298 Notes on the History of Great Somerford. 
it to Mr. Edward Yate, of Minchinhampton, who charged it at once 
with an annual payment of £15 for the Dissenting Minister at 
Malmesbury. By his will it passed to Mr. Abraham Sperring, 
who, in 1735, sold it to Mr. Thomas Hobbes, of Malmesbury, by 
whom it was given and bequeathed to a nephew, Giles Bennett. 
Mr. John Pyke purchased the property from Mr. Giles Bennett in 
1758. The old messuage still remains, and is now the property of 
My. Joseph Hanks, and occupied by Mr. James Matthews. 
Gibbons’ Farm was purchased in 1765 from Mr. William Clarke, 
of Chipping Sodbury. It consisted of a messuage and about one 
hundred acres of land at Startley. The messuage is now replaced 
by two modern cottages. By a marriagé settlement of 1732 it 
appears that this property came to Mrs. Rachel Lofty from her 
mother, Mrs. Hester Arch, a daughter of Mr. Richard Gotley, 
merchant, of Bristol. By Mrs. Lofty’s will, dated 1750, the 
property passed to her niece, Miss Hester Pinnell, who afterwards 
married Mr. William Clarke,of Chipping Sodbury. Besides this land 
in Somerford Mr. John Pike had a property at Compton Bassett. 
His two elder sons dying unmarried the whole estate came to 
Mr. Thomas Pyke, the youngest son, who, early in the century, 
entirely re-built the house at the Bridge and made it his residence. 
This house is now owned by Lady Meux, and occupied by Mr. J. 
Cole. Mr. Thomas Pyke died in 1815, and his sons dying un- 
married the property passed on in 1888 to the children of his 
daughter Elizabeth, who married Mr. Josiah Hanks. Thus the 
name of Pyke in connection with the landed property of Somerford 
has disappeared after more than two hundred years. 
THE PARSLOES AND RANDELLS. 
With regard to the Parsloes, the first member of this family to 
reside in the parish was Mr. John Parsloe,? who in 1750, purchased 
from Mr. Richard Taylor, of Yatton Keynel, a messuage and land 
(at that time in the tenure, of Robert Vines) which had come to 
him through his marriage with Martha Alexander, a granddaughter 
‘The property was put up to sale in 1896 and the principal farm bought 
by Sir Henry Meux, Bart. 
? Of Rodbourne. 
