The History of the Parish and Manor of Wokey, etc

Preface

. 'PHE following little work is an attempt to give to the parishioners of AYookey such information about the place in which they live as I have been able to gather together since I came amongst them. It does not indeed amount to very much, and yet I venture to think that it may be useful in working out the history of the parishes in tlie neighbourhood. For as their history, which is recorded in Phelps and Collinson, helped me to move a step further in the history of AArookey, so this advance on the County Historians may help others towards fresh discoveries. When I came here, six years ago, I naturally desired to learn all I could of the past history of the place. My first work was a careful study of our Registers. These begin with the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and are continuous down to the present time.

I next copied out the Title Deeds and Lease Indentures of the church endowments, and was by their help enabled to go back from Elizabeth to Richard the Second's time. On comparing these I found that I had some information concerning the families of AVookey for the last five centuries. I could tell the names of some of those who were living here during that time, and that, of course, was something worth the knowing. And in addition I found that there were evidences here in our Records of Wookey of nearly all the Common Fields and AVaste Lands of the parish. Then tine Episcopal Registers at AA*ells provided me with information concerning the Church and the A'icars, and the Cathedral Records gave me the list of Rectors and also details of one or two of the Rectorial Leases in the 16th century.

Then the Close Rolls and Patent Rolls at the Record office, as well as the Bishop's Temporalities' Papers and the Lay Subsidy Papers , provided me with the lists of Lords of the Manor, the sale of the Church Lands and the names of many more of the inhabitants at different periods. The Hutton MSS. at the British Museum were specially useful in helping me to find several interesting facts concerning our parish, which facts I afterwards verified by studying the Original Registers themselves at AVells. But of all the sources of informxtior, other than those here in AArookey, none were so useful as the many Court Rolls of the Manors of the Bishops of Bath and AVells, which are now preserved at the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth. The second chapter in this book will shew to what a large extent I am indebted to them.

Nearly all the customs of the Manor in the 15th century, a large number of the villeins, and a good list of field names I obtained from their study, and with them my search, practically, came to an end. These were the principal sources

PREFACE.

. of the information that this work contains. Now it is clear that the history of a parish would be incomplete unless it gave some account of the history of the lands of a parish. AVe ought to be able to say as we stand in any field in the place whether that field formed part of the manor or was glebe land of the church from immemorial times ; and not only this, but also to say whether it was part of the Common Fields of the settlement or of the waste lands, or moors that have been enclosed and apportioned within well known periods. But this is not enough. AAre ought to be able to trace the history of the owners of the land, and the changes of ownership that have taken place. We ought to be able to state something at any rate generally as to the tenants of the lands from time to time. AVho were the villein tenants in the days of villenage ?

AVho were the principal leaseholders when the days of villenage had passed away ? Of course we cannot say who occupied a particular plot of land, for, except certain well known plots around a well known house, all other lands would be grouped under the head of the common lands. A villein would have so many half -acre strips in the East Field, and so many in the AVest, and so many in the North Field. These strips would be defined as lying between those of other known villeins. The Rector's property in the East Field is described simply as that which lay between two strips of the bishop. Naturally in time these strips would become well known, and each house would have attached to it a fixed number of strips in each of the common fields and definite rights on the Lammas Meadows and on the AA"aste Lands.

But, at first, each set of strips would be allotted among the tenants according to some recognised arrangement, and at one of the quarterly hall-motes of the Manor. On this account we cannot easily say who it was that at any par ticular period occupied any definite set of fields or strips of lands ; but our hall-mote minutes help us very materially in telling the names^of the principal inhabitants from the 14th century down to the present time. And the information we may glean from them is to this effect, that a very large percentage of the present residents of AVookey is in direct descent from the tenants of the manor, and apparently from those tenants that were in a state of villenage. And this can hardly be otherwise since no great 'commercial enterprise has caused any sudden increase of the population.

