By the Rev. F. H. Manley. 



293 



his children and grandchildren became priests and nuns. He 

 died in 1706 at the patriarchal age of 98. The last of the family 

 was apparently George Bruning (S.J.) who died in 1802. 



The Thynne Manor. 

 (c) The family of the Thynnes, as far back as the reign of 

 Elizabeth, held some property in the parish, which they describe 

 by the name of their manor of Somerford Magna. Canon Jackson 

 considers that this is the property which formerly belonged to the 

 nuns of Kingston Priory. By a deed in the New Monasticon the 

 " Church of Somerford " was given to the nuns by Richard de 

 Heriet, who appears to have married a Maltravers. The nuns only 

 presented once, in 1324 At the time of the " Valor," their property 

 in the parish was valued at £2 2s. 4d., from which a chief rent of 

 Is. 6d. was paid to the Earl of Arundel. Their land was granted 

 in 1541 at the Dissolution to Sir Richard Long, of Draycote. In 

 " Particulars for Grant to Long," 33, Hen. VIII., Aug. Office, we 

 find " Prioratus nuper de Kyngton. Firma manerii de Somerford 

 cum reclditibus custumariorum tenendum ibidem et reclditu 18 

 gallorum et gallinarum per annum 65s. 4:d." In 1579 it appears 

 to have been transferred to Sir John Thynne. In some Chancery 

 proceedings in the reign of Elizabeth, John Thynne, as plaintiff, is 

 described to be the son and heir of Sir John Thynne, who in his 

 lifetime was seized of numerous manors, among them of Somerford 

 Magna, and in some other proceedings between Robert Glyde and 

 Philip Batten the former claims under a lease contracted for with 

 reference to " a messuage and land in Somerford Magna the in- 

 heritance of John Thynne, Esq., and agreed by him to be demised 

 to the plaintiff." Sir John Thynne died in 1580. In the " Inq. 

 post mort." of his grandson, Sir Thomas Thynne, who died in 1639, 

 taken at Cirencester in 1647, we learn that he was seized of the 

 " Manor of Somerford Magna als Maltravers als Broad Somerford, 

 this being held of the King in chief by ith part of a knight's fee 

 and is worth per annum clear 40s." I cannot find that the Thynnes 

 held more than three farms ; but with these they connected " All 

 that manor or lordship reputed manor or lordship of Somerford alias 



