By C. E. Pontine F.S.A. 



31 



1402) Steward of the Principality of Wales, and therefore of the 

 manor of Mere, and who died in 1403, directed that his body- 

 si lould be buried in the chantry chapel of the Virgin Mary in the 

 Church of Mere, hut this was not carried out as he was buried in 

 the priory of Witham, Oo. Somerset. 1 John, his son, who was made 

 first Lord Stourton in 1448, and who died 1463, was probably 

 buried under the altar-tomb above referred to. This John was 

 probably the most distinguished of the Stourton family, and served 

 his monarchs Henry Y. and VI. in their foreign wars with great 

 ability, for which services he was created a baron. Ijeland says he 

 built the ancient castle at Stourton " ex spoil is Gallorum" and it was 

 no doubt from the same source that he greatly contributed to the 

 general reconstruction of the Church of Mere, circa 1450-60. He 

 married Margery, daughter of Sir John Wadham, of Merefield, Co. 

 Somerset, Kt., whose arms appear on one of the shields on the 

 bridge across the north aisle. 



The second Lord (William) died 1479 and was, like his son John, 

 the third Lord, buried in this Church. 2 The second Lord married 

 a " daughter of Sir John Chidiok, of Chidiok, Co. Dorset," and " by 

 this the family of Stourton acquired the manor of Stourton Caundle, 

 Co. Dorset, which was afterwards sold to Henry Hoare, of Stourton, 

 Esq., in whose family it now remains." 3 



The third lord married a granddaughter of Sir John Berkeley, 

 who married the daughter of Sir J ohn Bettesthorne, builder of the 

 south chapel, and died in .1484. 



The widening and raising of this chapel appears to have had a 

 similar effect on the parishioners to the similar work in the south 

 chapel, for the north aisle was immediately afterwards re-built — 

 indeed it is doubtful whether the chapel was roofed in before the 

 aisle was begun — the width of the chapel being in each case the 

 limit for the width of the aisle, whilst on the north the roof of the 

 aisle was a continuation of that of the chapel. As stated on p. 25, 



1 Hoare's Hundred of Mere, p. 44. 

 '-' Ibid, p. 48. 

 1 Ibid, p. 44. 