When men were living in villenage they had not the power to change their residence, and when those days of villenage were over, if a man was successful in his farming, there was no reason for him to change, and if he had sunk into poverty the overseers of other parishes took good care thai; he should not move away from the place where he was domiciled. The information then which I have collected here will shew, 1 venture to think, that the history of our parish is one of gradual progress from an earlier social state. There are no blank pages. There are few periods of rest or retrogade motion. We cannot sever the church from the manor, or the manor from the tenants on

PREFACE.

. III it ; the church, which, in earlier days, was probably built by the lord of the manor, is in turn enriched by the offerings of his tenants. The villeins of the 14th century became the Church Trustees and the Church AArardens of the 16th century. It is this oneness of our history that I hope will be evident to those who read this little book. One remark it is necessary to make on the spelling of the names of the inhabitants. In the first of the two indices, every name is placed in its proper position according to its spelling. It must not be supposed that on this account I regard the various spellings as denoting various persons. If I had stopped at some particular time, I might have come to some decision on the spelling, and made that spelling uniform through the book. But this I found to be more difficult than I cared to undertake, and especially so since we go on from our earlier notices down to the present day.

I have therefore adhered to this rule, that wherever I quoted a document I gave the exact spelling of the name in that document, and I leave to the reader the duty of deciding whether the contemporary varieties of names belong to one or to different individuals. In hardly any case will a difficulty arise. It is vain to regret that my information was not fuller and more perfect. No one would have rejoiced more than the writer had it been so ; and yet what is here recorded proves that even a little country village has a history which is worth knowing, and therefore worth writing. I have to thank many friends for valuable hints, and among them I must mention especially, the Rev. J. T. Fowler, of Durham, the Rev. H. B. Hyde, of St. Mary, Newington, and Mr. F. H. Dickinson, of Kingsweston. ERRATA.

Page 33, line 25, for liberationem read liberacione. ,, 34 ,, 9, perhaps C/yvedon is the proper reading. ,, 39 ,, 27, for Huchyus read Huchyns. „ 90 „ 29, for Allwell read Attwell. 122 „ 19, 20, & 22, for Duffe read Luffe. ,, ,, 23, for Were read Weare. CONTENTS. Chapter I. page General History of the Parish. - I Chapter II. Histoiy of the Manor and the Manor House - 22 Chapter III. History of the Church, the Church Plate, Parish Chests, the Church Bells, and the Free Chapel of Henton .... 71 Chapter IV. History of the Rectory and List of the Rectors - - - . 79 Chapter V. History of the Vicarage and List of the Vicars - 89 Chapter VI. An Account of the Church Registers and List of the Churchwardens, Clerks and Sextons .... - : - 102 Chapter VII. An Account of the Ecclesiastical and Parochial Endowments - 115 Chapter VIII. A List of Field Names of the Parish, with occasional Notes - 126 Chapter IX. Some Notes and Pedigrees of former Wookey Families - -

Chapter I. History Of The Parish

JTTHE parish of Wookey cannot claim that charter of antiquity which a reference in King William's Great Survey gives to some of its more favoured but less interesting companions. But as we can account for the omission, there is no very great reason why we should distress ourselves on that score. In 1065 Edward the Confessor gave to Bishop Giso fifty hides of land in the neighbourhood of Wells as an endowment for himself and the church of St. Andrew. These fifty hides of land amount now to some 21,988 acres, and include the whole of the present parish of Wells, with portions of Binegar and Binder, and the whole of the parishes of Wookey and Priddy. But in the time of Giso much of this consisted of barren hill and moorland, and more than a thousand acres was wood or forest land, and not one half was good arable or pasture land.

