rev. John Johnson, LL.D.,

Rector of Yaxham-with-Welborne, Norfolk,

who died May 6th, 1836. Aged 26 years.

Also of Lucy Judith, his 2nd wife,

2nd daughter of the Rev. Charles Pine-Coffin, A.M.,

Rector of East Downe, Devonshire,

who died August 30th, 1846. Aged 35 years.

Also of Emily Gertrude, her 2nd daughter,

who died January 19th, 1846. Aged 18 months.

' We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life

of the world to come.'

APPENDIX. 83

IN THE rOWER TRANSEPT.

West Wall.

A Large Momiment of Black Marble set vi Bath Stone.

In a Vault

on the North side of the Chancel

are deposited the Remains of

John Rogers, Esquire,

Lord of this Manor,

who died February xxviii, mdcccxxi,

in the Ixxviii"' year of his age.

Also those of

Ann Reynolds, his wife,

who died April xxiv, mdcccxlvi,

in the xcii"'' year of her age.

He was the only Son

of Thomas Rogers, Esqre., of Besford Court,

and of the Parish of All Saints', Worcester,

and was Sheriff of this County

in the year mdccciv.

She was the only Child

of Pickering Robinson, Esqre.,

of Rawcliffe, in the County of York.

' Yet a little while and He that shall come will come,
and will not tarry.' — Heb. x. 37.

Arms : Argent, 3 stags trippant sa. attired or,

a chief azure (Rogers),

on an escutcheon of pretence.

Vert, a chevron between 3 bucks trippant or

(Robinson).

1 1

84 RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

IN THE TOWER TRANSEPT.

East Wall.

Brass.

In dutiful remembrance
Of Franxis Rogers, Esquire, Lord of this Manor

and Representative of a Family of that Name

which in the Sixteenth Century held a leading place

amongst the Citizens of Bristol, and was afterwards

of Eastwood Park, Gloucestershire.

Pie died April 5th, 1863, in the 79th year of his Age.

Also in Memory of Catherine Elizabeth,

Widow of the above-named Francis Rogers,

and eldest daughter of Benjamin Bickley, Esqre.,

of Bristol, and of Ettingshall Lodge, Staffordshire,

She died February 14th, 1881, Aged 89 years and four months,

and is buried with her Husband

In the Familv Vault.

APPENDIX. 85

IN THE NAVE.

Oval Marble Motiujfient.

M. S.
of

Frederick John William,

Son of the Rev. Thos. Jackson, D.I).,

Rector of this Parish,

and Charlotte, his wife,

who died an Infant Nov. 23rd, 1790.

Also of

Marianne, their daughter,

who died August 30th, 1791,

in the 19th year of her age.

She fell by an early, not premature deatli.

For the eminent virtues she displayed,

which endeared her to her family

and procured her universal esteem,

with her exemplary resignation

to the will of Heaven,

fitted her

for the participation of its bliss.

86 RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

IN THE NORTH AISLE.

Two Marble Monuments.
I.

Near this place

lies Interred

Mrs. Evelyn,

Daughter of

Peter Prideaux, Esqr.,

of Solden, in Devonshire,

Wife of

Charles Evelyn, Esqr.,

who died June iv,

MDCCXLVII,

In the xxxix year of her Age.

Near this place

Are Deposited the Remains of

Mrs. Anne Burchall,

who departed this life the
15th of December, 1834,
Aged 90 years.

' Though lost to sight,
To memory dear.'

APPENDIX. 87

IN THE CHURCHYARD.

Flat Stone {moved from the Chancel in 1877).

Here lie the Remains of the

Rev. Richard Gapper, A.B., late Rector of

this Parish, who departed this Ufe, Aug. 10,

A.D. 1782, aged 65.

A worthy Parish Priest and sincere honest Man.

Likewise the body of Mrs. Mary Gapper, late of

Shaston, Dorset, his Venerable Mother, who died

May, 1770, aged — .

Also

Here are deposited the remains of

I sabella Gapper, widow and relict of the above-named

Richard Gapper. She departed this life June,

1784, aged — .

Arms : Gules, a saltire, in chief, 3 lions rampant.

