THE SILK INDUSTRY IN WESSEX. 93 



the person of Simon Pretor, who also filled the the office of 

 postmaster. His name occurs in 1786 in connection with a 

 transaction such as I have just described, and it is evident 

 that in the next year William Willmott kept an account with 

 the " Sherborne and Dorsetshire Bank," although the old 

 method of procuring wages-money still continued. 



Simon Pretor came to Sherborne from Lyme Regis in the 

 middle ot the eighteenth century and established the Bank 

 in his house in Long-street. His partners were his three 

 sons-in-law, Richard Pew, Samuel Whitty, and Samuel Gill, 

 the firm being known as Pretor, Pew and Whitty (cf. 

 Proceedings vol. XXIX p. 83). After the death of Richard 

 Pew without issue, Samuel Whitty took into partnership 

 his son-in-law Benjamin Chandler, the style then being 

 altered to Pretor and Chandler. The firm remained un- 

 changed until 1850, when the National Provincial Bank 

 absorbed the old institution and continued the business in 

 the original house. Mr. S. Whitty Chandler, to whom the 

 Field Club is indebted for the collection of Sherborne 

 documents, is a direct descendant of Simon Pretor. 



LAW. 



There are several attorney's, or, as we should now say, 

 solicitor's bills for law costs. Samuel Foot acted as the 

 adviser of William Willmott in 1769, and John Foot was 

 Thomas Willmott 's lawyer in 1794. A quaint feature of 

 these bills is the inclusion of sundry items for oats and barley 

 supplied to the client, and entered alongside the fee for 

 preparing a conveyance or a lease. 