The whole of it was called the territory or manor of Wells, and in it our parish was hidden. There is, however, a charter which claims to be original, and which pro bably is a copy of an earlier one, which gives the details of this gift of Edward to Giso.1 It records the existence of fifty hamlets or wicks within the territory of Wells, and mentions six of the present districts of our parish, viz., Woky, Henton, Gyrdleg, Bledenhyth, Wokyhole and Æbbewyrth. The parish now consists of 3,421 acres of arable and pasture land. It derives its name from the great natural cave in the southern slope of the Mendip hills, from which issue the waters of the river Axe. The word Wookey is probably derived from Wocob or Wocov, which is equivalent to the present Welsh word " gogof " or " ogo," a cave.2 On the east and north-east the parish is bounded by the river Axe, and a straight line drawn from the Hole at Wookey hole northwards towards Priddy Church.

This eastern boundary 1 Kemble, Cod. Dipl. 816. - c. f. " AVookey," chap. ix. B Wookey*. of the parish is worthy of notice, because, as the late Dr. Guest1 conjectured, it seems for a time to have been the boundary between the Saxon kingdom of Ceawlin and the British kingdoms of Conmael and Kyndylan. In 577 Ceawlin conquered these kings at the battle of Deorham, and seized all the Mendip land west of a line drawn from Wookey-hole to Bath, being bounded on the south by the Axe in its course from Wookey to the sea. Thus while Wookey was part of the land of the Saxons, Wells was in the hands of the British and the river Axe has the fame of being the border river between the English and the Welsh from the year 577 to 658, and in that year Cenwealh, by his victory at Pen, extended the boundary of the West Saxon kingdom to the river Parrett.

As the Axe turns westward and meets the bishop's demesne land near the church, the parish crosses the river and stretches south to the mill stream. It then crosses over the western half of Ben Knowle, and skirts the moor as far as Castle, which is its southmost limit. It then takes a turn westward, and includes portions of the moors south of Henbury and Callow hill as far as Beggarly-leaze. Here turning northward, and clinging to the high ground that looks westward over Bleadon hay Causeway, it joins the mill-stream, and keeps along its eastern bank until the river Axe is met again in Knowle moor, near Marchay. Here turning eastward, it follows the southern bank of the Axe as far as Knowle Bridge and Hornsmead, where it strikes across the moor north of Barley Batch, and mounting the high ground above Stroud, dips down again under Greenland's Bush and over Marley Mead, northward up the west side of Ebbor to the neighbourhood of Priddy Church.

These are the present limits of the parish, but in the time of William the Conqueror and Bishop Giso all the moorland was more or less a swamp and useless, and the land that was capable of being cultivated was to be found only on the slopes of the hills and the high ground near the church, or above Yarley and Henley. From Trenley to the river, and as far west as Knowle, there was a waste and swampy moor. Knowle Hill was isolated, i Guest, Orig. Celt. 2, 242. and it was not always easy to get to it over Wet-moor from Yarley. In the bishops' time, and up to the year 1548, in the reign of Edward VI., the greater part of this was waste land, belonging to the bishops as lords of the manor of Wookey unenclosed, but reserved for him and his tenants to place on it any of their live stock. The name of Preywater marks the spot to which once a year the cattle and sheep were brought for identification ; and marking as it does the eastern limit of one of the common lands, it shews how the houses of Wookey were crowded round the church and the manor house, and were separated from the hamlets of Wookey hole and Yarley by common fields and waste lands.

Oare marks the boundary of the Yarley hamlet, and from there to the manor house no other building existed. Lin-moor tells us of the time when Knowle-moor had not been drained and enclosed, and when, to the west of it the ground was too dangerous for cattle to be allowed to stray on it. Now when mentioning the common lands of Wookey, care must be taken to distinguish between such as was waste land and such as was held in common by the lord of the manor and his customary tenants. And it must be borne in mind that the waste lands were gradually changing into the common pasture, meadow or arable lands. In title deeds of the 16th and 17th century, belonging to the church, several of these are mentioned. As far as Wookey was concerned, these common fields referred to, are called the West field, the Northfield, and the Eastfield.

