70 THOMAS GERARD OF TRENT. 



until 1576 ! Predecessor in both Surveys is used as an 

 equivalent to ancestor ; and the alliances in the Gerard 

 shield include the arms of Wells. So this reference is really 

 evidence for the Gerard authorship. John Gerard and John 

 Coker do not appear as clergy in any lists or registers ; and it 

 is quite probable that they were simply lay-lessees of the 

 rectorial tithes. Another personal reference is found under 

 Abbotsbury : " The bones of the founder are enclosed in a 

 dainty marble coffin, which I have often seen." Thomas 

 Gerard, as owner of Waddon in Portisham, the next parish to 

 Abbotsbury, had plenty of opportunities to see the ruins, 

 which a resident at Mappowder or Tincleton would not possess. 

 The scanty references to a Coker authorship are therefore 

 shown to be non-existent. 



Two difficulties have arisen from this incorrect description 

 of the Survey. The work has been so often referred to 

 under the name of Coker, that a change to Gerard for future 

 citations would involve an unnecessary amount of 

 confusion. The other, almost humorous, is the insertion in 

 the Dictionary of National Biography (Vol. XI., 251) of a 

 life of John Coker, which has to be regarded as a unique 

 instance of a ghost-name in that valuable work. 