Flat Stone {moved from the Nave of Church in 1877).

Here lyeth the

Body of Thomas The

Sonne of Thomas Brooke

And Elinor His Wife

Gent, Who Died The Fifth

Day of June Anno 1 7 — .

All Flesh Is Grass The Life Of Man
A Shadow Or At Best A Span
Our Wit Our Learning Or Our Art
Are Vain When Death Presents His Dart.

88 RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

Head-Stones.

To Richard Syms, who died

Octr. ye 19th, 1745,

Aged 82.

Also to Mary his wife, who died

Octr, ye i6th, 1743.

In Memory of

AV I L L I A M S Y M S,

d. Nov. 24, 187 1, aged 68.

Also of

Jane, his beloved wife,

d. Sep. 29, 1869, aged 68.

In Memory

Levi Garland,

During 45 years.
Clerk of this Parish.

"Well done, thou good
and faithful servant."

APPENDIX. 89

In Memory of

Richard Davidge,

For 29 years clerk of

Yarlington Church,

Who died Apl. 5, 1868,

aged 61.

• Yet will I rejoice in the Lord ;
I will joy in the God of my salvation."

In Memory of

Samuel Eastment,

who died Feby. 27th,
1779, aged 31 years.

Death in my prime gave me a fall

VV^ho took me from my Wife and Children small

Grieve not for me, my Glass is run :

It is God's Will, and must be done.

1 2

90 RECORDS OF YA RUNG TON.

Here lies the Body of Martha,
Wife of John Chalmers, who died
June 1 2th, 1798, aged 62 years.

Also

of John Chalmers, late Gardener

of Yarlington Lodge,

and under the same Master

for upwards of thirty-seven years.

He died June 19th, 1812, aged 77 years.

If simple Truth in rustic manners drest,
If Worth in humble garb may claim its own,
Then Reverence the Earth where Virtue rests.
And leave to worthless Pride its poor renown.

In Memory of

James Hill, of this Parish,

who died Dec. 29, 1868,

Aged 80 years.

He passed the greater part

of his life in the household

of Francis Rogers, Esquire,

the trusty servant of a

grateful master.

Also of Ann,
wife of the above-named James Hill,
who died Feby. 2, 1865,
aged 75 years.

APPENDIX. 91

Head-Stones {Marble).

Affectionate Remembrance of
Rose Anna,

wife of

Daniel Arthur,

who died March 3rd, 1871,

in her 53rd year.

" Thy Will be done."

Also of the above

Daniel Arthur,

who died Jany. 27th, 1881,

aged 68 years.
"We all do fade as a leaf."

{Stone.)

To Joan Penny, d. June 30, 1782, aged 63.
To Francis Penny, d. July 21, 1827, aged 73;
and to Martha his wife, d. Feb. 23, 1833, aged 79.
(With original verse.)

Also to William, son of Francis and Martha
Penny, who died Nov. 2, 1798, aged 21 years.

Like as a Dart Death struck my heart

While in my youthful prime ;
My Friends most dear, your grief forbear .

Trust God's appointed time.

12-

92 RECORDS OF YARLINGTON.

Sacred to the Memory

of John Biddis combe,

who died May i, 1833, aged 52 years.

Also of Mary, his wife,

who died Dec. i, 1840, aged 63 years.

(Two verses : ' A sufferer in this vale of tears,' etc.)

Here lyeth the Body of

Richard Cornish, who dy'd Dec. 7th, 1747, aged 42.

Also Ann, daughter of Richard and

Barbara Cornish, who dy'd Jan. 28, 1759, aged 19 ;

Mary, another of their daughters, who died

Sept., 1782, aged 49 years.

Young men and maids serve God betime,
For Death took me just in my prime ;
So may it you, therefore I pray
Make use of your time now while you may.

Altar Tombs.

In Memory of Richard Syms, d. Jan. 30, 1781, aged 63.
Also of Joseph Syms, ob. June 4, 1781, aged 68.

Thy Goodness and thy tender Care

Have all his hopes outdone ;

A Crown of Gold thou mad'st him wear.

And sett'dst it firmly on.