Whether the Eastfield was one portion of ground, or was the name given to several plots of common land, I cannot say. But all the southern slopes of Henley hill were in it, and it extended as far as Buttice lane. All the land in front of Eastcourt House was in it. In 1438 we find the rectors of Wookey in possession of a strip of this land, viz., that which at present is part of the vicarial glebe, and as usual it is described between two similar strips belonging to the Bishops of Bath and Wells, one on either side of it. Judging from this one, and supposing all the strips were about the same size, each strip would contain about two acres. The Westfield was bounded by the river on the south, and the road n AA'ookey. to Knowl hill on the north, and stretched from the village as far as the meeting point of the river and the road.

The Northfield comprised all the land north-west of Henley hill, and was bounded on the east by Hurst batch, on the north by Wurt hill, and on the west by Easton hill. It included the land known as Marley mead and Gagley mead. These were the common fields of Wookey. But in addition to these there were common fields for the inhabitants of Yarley and of Wookey-hole. For Yarley there was the land around Worth, which was commonly called Worth field, and on the hill above there were the arable fields called Goarway field and Sheaf field, together with the greater part of the lord's overland. Wookey-hole seems to have made use of Marley mead. Of course the customary tenants of the Dean and Chapter of Wells, living as they did on the other side of the river, had for the most part to find pasture and arable land in the out parish of S. Cuthbert.

In addition to these common fields, there were the waste lands for each hamlet, and into these the tenants would turn their pigs and stock cattle. The waste land for Wookey was over Trenley and Rushlands, and probably also the land south of the river as far as Oare and Wester's grave. For Yarley there was Lin moor, Wet-moor, and those fields called Mylham, near the bridge at Monksford, which are referred to, as late as 1770, as being in the waste ground of Wookey. This system, by which each house in the manor would have certain strips of common land attached to it, dates from a very early period of English history, and was admirably adapted at first for giving every man an interest in the cultivation of the ground. But practically as early as the 14th century the strips in the common fields, the virgates and half virgates of the customary tenants, were bought and sold and bequeathed as if they were freeholds, and without reference to any house in the parish.

Oxenleaze, north-west of Knowl farm, seems to have been part of the enclosed land attached to that house. Durinothe 17th century other portions of the waste lands were enclosed * and among them we may include those moor lands which are called Hornsmead, Ash-moor, Beggarly-leaze, as well as Wet-moor. The enclosure itself was gradual and inevitable, and began as early as the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The lord of the manor would have a greater right over the waste lands and moor lands of the parish than he would over the common fields, and this right being more or less undefined, would be purchased by the leaseholders for a nominal sum. In 1782 the final enclosure took place. The manor had been sold in separate lots a few years previously, and as there were no customary tenants, neither was there any lord of the manor.

Consequently a dispute soon arose as to the ownership of the common rights of the remaining moors within the parish, and, to settle the dispute, commissioners were appointed by a private Act of Parliament to apportion and assess the reclaimed land among the freeholders of the parish. This was not uncommon about that time, and in many parishes the moors were now enclosed and allotted. Out of the 1,192 acres of new land, the old freeholders of Wookey got 640 acres. A new road, called Dursden road, was made from Rodney Stoke to Old Down through that part of Wookey which was in the old forest of Mendip. The moors that were then enclosed are now known as Knowle-moor, Bleadeney-moor, Ash-moor, Godney-moor, Beggarly-leaze, Hay moor, and Rowden's moor. The river Axe was the source of some wealth to the bishops.

