294 Notes on the History of Mere. 
lord chief justice of the Exchequer, Sir John Archer, one of the justices of Com. 
Pleas, and to Thomas Freek, Esq., high sheriff of Dorsetshire. 
“* Go in Peace,’ containing some brick directions to young Ministers in Grek 
Visitation of the Sick, useful for the People in their State both of Health and 
Sickness, Lond. 1674, in large 12mo. 
“* Mary Magdalene’s Tears wiped off; or the Voice of Peace to an unquiet 
conscience, &c. Lond., 1676, octavo, written by way of letter to a person of 
quality, and published for the comfort of those that mourn in Zion. He hath 
written other things fit for the press, which perhaps may in time see light. At 
length this worthy divine dying at Compton Chamberlayne before mentioned, on 
the third day of Novemb., in sixteen hundred, ninety and three, was buried in 
the chancel of the Church there, leaving then behind him the character among 
those that well know him of a modest, learned divine, and altogether fitting of 
a greater station in the church than he enjoyed after the restoration of his 
Majesty King Charles II. &c., as I have been informed by that primitive 
christian, faithful and generous friend, Nich. Martin, master of arts, and vice- 
principal of Hart-hall, near of kin to the said John Martin.’” 
Mr. Martin, of Stour Provost, having referred Sir Richard Hoare 
to this memoir, remarked that :— 
“although he is there said to have had but little to keep him at the time of his 
death yet the court-roll of Gillingham proves he had a tolerable estate there, 
and Mr. M. is happy to say it is now (1823) in the possession of a great-grand- 
daughter of the celebrated Hugh Grove, of Chisenbury, and who is the widow 
of a great-grandson of the above John Martin.” 
Some brief memoranda of John Martin were printed in 1868 by 
his descendant Albinus Martin, Esq., of Windsor. 
Tuomas Norris, 
born at Mere in 1741, was a well-known tenor singer. He com- 
posed a chant used for the Magnificat. He died in Staffordshire, 
1790. 
“On the 3d. inst. died at Himley, the seat of Lord Viscount Dudley and 
Ward, Mr. Norris of Oxford, Bachelor of Music, whose professional abilities 
have been long known and admired. He was a native of Mere in this county, 
formerly a chorister of our cathedral, and pupil of the late Dr. Stephens, of this 
city. As a singer Mr. Norris justly held the first place in the Oratorio depart- 
ment; and that superiority in opening the Messiah and some other pieces he 
maintained to his last public appearance. To an excellent tenor voice, Mr. N. 
added great musical knowledge, and a most exquisite taste. For some time he 
had been afflicted with an illness which occasionally was so violent as considerably 
to obstruct him in his professional engagements. At the Abbey Music, such was — 
his debility that he could not hold the book from which he sung, his whole frame 
was agitated by a nervous tremour, and the insufticiency of his voice evidently 
