262 Notes on the History of Mere. 
after. These riotous proceedings must have been encouraged by 
persons in a higher station of life than those punished. An old 
lady lately residing at Bourton recollects a farmer’s son riding 
into the town every evening and blowing a horn, which was the 
signal given for the assemblage of a band of roughs, who proceeded 
to the commons and levelled the banks which had been erected 
during the day. This seems more unaccountable since the tract 
of land between Mere and Gillingham served only as a shelter 
to rogues and horse-stealers. 
TITHEs. 
Before the passing of the Tithe Commutation Act the tithes were 
often taken in kind. This led to continual squabbles. In 1841 
the Rev. Henry Wake, the Vicar, circulated the following state- 
ment :— 
“The Rev. Henry Wake was inducted into the vicarage of Mere in 1813. A 
surveyor was employed by him to value the vicarial tithes. His valuation was 
£513 per annum clear of all parochial assessments. The Commissioners under 
the Property Tax valued the vicarial tithes at £530. The valuation of the same 
property by the Commissioners under the Inclosure Act of Mere Common was 
£400 per annum. Mr. Wake authorised Mr. Chitty, of Shaftesbury, to make an 
offer of the vicarial tithes to the parishioners at £300 perannum. This offer 
was rejected. The property was in consequence collected in kind at considerable 
expense and loss. Mr. Wake then granted a lease of the property for seven 
years to a Mr. Dowbiggin, of Hextable Farm, in the county of Kent, at £400 
per annum. In 1821 this lease expired. The tithes were again offered to the 
parishioners at £300 per annum. This offer was not accepted, but the farmers 
in return made an offer of £200 per annum. Under the peculiar circumstances 
of the time (the spring being considerably advanced and the greater part of the 
lambs having fallen, which constitute a principal portion of the vicarial tithes) 
it was deemed prudent to accept the offer; when, to the great surprise of the 
vicar, the farmers of Mere refused to abide by their own offer, after such offer 
was accepted by the vicar, and forced him to collect the property in kind, which 
was effected at considerable expense and subsequent loss. At length, in 1824, 
Mr. Phillips, the principal landholder in Mere, obtained a composition from the 
parishioners of Mere of £260 per annum, secured to the vicar by a lease for a 
term of seven years, granted to Messrs. Phillips, Robert White, and John Burfit, 
which lease expired in 1831. In consequence of the depression in the price of 
agricultural produce Mr. Wake allowed an abatement of £10 per cent. during 
the last two years of the term, exclusive of which he relinquished his claim to 
the poor on the tithe of potatoes.” 
