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somersethistorian
Jul 23, 20231 min read
SMUGGLING LEAD THROUGH BRIDGWATER?
This entry in Exchequer records at The National Archives from the early seventeenth century, reveals the names of two men involved in...
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somersethistorian
Jun 25, 20231 min read
A NOTE ABOUT THE MONMOUTH REBELLION AND NORTON ST PHILIP
‘WITHOUT INTEREST’? Amongst papers of the Strachey family at the Somerset Heritage Centre is a folder with a label written in the 19th...
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somersethistorian
Jun 25, 20232 min read
BASTARDS, MARRIAGE AND SUFFRAGETTES
In 1913 the Rev. E.H. Bates Harbin, editor of a recently published volume of Somerset quarter sessions records covering the...
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somersethistorian
Jun 25, 20235 min read
Lieutenant Colonel Paule St de Beville in Somerset, 1768
The difficulties between France and Great Britain during the 18th century, like those between most nations at war, led to a need for...
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somersethistorian
Jun 25, 20231 min read
EVIDENCE FOR BANWELL SEWERS
In Michael Williams’ The draining of the Somerset levels he noted the lack of records of the Courts of Sewers during, amongst other...
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somersethistorian
Jun 25, 20232 min read
INTRIGUING EVIDENCE FOR WORLEBURY WINDMILL
In September 1985 my predecessor as Somerset editor, Mr Shorrocks, included a paper by Nick Corcos on the ‘The date of Worlebury...
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somersethistorian
Jun 25, 20233 min read
NOTES ON A GAME CALLED FIVES IN SOMERSET
In the last issue of SDNQ information was sought concerning the sport of fives in Somerset. Some information can be found in Church court...
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somersethistorian
Jun 25, 20232 min read
A NOTE ABOUT SOMERSET CHARTS
In the recently published Charts and surveys of the Somerset coast c.1350-1824 is an account of a series of three charts covering the...
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somersethistorian
Jun 25, 20232 min read
HAT HONOUR IN SOMERSET CHURCHES
In Flecity Hebditch’s interesting paper in part 385 of SDNQ, mention is made of the anthropology of hats at the time of King Charles II....
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somersethistorian
Jun 25, 202313 min read
EDWARD BERKELEY’S DIARY, 1684
This article was written jointly with Philip Ashford. In SDNQ volume 37 pages 412-24 is a paper on Edward Berkeley’s diary for the year...
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somersethistorian
Jun 25, 202311 min read
PORLOCK NONCONFORMISTS AND QUAKERS: NEW AND EARLY DISCOVERIES
This article was jointly written with Philip Ashford. Porlock appears to have been home to a group of Quakers in the early 1660s, if not...
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somersethistorian
Jun 25, 20232 min read
TAUNTON CASTLE BRIDGE
Prior to the 17th century information concerning the physical description of Taunton Castle is mainly found in the pipe rolls of the...
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somersethistorian
Jun 25, 20233 min read
DORSET STRAYS IN SOMERSET QUARTER SESSIONS RECORDS, 1607-1700
In the Quarter Sessions order books for the county of Somerset covering the seventeenth century are a handful of cases relating to Dorset...
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somersethistorian
Jun 25, 20233 min read
AN UNUSUAL SKETCH BY HARRY FRIER, 1902
Harry Frier (1849-1921) was active as a painter primarily in the Taunton area from 1883.1 The vast majority of the topographic subjects...
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somersethistorian
Jun 25, 20233 min read
ONE OF THE REVEREND GEORGE HARBIN'S MANUSCRIPTS
Lot 1266 of the Morningthorpe Manor Country House Sale (held by Keys Fine Art Auctioneers, Palmers Lane, Aylsham, Norwich, NR11 6JA) on 8...
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somersethistorian
Jun 25, 202312 min read
SCANDINAVIAN LOCATION NAMES IN THE SEVERN SEA AND THE QUESTION OF THE PLOTNEYS ROCKS AT PORTISHEAD
This was a joint paper by myself and Professor Richard Coates. The formatting of the special characters has not worked but a complete...
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somersethistorian
Jun 24, 202317 min read
EXCHEQUER SPECIAL COMMISSIONS FOR SOMERSET & DORSET, 1558-1846
The following list was extracted in the 1990s from an old Deputy Keeper’s report on public records. The spelling in the report is erratic...
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somersethistorian
Jun 24, 202315 min read
ALEXANDER JETT, BISHOP PIERS AND THE PATRONAGE OF MARSTON BIGOT, SOMERSET
Introduction Prior to the outbreak of the civil war and the first armed conflict in Somerset at Marshall’s Elm, William Piers...
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somersethistorian
Jun 24, 20235 min read
ANOTHER SOMERSET “NOTES AND QUERIES” PUBLICATION
In volume 32 of S.D.N.Q., Christopher Elrington wrote about the different “notes and queries” that had been published in England.1 There...
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somersethistorian
Jun 24, 20239 min read
LUCCOMBE FARMERS AND CHEESE PRODUCERS, 1615-1640
An insight into the production, transport and purchase of cheese relating to the parish of Luccombe can be reconstructed from about 1615...
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