By the Rev. F. H. Manley. 



303 



title to the estate ; that it originally belonged to Agnes Bailey, 

 holder under the Dutchie of Lancaster, but, she being suspected of 

 practising witchcraft, departed out of the country and never after 

 returned, nor any person of her heirs claimed the premises, but the 

 same escheated to Queen Elizabeth or King James. To this the 

 feoffees, in their answer, stated that Agnes Bailey was not at any 

 time seized of the cottage or had any estate in the same, but was 

 permitted in charity to dwell in the tenement at a small rent, 

 which was paid for the use of the Church. And further, that the 

 estate had been granted by Queen Elizabeth, and that John Mayo, 

 the grandfather of John Mayo, one of the defendant feoffees, was 

 seized in fee in trust for the reparation of the Church of Broad 

 Somerford or other charitable uses. A copy of the original 

 pleadings in this suit are in the hands of the trustees, but several 

 pages have now been lost. The plaintiff's case could hardly have 

 been a strong one, and was, no doubt, only pressed owing to the 

 disturbances of the time. The defendants, however, had some 

 difficulty in producing legal documents to establish their position, 

 because they pleaded " that they are not bound by the rules of the 

 courte to sette forth their particular title to the tenement and 

 things in question, whereby the plaintiff may picke a hole in the 

 same, and they hope they shall not, the rather for that the title 

 concerns the right of the Church and charitable uses, and the rente 

 hath been answered to the churchwardens of the time being for 

 seaventie years together, and the possession gone accordingly in 

 the defendants and those under whom they clayme and their lesees, 

 and they say they have knowne certaine writings concerning the 

 church and parish accounts kepte in a boxe lockede in a chest in 

 the churche of Broade Somerford, and that about five yeares past 

 a windowe of the church was broke open and the boxe carryed 

 away by means wherof the defendants, as they conceive, are much 

 disabled to sett forth their title to the premises in case they are 

 compelled so to doe." Despite their doubts and difficulties, the 

 feoffees made good their defence and established their right, because 

 in the year 1663 they granted a lease to John Bond on his own, 

 his wife Sarah's, and son John's lives, for £32, and reserved rent 



VOL. XXXI. — NO. XCV. Y 



