S4d 



In 1599, 41 Eliz., 26th April, there was another trial regard- 

 ing the tithe from a piece of waste ground called Durn, alias 

 Thurmore, claimed by the plaintiffs as farmers of the vicarage of 

 Mark or Lyng, but claimed by the defendants as farmers to the 

 Dean of Wells, owner of the parsonage of Wedmore with the 

 chapel of Mark. The doubt was whether there was a parsonage 

 of Mark, and whether the said waste was in Mark, both being 

 denied by the defendants, who asserted that there was no rectory 

 of Mark but that it was only a chapel belonging to Wedmore, 

 that the waste was in Wedmore and that the tithes belonged to 

 Wedmore. The Court refused to decide the question, and 

 ordered that it should be tried by a jury at Common Law at the 

 next Somerset Assizes.* 



There is also record of a trial, about 1555, as between John 

 Fisher and John Chalcrost, for the possession of Barrowsham.t 



By an Act of 1774, and two others in 1781, several of the moors 

 were divided, allotted and enclosed, and so the common rights on 

 them must have ceased. 



Want of space forbids a more extended notice of this large 

 parish, but so far it can be seen in what direction search has been 

 made, for the smallest heli) towards an answer to the title 

 query. 



Returning then to this more immediate purpose the evidences 

 can now be finally considered, especially in connection with 

 the foundations existing. The occurrence of the thousandth 

 anniversary meeting was used as an opportunity for uncover- 

 ing these, as searching for some vestiges of Alfred's supposed 

 house. The result was the exposure of a long building of one 

 room, 95ft. by 39ft, and which apparently stood by itself; "it 

 may have been a bam, it may have been a hall." A little 

 removed from this are other foundations, one underground 



• Queen's Remembraacer, Orders and Decrees, Easter, 41 Eliz., No. 25. 

 i Chancery Proceedings, Bill and Answer, Miscellaneous, Series 3, part II. 



