322 Notes on the History of Mere. 
ZEALS TITHING. 
This tithing consists of the whole of the western side of the 
parish, and was originally composed of two manors, viz., Zeals 
Ailesbury, or Higher Zeals, and Zeals Clevedon, or Lower Zeals. 
The descent of these manors from early times till the advent of the 
Chafyn family was exhaustively detailed in an article by John 
Batten, Hsq., in this Magazine, vol. xxviii., pp. 208—210. 
We have previously stated that Zeals is now formed into a 
separate parish for both ecclesiastical and civil purposes. 
In 1258 Richard de Seles was one of the four knights re- 
turned for the County of Wilts. 
1292, Walter de Ailesbury had a grant of the manor of Over 
Seles from Edmund, Duke of Cornwall. 
1361, Thomas Lord Berkeley, died; he married for his second 
wife Catharine, daughter of Sir John Clivedon,! and by her had 
issue Sir John Berkeley, who married Elizabeth, daughter and heir 
of John Bettisthorne, of Chadenwich, from which union descended 
the Berkeleys of Beverston, in Gloucestershire. Sir John Berkeley 
was born 1351 and died 1418. 
1413, messuages in both Over Sells and Netherselles, as well as in 
Mere Woodlands, are named amongst the lands of William Lord 
Stourton, who died that year. 
“1558.  Sealys Aylesbury de manibus Regis et Reginz amovendis. De 
manerio de Sealys Aylesbury quod fuit Caroli nuper Domini Stourton de felonia 
attincti ac Thome Chafyn, arm. liberando Michelis recorda 4 et 5 Phil et Marie 
Rotul 193. Ibidem de Situ Monasterii de Sealys Aylesbury. (Hoare, Hund. 
of Mere, p. 201.) 
Domesday Book gives the earliest information we have of this 
manor :— 
*Tand of Gozelin Riveire. l 
“Gozelin Riveire holds sete of the King. Almar held it in the time of 
King Edward and it paid geld for 23 hides. The land is 3 carucates. In 
demesne is 1 carucate and 2 serfs; and there are 5 villans and 3 coscets, with 2 
carucates. There is a mill paying 40 pence and 3 acres of meadow. The pasture 
is 3 furlongs long and 3 broad. The wood is half a mile long and as much broad. 
It was and is worth 30 shillings.” 
1 The family of Clevedon was located at Zeals before the Chafyns. 