William of Worcester visited this neighbourhood with Symon Simeon about the year 1470, and gives a description of the fishes to be caught in it, and the controversy which had arisen between Bishop Bekynton and the people of Wells concerning the right of fisliing. He confounds, however, the Croscombe water, which runs past Wells, and past Castle, and joins the Brue below Meare, with the Axe which runs through Knowle-moor, and has its own outlet into the sea a little north of Brean Down. He enume rates the following fishes as being caught by the Wells people, and probably the same catalogue will answer for both rivers. They were trout, bull-heads or miller's thumbs, loach, small pike, perch or sticklebacks, crayfish, eels and flounders. The wonders of the cave at Wookey-hole seem to have especially struck him, Wookey. 6 his account of it being as follows : — " Below the parish at Wookey " hole, about half a mile from Wells, there is a certain narrow " entrance (into the rock) where at the beginning is an image of " a man who goes by the name of the porter, and it is the duty " of the people who desire to enter the hall of Woky to ask " permission of the porter, and they carry in their hands torches, " which are called in English ' shevys of reed-sedge,' for the "purpose of lighting up the hall.

The hall is about as large " as Westminster Hall, and there hangs from the vaulted roof " wonderful pendula of stone. The passage from the entrance " to the hall is about half a furlong long, and is arched with " stones of plane work hanging down from the roof. And there " is a certain broad piece of water between the ' tresance ' and " the hall for the distance of five stepping stones, which stepping " passage is about twenty feet wide, and if a man goes beyond " the stepping stones he falls into the water, which is on all sides " about five or six feet deep. " There is a kitchen in a chamber near the entrance to the " hall of an immense breadth, and roofed in stone. There is " also a chamber called an ost, for the purpose of drying barley "grain to make beer, &c, and the figure of a woman is there " clad, and holding in her girdle a spinning distaff.

" And thence people pass on about a hundred paces, and a " man may go along it with dry feet over the stones. And " then the chamber called the parlour follows, which is a round " apartment built of huge rocks, about twenty paces broad, and " in the northern part of the said parlour there is what is called " in English a ' holie-hole,' and in the said well, which is fairly " arched over, there is abundance of the clearest water, the depth " of which water no one is able to say. Moreover, from the said "Woky-hole comes forth a great torrent, which runs into the " mere, near Glastonbury, for the space of two miles." In addition to this account by William of Worcester, there are two more descriptions given by 17th century antiquaries, which are more or less interesting. Camden, in his Britannia, says, "Among these hills, i.e. the Mendip hills, there is a cave or den far within the ground, wherein are to be seen certain pits and riverets.

The place they call Ochie-hole, whereof the inhabitants feign no fewer tales, nor devise less dotages than the Italians did of their Sibyl's cave in the mountain Apenninus. The name no doubt grew of 0»o, a British word that betokeneth a den " Drayton (1G12), in his Polyolbion, a poetical description of the w*onders of England, says — " Yet Ochie's dreadful hole still held herself disgrac't AYith th' wonders of this isle that she should not be plac'd But that which vext her most, was, that the Peakish Cave Before her darksome self such dignity should have And th' Wyches for their saltes such dignities should take Or Cheshire should prefer her sad death boding lake And Stonendge in the world should get so high respect AVhich imitating art but idly did erect. We must not forget to add that Clement of Alexandria early in the third century, is supposed by some to refer to this cave in a well-known passage of the Stromata.

Writing there of the thunders of Sinai and the Jewish records of God's appearances to Moses and the prophets, he says that these records were copied by the Greeks, and to prove that God is everywhere, he records several mysterious phenomena, and then says, " JL^yoi'oi 8. nal oi ras laropla. GWTa^dixevoi, dp-ipi tt\v T-peTavviK-qv vrjtjov dvrpof Ti virOKeip._vov 6pei' _iri de ttj_ Kopviprjs x^M11' ep-ivt-KTOVTOs. ovv toi avtfxov eis t6 dvrpov, Kal irpo_-p-q-)Vvp._vov rois koXitois toss 6puyfj.a.TO_, Ki'/xj3d\tssv evpi'd/xtss. Kpovo- IsUvtsiv Hz&KoveaOai." Ed. Potter. 756. Now it will probably have been noticed that hitherto I have said nothing about the celebrated witch of Wookey-hole. Neither Camden or Drayton say anything about her, but William of Worcester records the existence of a stalagmite within the cavern, which may be described as the figure of a woman, clad and holding in her girdle a spinning distaff.