He prayd for Life, and Thou, O Lord,

Didst to his prayer attend,

And graciously to him afford

Life that shall never end.

Ps. xxi. V. 3 tSc 4.

APPENDIX. 93

To John Cornish,

who died nth Marcli, 1740,

aged 37.

And Ann his wife.

Also in Memory of Robert, their son, who died

at St. John's College, Cambridge, and

Interred there 8th June, 1749, aged 20;

and of John, their son, who died 19th May,

1755, aged 28;

and of Richard, their son, who died 24th Sept.,

1766, aged 33 years.

Crosses {Marble).

Sacred to the Memory

of
Nora Ewing Rogers,
wife of the Rector of this Parish.
She died 24th May, 1878,
aged 20 years.
" In Thy presence is the fulness of joy ;
at Thy right hand are there pleasures
for evermore."

(yFree-Stone^

In Memory

of James White, who died Apl. 16, 1873, aged 69,

of Mary, his wife, who died Aug. 28, 1865, aged 67,

and of Alfred White, who d. July 7, 1880, aged 40.

Note.— The list of head-stones is not exhaustive. Those have been for the
most part selected which record the names of families connected with the parish
for many generations.

INDEX.

Bangor, Rev. Bernard, ejected and

restored, 78
Barker, Rev. Joseph, 53, 54
Bayntun, Henry, of Stavordale and

Roundhill, 34, 48
Berkeley, Sir Henry, of Bruton : his
will, 29
„ Sir Henry, of Yarlington, 31

ct seq.
„ Madam Jael, 45 et seq.

„ Dame Margaret : her will, 35

„ Maurice, of Yarlington, 42

„ of Stratton, Lord : his will,

Carmarthen, Marquis of, 61 et seq.

Chafin, Family of, 9

Chaucer, Alice, 13

Clothier, William : his services (?), 59

Coke, Sir Edward : his style, 38

Cottington, Francis, Lord, 36

Davis, John, of Wells, 57
Deer's Leap, The, 6, 9
Donyatt, 4
Drokensford's Register, 3

Earth, Joseph, 31, y]

„ Roger, 37
Elizabeth, Princess, 23
Evelyn, Mr. and Mrs. Charles, 61, 62
Ey ton's Domesday, 2

Fitz-James : his mill, 26, 72

Galhampton, 30
George IIL, King, 7;^
Godolphin, Sir W., 47, 55

„ Sidney, 59

Gyon or Guihane, 9

Hobhousc, Right Hon. Hy., 11, 72

Huntingdon, Earl of, releases rent-
charge, 34

Jackson, Rev. Thomas, 66 et seq.
„ Francis and George, 70
John, King, 5

Johnson, Dr., Mrs. Jackson on, 71
Jones, Sir William : his opinion, 48, 52

Killegrews, The, 32
' King-maker,' The, 13

Lewis, Peter Roynon, 58

Mary, Queen, 23, 24

Maynard, Serjt., 46

Mildmay, Mr.: his loan, 43, 50, 55

Montacute, 3

Montacute, Simon de, 3, 5, 17

Mortain, Earl of, 2

Neville, Sir H., of Billingsbere, 32
Norwood Park, 28, 29

Parr, Queen Katharine, 20, 22

Parr, Wm., Marquis of Northampton, 2 1

Rosewell, Family of, 25, 27
Roynon, Peter, 40, 47, 56
Harry, 55, 57, 58

Salisbury, Margaret, Countess of, 16
Shandy, Mr. Walter : his theory, 45
Shepton Montague {capiit baronia)., 4
Smalldon, 34, 41, 47, 51
Smith, Sir Thomas, 21
Southworths, The, 35, 37

Warwick, Edward Plantagenet, Earl

of, 14
Woolston Farm, 8, 9, 74

Yarlington Fair, 20, 40

THE END.

Elliot Stock, Paternoster Rciv, London.

By the same Wriler.

THE ENGLISH MARRIAGE LAWS

AND

THE LEVITICAL DEGREES.

1883 : Pickering and Co.

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND AS A STATE

CHURCH.

1885 : Skeffington and Son.

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