ECORDS OF YARLINGTON THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES i RECORDS OF YARLINGTON, RECORDS OF YARLINGTON: Being THE HISTORY OF A COUNTRY VH^LAGE. BY 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 I 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. 15 u 4) s (0 PL, 4-> c Q § z TS H < rt (U 4-* H 3 U W 2 w < H ^ 3 C < P- rt >^ P^ Mr3 ri4 D •4-* PQ '=^ en >— 1 1 J s < U) E-1 W P^ 03 c 3 ^ = -a "o -, U •— u) rt 7C/2 rt^S Q P^ s H Q c/3 o IN. Tf M *r 0) e Xh nS cq w •4-1 hJ Oj ►J -a > (U w ' ] iz;-^ O rt ' C o >: '^ o cj *-< '-' pi; Ih- O (U o CO ^ Vm -( Ph.^ OJ P^.Sv- c •^^^ nJ W ~~^ (t! W H •4-J 03 P5 11 ai^J'o rt •- (U eq ^ o u 0) c ,12 ■— > tn O ?• (/5 (U (U «M ^ 4^ , ^ i-H 3 _" CO 1— 1 3 rt ri D w 2 '2 W) Q xT rt " H c-a .a 0) ^ 3 oo to c Q . ceo a; -^ T3 ^S /a ^ 3 u C — C3 XI w 4 CJ 3 pq 3 M >- .2 nq s Tr' .55 NNE=i &C0- CO a5 PL, ^ — ^ •—1 w 1 t3 ^^ H"? •rf (/T • (/I ;-i Ri '^ n i: c (U rt a X< N Is c75 1 II 03 1— t u 2" '^ 1 ^ 6 u^ XJ _4J >i if "rt G II — ~ c in 15 3 Eh. 12 ■3 T^ _ C rtv: C n f^ o5 ' P5 '0, 4~* ^ 1/5 rt X3 3 bo ■5 u 3 ON« 1-1 "H 2X1 4) )-i 1 « C t3 13 rt X- a ^ H-1 t3 c>J h5^ CJ iT 4-* "d H bo s PL, c , ^^ rt CO 02 ^ u-i hH c -~" r* 11 (U <6 u c ^ 0^ I- OS K II 1) (U **t ■ . • 1)^ = fi^'g^ QU c-r;'^ III 0-^ "S ^ H sk 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. 3- 20 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- 4 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 28 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. 5 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 j_ 1 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. 39 o H O Q O H P^ CQ O w o w w o I— I Q W I/) c >. G O ■*-» c J- -IS S-a o to S O C/3 O DO CU c >> <« S ^ ^ O ^ — ' cS „ w 3 CO IH~ c 3 4J - -a W 2 2S ~ > ^ Ih- M M M H . l-H t3 w , 03 ■ u 3 .„ o o ON - §: o t- o bfl-d a! O TS 1-4 -3 O ♦-* LO OJ W II- iJ 00 O pq o "^ P5 • .. C ^ 2 "^ C 4; 02 t4 W Ih- -. u pq u L 3 > 2 to SZ3: », O rt (75 I — I ^ p. C u >-, _• 0:0 eq^ 2 o vO oT ■ 3 OS u G ■ (U h rt x: c75 IH- c 15 a. O O C c o c . >» Lr, O I/-1 I- 2 P P-. Ih— in o u x: o 13 tn _ "G C C tin • 7. s CO w EH O (4 O ft CO !zi o o w (/5 C (U o Oh Si "^ • bo -■ a 13 . o W c o <5 CO d o >— C *j X! "o -o o O o >^ c V. 'in Jzx) § tfo »-^ rt bo ^ rt x: 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-. O o S ^ rt.Pi •«^ c o H i-q H W (4 W EH O o p If-- ■- c n p 00 VO o « -a S ■- a HI bx) . ^ c Ih- c/3 WE- CO o -ri VO /j^ go pq o 1-1 o O W O rt u I— I ^ '^ '^ «^ ^^ CJ.- u c O « « ^^ OQ VO vO ON VO J3 "o o o ea W 'O c 02" M ih- c o JO O I/) rt E o J3 H O (U ON 00 o c - 02 1- c rt ti .!zi <1, 3 U I-; rt _ >- 3 :>. O rt o ;-i o (LI rC T3 -. f 1 o -\ Xi Ui Li rt CJ W "S {^ g 3 OJ M li 03 (U -3