74 Collections for a History of Seagry. 



and heiress of Thomas Drewe of Seagry, i some part of the lands 

 passed in marriage to John Mompcsson, of an old South Wilts 

 family. Mompesson was already an owner in the parish by descent 

 from the Godwyn and Bonham families. His wife, Isabel (Drewe), 

 restored the Church : and her effigy is now in the chancel, in a 

 good state of preservation. Their great grandson, Edward Mom- 

 pesson, died A.D. 1553, leaving four sisters co-heiresses, one of 

 whom married William Wayte, and it was by their daughter, Elizabeth 

 Wayte, that the manor came to Sir Richard Norton, of Rotherfield. 

 In 1648 Sir Richard Norton's grandson sold Seagry, and his estates 

 (formerly Mompesson's) were broken up amongst three purchasers — 

 1st, the Stratton family ; 2nd, Mr. Charles Bayliffe ; 3rd, Right 

 Hon. Henry Fox. 



1. — Stratton's, now Seagry House. This is in Upper Seagry. 

 The farm, which the Stratton Family purchased from Sir Richard 

 Norton, consisted of a house and about two hundred and forty acres, 

 the Hyde, Wood-leases, North Field, Heath, Starch Field, &c. 

 About 1710 it was bought by Joseph Houlton, Esq., of Grittleton, 

 who added other small purchases from Nathaniel Godwyn, Jasper 

 Hibbard, and Mark Newth. The present house was built by his 

 son, Nathaniel Houlton, Esq., whose coat of arms is within a 

 triangular pediment in front, on a stone shield Houlton quartering 

 White. The last of that family who lived there was Captain, 

 afterwards Admiral, John Houlton, who died at Grittleton in 1791. 

 In 1785 he sold it to Sir James Tylney Long, of Draycote, from 

 whom it has descended to Earl Cowley. Successive tenant occupiers 

 have been Windsor, afterwards Lord Plymonth, the Rev. Jeremiah 

 Awdry, W T alter Long, Jun., Esq. (who married the heiress of the 



1 This Thomas Drewe had married Emma, widow of Thomas Cary, of Kingsdon 

 Gary, Co. Somerset, By a deed, dated at Seagry in the year 1369 (43 Ed. III.) 

 Thomas Dru and Emma, his wife, grant to her late husband's brother certain 

 lands at Kingsdon which she held in dower. This deed is witnessed by John 

 Dauntesey, Edw. de Cerne, Peter Delamere, Kts., and others. On the two seals : 

 1, within a Gothic border a shield, ermine a wolf or dog statant. The legend, 

 " sigillvm thome dev." 2nd, within a richer Gothic border on a shield a 

 greyhound statant. Legend, "sigillvm emme dev." (Nichols's Collect. Top. 

 et Gen., YI. 359.) 



