304 Notes on the History of Great Somerford. 
of 6s. 8d. In 1721 a lease was granted to Elizabeth Cutts on her 
life for £18, and reserved rent of 6s. 8¢. In 1732, Elizabeth Cutts 
being still alive, a lease was granted to her son Thomas Aland on 
his own life, and that of Thomas Alsop, then six years old, for 
which he paid £30. He was not to enter on the tenancy until the 
death of Elizabeth Cutts, and then to pay annual rent—6s.8d. In 
1774, Thomas Alsop being dead, Thomas Aland applied for a new 
lease on lives of himself, his son Thomas, and daughter Ann, which 
was granted on payment of eight guineas. In 1808, Thomas Aland 
and his sister, Ann Turtle, being still alive, the former was allowed, 
on payment of £35, to insert in the lease the life of his daughter, 
then eleven years of age. However, in 1827, Ann Turtle was the 
only survivor of the lessees, and she being 87 years of age, was 
living in the cottage, then in a ruinous and dangerous state. <A 
vestry meeting was accordingly held, and an arrangement come to 
with Ann Turtle to give up possession of the cottage on certain 
conditions. At the same vestry it was resolved to take down the 
greater part of the old dwelling-house and erect on the premises a — 
good and substantial house, large enough for receiving the Sunday 
and weekly parish school—each person present at the said vestry 
agreeing to forward the building by subscription in money or by _ 
the use of their teams for drawing materials for the same. The — 
house was fully completed and finished according to a contract | 
made with William Tilton, and every expense for the same had 
been duly paid before the end of 1828. Since that time, or rather 
since the death of Ann Turtle, in 1832, the whole of the proceeds _ 
of “St. Mary Lands,” have been used for the benefit of the village : 
school. The building was considerably enlarged in 1850, and again 
in 1870, when the Education Acts came into force. Some five 
years ago the school buildings were once more enlarged, and 
various improvements made to meet the demands of the Education 
Department. 
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 
The first notice I have found of the Church is in the “ Taxatio 
Ecclesiasticus” of Pope NicholasIV.,about 1290. There the “Keclesia 
