The Annals of West Coker

598 Pages·1957·11.94 MB·English

by  Matthew Nathan

THE ANNALS OF
WEST COKER
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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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www.cambridge.org
Informatioontn h itsi twwle:.w cambridge.org/978o521336994
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Thisp ublicaitsii noc no pyrigShutb.je tcost t atuteoxrcye ption
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nor eproducotfia onnyp armta yt akpel acwei thotuhtew ritten
permissoifCo anm bridUgnei versity Press.
Firpsutb lished 1957
Firpsatp erbaecdki ti2oonn
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-0-521-0H5a7r9d2b-a9c k
ISBN 978-0-521-3P3a6p9e9r-b4a ck
Additiorneaslo urfcoetrsh ipsu blicaattiww on.w cambridge.org/9780521336994
CambridUgnei versPirteysh sa sn or esponsifboitrlh iept eyr sistoern ce
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orw ilrle maianc,c uroarta ep propriate.
CONTENTS
LIST OF MAPS page vii
'
AUTHOR S PREFACE IX
'
EDITOR S PREFACE Xl
FOREWORD Xlll
SOUTH SOMERSET IN EARLY AGES l
II SOUTH SOMERSET IN SAXON AND DANISH TIMES
49
III COKER IN THE TIME OF THE NORMAN KINGS
(circa 1140---
IV COKER IN THE TIME OF THE DE MANDEVILLES
1308) 63
(1308---1391) 86
V COKER IN THE TIME OF THE FIRST COURTENAYS
Hugh, first earl, 1308--4- 0 86
Hugh, second earl, 1340-77 u9
Margaret, widow of second earl, 1377--9- 1 135
VI WEST COKER IN THE TIME OF THE LATER COURTENAYS
(1391---1556) 14-4-
Edward, third earl, and Hugh, fourth earl, 1391---1422 144
Thomas, fifth earl, 1422---57/8 152
Thomas, sixth earl, Henry, seventh earl, and John, eighth
earl, 1457/8---83 164
Edward, ninth earl, William, tenth earl, and Henry, eleventh
earl, 1483---1539 170
Edward, twelfth earl, 1539---56 184
(1556---<}I) 202
VII WEST COKER IN THE TIME OF THE NEW MEN
Edward Basshe and Francis Whittington alias Whytton 202
(1591---1727) 233
VIII WEST COKER IN THE TIME OF THE PORTMANS
John, first baronet, 1591---1612 233
Henry, second baronet, John, third baronet, Hugh, fourth
baronet, William, fifth baronet, 1612--4- 5 264
William, sixth baronet, 1645---90 287
Henry Seymour, 1690---1728 334
v
CONTENTS
IX WEST COKER IN THE TIME OF THE BERKELEY PORTMANS
(1728-1829) page 367
William Berkeley Portman, 1728-38 367
Henry William Berkeley Portman, 1738-61 381
Henry William Portman, 1761-96 392
Edward Berkeley Portman, senior, Edward Berkeley Portman,
junior, 1796-1829 419
APPENDICES
Abstract from Domesday Book giving tenure of lands in the
I
neighbourhood of Somerton, T.R.E. and T.R. W. 455
Domesday entry of Coker 459
II
Extracts from Ne ustria Pia with reference to the claim of St
III
Stephen's Abbey, Caen, to have been granted the Manor of
Coker 460
IV A bailiff's account of the Manor of West Coker, 1309 462
v Extent of East Coker Manor, 1321 467
(i) Assessments for a twentieth, 1 Edward III, for East Coker
VI
and West Coker 479
(ii) Account of the collection of 30,000 sacks of wool granted to
the king, 15 Edward III 480
Accounts of West Coker Manor: (i) 1422; (ii) 1425 481
VII
Indictment of persons charged with burning down George
VIII
Middleton's house at West Coker on 1 September 1457 484
The Coker family out of south Somerset, 1285-1498 485
IX
x Abbot Beere's survey of abbey lands in West Coker, 1507 492
Accounts of West Coker Manor, 1527 493
XI
(i) Assessments for fifteenths and tenths for East Coker and
XII
West Coker, Edw. III to 39 Eliz. 496
IO
(ii) Assessments for subsidies, etc. 32, 34, 36, 37 and 38 Henry
VIII, and 3, 5 and 6 Edw. VI for East Coker and West Coker 497
West Coker cases of debt or trespass in the Court of Common
XIII
Pleas. From Trinity 1597 to Trinity 1604 504
(i) Assessments for subsidies 13, 35 and 39 Eliz., 18 Jae. I, 3 and
XIV
16 Car. I, 13 and 15 Car. II, for West Coker 508
(ii) Free and voluntary present to Charles II in pursuance of an
Act of Parliament, taken 29 October, 13 Car. II 510
Vl
CONTENTS
xv Deliveries of West Country canvas, 1634-72 page 5II
Numbers and names of fields in West Coker from the Map and
XVI
Schedule annexed to the Tithe Agreement of 1838, with past
variations and probable meanings 5 I 2
INDEX
LIST OF MAPS
South Somerset according to Domesday Book. The map represents
the boundaries of manors as coincident with those of parishes
before alterations to some of the latter in 1933· It must there­
fore be taken as representing the relative position rather than the
exact areas occupied by the Domesday manors facing p. 64
Map to illustrate Abbot Beere's survey of Glastonbury Abbey
II
lands in West Coker in 1507 176
Map to illustrate the ownership of lands in West Coker in 1612 240
III
IV Map to illustrate the ownership of lands in West Coker in 1718 336
Vll
CONTENTS
xv Deliveries of West Country canvas, 1634-72 page 5II
Numbers and names of fields in West Coker from the Map and
XVI
Schedule annexed to the Tithe Agreement of 1838, with past
variations and probable meanings 5 I 2
INDEX
LIST OF MAPS
South Somerset according to Domesday Book. The map represents
the boundaries of manors as coincident with those of parishes
before alterations to some of the latter in 1933· It must there­
fore be taken as representing the relative position rather than the
exact areas occupied by the Domesday manors facing p. 64
Map to illustrate Abbot Beere's survey of Glastonbury Abbey
II
lands in West Coker in 1507 176
Map to illustrate the ownership of lands in West Coker in 1612 240
III
IV Map to illustrate the ownership of lands in West Coker in 1718 336
Vll

