By the Rev. F. H. Manley. 299 
of Mr. William Alexander, mentioned before. Mr. Alexander 
Parsloe enlarged the farm by purchases of land from Mr. John 
Pyke and the Jones family, relatives of the Pykes, but on his 
death, in 1808, his son John succeeded to and almost at once 
doubled the extent of the property by purchasing from the 
Marquess of Bath in 1810, for £2,470, “The manor of Broad 
Somerford,” the messuage and lands then in the occupation of 
William Sealey, about ninety acres, another messuage and lands 
in the occupation of Jacob Vines about twenty-five acres, and 
another messuage with ten acres of land. Mr. John Parsloe con- 
siderably improved Martha Alexander’s old farm house, and this 
is the house which, enlarged and altered by its various possessors 
since the beginning of the century, is now owned and occupied 
by Mrs. Charrington. “Fletchers” and other property came to 
Mr. John Parsloe through his marriage with Ann, daughter of Mr. 
Henry Heath. Mr. Parsloe died in 1848, and some years after 
almost all this property was sold, much of it passing into the hands 
of Mr. William Beak, who in 1858 obtained also the Randell’s 
property. In 1888 his son sold the greater part of these estates. 
Although the Randell family never possessed much land in the 
parish they claim some attention, because in the award they are 
recognised as possessing manorial rights. In 1775 Mr. William 
Randell, of Edgeworth, a brother-in-law of Mr. John Parsloe, 
purchased from Mr. John Timbrell, of Cirencester, who, himself, 
only two years before, had purchased it from the executors of Richard 
Serle, Esq., of Harley, county Berks, a messuage and some eighty 
acres of land, then late in the tenure of Philip Carpenter. This 
farm formed part of the Bruning estate of Somerford Bolles, other- 
‘wise Somerford Magna, and carried with it, as I have mentioned 
before, the charges and apparently the royalties of the manor, the 
‘courts of the manor being held in the farmhouse. Mr. Randell was 
apparently anxious to press his rights, and possibly no one thinking 
‘the matter worth very much, he was allowed in the award to be 
‘the lord of the fee. The property was sold by Mr. William 
Ri ndell’s grandson in 1850, and the house is that now owned and 
upied by Mrs. Benjamin Porter. 
