298 Notes on the History of Great Sorrier ford. 



it to Mr. Edward Yate, of Minchinhampton, who charged it at once 

 with an annual payment of £15 for the Dissenting Minister at 

 Malmesbury. By his will it passed to Mr. Abraham Sperring, 

 who, in 1735, sold it to Mr. Thomas Hobbes, of Malmesbury, by 

 whom it was given and bequeathed to a nephew, Giles Bennett. 

 Mr. John Pyke purchased the property from Mr. Giles Bennett in 

 1758. The old messuage still remains, and is now the property of 

 Mr. Joseph Hanks, and occupied by Mr. James Matthews. 



Gibbons' Farm was purchased in 1765 from Mr. William Clarke, 

 of Chipping Sodbury. It consisted of a messuage and about one 

 hundred acres of land at Startley. The messuage is now replaced 

 by two modern cottages. By a marriage settlement of 1732 it 

 appears that this property came to Mrs. Eachel Lofty from her 

 mother, Mrs. Hester Arch, a daughter of Mr. Eichard Gotley, 

 merchant, of Bristol. By Mrs. Lofty 's will, dated 1750, the 

 property passed to her niece, Miss Hester Pinnell, who afterwards 

 married Mr. William Clarke, of Chipping Sodbury. Besides this land 

 in Somerford Mr. John Pike had a property at Compton Bassett. 



His two elder sons dying unmarried the whole estate came to 

 Mr. Thomas Pyke, the youngest son, who, early in the century, 

 entirely re-built the house at the Bridge and made it his residence. 

 This house is now owned by Lady Meux, and occupied by Mr. J. 

 Cole. Mr. Thomas Pyke died in 1815, and his sons dying un- 

 married the property passed on in 1888 to the children of his 

 daughter Elizabeth, who married Mr. Josiah Hanks. 1 Thus the 

 name of Pyke in connection with the landed property of Somerford 

 has disappeared after more than two hundred years. 



The Parsloes and Eandells. 

 With regard to the Parsloes, the first member of this family to 

 reside in the parish was Mr. John Parsloe, 2 who in 1750, purchased 

 from Mr. Eichard Taylor, of Yatton Keynel, a messuage and land 

 (at that time in the tenure of Eobert Vines) which had come to 

 him through his marriage with Martha Alexander, a granddaughter 



1 The property was put up to sale in 1896 and the principal farm bought 

 by Sir Henry Meux, Bart. 



2 Of Rodbourne. 