AUTHOR'S PREFACE
OTHING
N much ever happened at West Coker. No great man was born
or lived or died there. No battle was fought near it nor did any con­
stitutional crisis have its rise in its neighbourhood. It was never the
centre of great industry nor the source of widespreading trade. No relic of
saint nor monument of art nor scene of natural beauty ever attracted visitors
to it.
Its records are scant. Of old inscriptions there are none. The manor and
the hundred have left behind them no court rolls. No musters remain from
early calling-up of soldiers. The church registers that have been preserved are
comparatively late in date and the churchwardens' accounts only begin
220 years ago. Of civil documents pertaining to the parish, no old ones
remain. There is no collection of letters written from the village.
The worker who has come to this unpromising field has brought to his
task no aptitude or training for historical or economic research. He has no
knowledge of dialect nor instinctive appreciation of folklore and has had no
special opportunity for collecting facts from records or tradition.
And yet-and yet, the Annals of West Coker have seemed to him worth the
compilation. The development of that part of England where the Coker
villages lie, though it has followed similar lines to that of other parts, has had
differences due to the antecedents, heredity and environments of the people
and to the climate, soil and surface of the land. The story told of such develop­
ment can be written with endless variety by chroniclers in different parts of
the country. The story of the villages and eventually that of the one village
is a miniature history of England and a similar history is open to any person
in any village to read from remains and records of the past for his own satis­
faction, and to write for that of his neighbours.
The system followed need not be the same as has been adopted in this
case: namely, to tell, as far as possible in chronological sequence, the pre­
history and early history, down to the compilation of Domesday Book, of a
tract of country which had its main features common; then, for the 305 years
when two villages in it were under one lord, the story which they shared has
been related; and then for another 438 years the detailed happenings of a
single parish.
The Annals originated in long-ago translations and explanations by
Professor Eileen Power of two muniments in the rich collection of Mrs G.
Walker Heneage of Coker Court. They grew up in the following ten years on
nourishment provided from the Public Record Office by Miss Nellie McN.
O'Farrell and extracted by me from published and other sources too numerous
to mention here but referred to in footnotes. Illustrations have been omitted.
Some technical help has been given by Somerset friends, Mr H. St George
Gray, Miss Sophie Bates Harbin, Mr A. Vivian-Neal and the Rev. George
Nicholson, rector of West Coker. I have not hesitated to impose hard work
b lX NWC
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AUTHOR S PREFACE
on my successive secretaries, Miss Eileen Dover and Miss Edna Warry,
who has given help in the preparation of the maps.
My own share of the work has been little more than its arrangement. On
the other hand, my gain from it has been great-pleasure and interest, when
these could no longer be drawn from work in such stations of life as it has
been my good fortune to occupy.
M.N.
x