This natural forma tion gave rise, I think, to the legend of the witch, and was not observed after a previous knowledge of that legend. The earliest record of it that I can find is the poem by Dr. Harrington, of Bath, which was written by him about 1748, and first published in AVookey*. 1756, in a volume called " Euthemia, or the Power of Harmony." A version of it is given by Bishop Percy in his Reliques of English Poetry, and is as follows : — ' ' In anciente days tradition showes, A base and wicked elf arose, The Witch of Wokey hight : Oft have I heard the fearful tale From Sue, and Roger of the vale, On some long winter's night. Deep in the dreary dismal cell, Which seemed and was ycleped hell, This blear-eyed hag did hide : Nine wicked elves, as legends sayne, She chose to form her guardian trayne, And kennel near her side.

Here screeching owls oft made their nest, While wolves its craggy sides possess, Night howling through the rock ; No wholesome herb could there be found ; She blasted every plant around, And blistered every flock. Her haggard face was foul to see ; Her mouth unmeet a mouth to bee Her eyne of deadly leer ; She nought devised but neighbour's ill, She wreaked on all her wayward will, And marred all goodly cheer. All in her prime have poets sung, No gaudy youth, gallant and young, E'er blest her longing armes : And hence arose her spight to vex, And blast the youth of either sex, By dint of hellish charms. From Glaston came a lerned wight, Full bent to marr her fell despight, And well he did, I ween : Sich mischief never had been known, And, since his mickle lerninge shown, Sich mischief ne'er has been.

He chauntede out his godlie booke, He crost the water, blest the brooke Then — pater noster done, The ghastly hag he sprinkled o'er ; When lo ! where stood a hag before Now stood a ghastly stone. Full well 'tis known adown the dale, Tho' passing strange indeed the tale, And doubtful may appear, I'm bold to say, there's never a one, That has not seen the witch in stone, With all her household gear. But tho' this lerned clerke did well ; With grieved heart, alas ! I tell She left her curse behind : That Wokey nymphs forsaken quite, Tho' sense and beauty both unite, Should find no leman kind. For lo ! even, as the fiend did say, The sex have found it to this day, That men are wondrous scant ; Here's beauty, wit, and sense combined, With all that's good and virtuous join'd, Yet hardly one gallant.

Shall then sich maids unpitied moane ? They might as well, like her, be stone, As thus forsaken dwell. Since Glaston now can boast no clerks ; Come down from Oxenford, ye sparks, And oh ! revoke the spell. Yet stay, nor thus despond, ye fair Virtue's the god's peculiar care ; I hear the gracious voice : Your sex shall soon be blest again, We only wait to find sich men, As best deserve your choice. Now the word " witch " or " wych" means a hole or break in the rocks, and to this day it is used for the cavern or basin, out of which the river Axe flows, and old inhabitants still speak of the "Wookey -hole-witch," three words all having the same signification, as " the hole " from which the water issues, and so clearly preserve the original sense of the word. About a mile from Wookey-hole the river is diverted from its natural bed and kept in an artificial channel on the high ground for the purpose of acting as a mill stream.

This diversion is of great antiquity, but I have not been able as yet to find any account of its formation. Whether any of the four mills that the bishop had on his demesne at this time of Domesday is represented now by the Burcot or Bledeney mills, is a question AA'ookey. 10 well worthy of research, the answer to which I shall make every effort to discover. The water from this stream was used to fill the moat around the manor house, and therefore the aqueduct is anterior to the fortifying of the house. What I know about the mills I will mention in the history of the manor. We come then to the second peculiarity of Wookey, which seemed worthy of notice by 16th and 17th century antiquaries. If William of Worcester, in 1470, and Camden in 1610, and Drayton in his Polyolbion in 1612, are struck with the wonders of Wookey-hole, Leland, in 1546, and William of Worcester also before him are careful to mention the ancient earthwork at Castle.