By the Rev. F. H. Manley. 



299 



of Mr. William Alexander, mentioned before. Mr. Alexander 

 Parsloe enlarged the farm by purchases of land from Mr. John 

 Pyke and the Jones family, relatives of the Pykes, but on his 

 death, in 1808, his son John succeeded to and almost at once 

 doubled the extent of the property by purchasing from the 

 Marquess of Bath in 1810, for £2,470, "The manor of Broad 

 Somerford," the messuage and lands then in the occupation of 

 William Sealey, about ninety acres, another messuage and lands 

 in the occupation of Jacob Vines about twenty-five acres, and 

 another messuage with ten acres of land. Mr. John Parsloe con- 

 siderably improved Martha Alexander's old farm house, and this 

 is the house which, enlarged and altered by its various possessors 

 since the beginning of the century, is now owned and occupied 

 by Mrs. Charrington. " Fletchers " and other property came to 

 Mr. John Parsloe through his marriage with Ann, daughter of Mr. 

 Henry Heath. Mr. Parsloe died in 1848, and some years after 

 almost all this property was sold, much of it passing into the hands 

 of Mr. William Beak, who in 1858 obtained also the Eandell's 

 property. In 1888 his son sold the greater part of these estates. 



Although the Eandell family never possessed much land in the 

 parish they claim some attention, because in the award they are 

 recognised as possessing manorial rights. In 1775 Mr. William 

 Eandell, of Edgeworth, a brother-in-law of Mr. John Parsloe, 

 purchased from Mr. John Timbrell, of Cirencester, who, himself, 

 only two years before, had purchased it from the executors of Eichard 

 Serle, Esq., of Harley, county Berks, a messuage and some eighty 

 acres of land, then late in the tenure of Philip Carpenter. This 

 farm formed part of the Bruning estate of Somerford Bolles, other- 

 wise Somerford Magna, and carried with it, as I have mentioned 

 before, the charges and apparently the royalties of the manor, the 

 courts of the manor being held in the farm house. Mr. Eandell was 

 apparently anxious to press his rights, and possibly no one thinking 

 the matter worth very much, he was allowed in the award to be 

 the lord of the fee. The property was sold by Mr. William 

 Eandell's grandson in 1850, and the house is that now owned and 

 occupied by Mrs. Benjamin Porter. 



