By T. H. Baker. 285 
south wall of the nave record this work, and the following entry is 
in the churchwardens’ book :— 
“Paid to Mr. Stokes who undertook the south side of o' parish church to 
secure it being likely to fall, and took it downe and raised it up again for 
y® sum of £124 0 0.” 
He came from Yorkshire, and married Dorothy, daughter of 
Mrs. Bishop, who lived in the manor house at Burton, which had 
previously been occupied by Christopher Aubrey. Mrs. Bishop 
died in 1711. He owned Burton Farm and Knoll, the latter 
probably as copyholder under the Duchy, besides other property 
in the town. His wife pre-deceased him, and by his will (dated 
1730) he gave all his property to a distant relative, Elizabeth 
Farrer, who by her will (dated 1753) bequeathed all her property 
to Thomas Ellis, shopkeeper of Mere, and a cousin, John Farrer, 
of London, to the exclusion of her nearer relatives. John Farrer 
soon became bankrupt, and the property was dispersed. 
John Hardcastle is believed to have been a near relative of the 
Rey. Thomas Hardcastle, of Yorkshire, who left the Church in 
1666, and became the minister of a Baptist community in Bristol. 
He suffered imprisonment two or three times for Nonconformity. 
Cates PERFECT, 
who held the living from 1734 to 1744, was brother of Robert 
Perfect, Esq., M.D., who practised as a surgeon and physician at 
Wincanton, and was the son of a gentleman who is said to have 
lost all his money in the South Sea Bubble and subsequently 
emigrated to the United States. Robert Perfect, of Wincanton, 
had a son, William, who practised as M.D. at Bath, and whose son, 
Robert, of Woolston House, Somerset, was J.P. and D.L. of that 
county, and some time M.P. for Lewes, Sussex. There are three 
sons of the last-named Robert Perfect who are beneficed clergymen 
of the Church of England in the present day, one of whom still 
preserves his connection with the county of Somerset as Vicar of 
tanton Drew, and who has kindly furnished the above information. 
The following entry is in the Mere register : — 
“Rev. Caleb Perfect was buried December y® 29th, 1743.” 
VOL. XXIX.—NO, LXXXVIII. x 
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