By the Rev. F. H. Manley. 301 
_ Somerford, from Mr. Richard Bruning in 1713 for £112, together with 
land called “ Boardlands,”! part of the manor of Broad Somerford. 
The whole property is described as “the messuage with close ad- 
joining one and a-half acres; a field called ‘Crofts,’ four acres; 
another called ‘Heath, three acres ; two and a-half acres of arable in 
Westfield, two acres of arable in Broadfield, two acres of arable in 
Downtield, twenty pieces of meadow land lying dispersed in the 
common meadow called ‘ Broadmeadow,’ amounting to eight acres, 
and commons for two beastes in the common called ‘ Cowleaze.’” 
We seem here to have a very ancient holding. Mr. Richard Sarjeant 
had already in 1692 purchased a messuage with eleven acres of 
land, late the property of Mr. Aske. — This house, “Hoskyn’s 
-messuage,” I believe, passed to his son Richard, was sold in 
1763 to Mr. John Bishop, passed on in 1814 to Mr. Handy, of 
Rodbourne, and is now owned and occupied by Mr. T. Gibbs2 
“Serjeant’s” passed to his son Thomas, who left the property 
between his brother John and nephew John Leonard. The 
former, in 1777, sold his share to John Leonard, who, dying 
in 1792, again divided the property between his sons. After 
this the homestead became separated from the land, which, no 
doubt, for many centuries had been attached to it. There is a 
tablet in the Church to the memory of Richard Leonard, one of the 
sons of John, and of Sarah, his wife. 
St. Mary LAnps. 
One other very small property is that called the “St. Mary 
Lands Estate,” on part of which the school stands. The name 
suggests that this once belonged to “St. Mary’s Priory,” Kington 
lands in the parish of Somerford Magna, to John Herbert, of 
London, gent., and Andrew Palmer, citizen and goldsmith, of 
1! Vide “ Jones’s Domesday for Wiltshire,” p. \xi. 
2 Who has been clerk for over fifty years. 
