By T. H. Baker. 



261 



made to Parliament in the ensuing Session or any subsequent Session, for leave 

 to bring in a Bill for the purpose of dividing, allotting, or inclosing the same, 

 would be very hurtful to the inhabitants of Mere in general, and particularly 

 distressing to the poor, and would bring and entail upon the parish a heavy 

 incumbrance." 



Notwithstanding the above opposition the act was passed, bnt 

 riotous proceedings ensued, and the military were called out to 

 suppress the tumultuous doings of the malcontents. In the Salisbury 

 Journal of March 19th, 1810, is a detailed account of the affair : — 



" The inclosures of Milton and Mere Commons have excited much discontent. 

 On Saturday se'nnight nearly three hundred men from Gillingham and parts 

 adjacent met on Maperton Hill and Pier'swood and destroyed a long line of the 

 new fences. A troop of horse from Dorchester barracks is now quartered in 

 the neighbourhood, and several ringleaders of the rioters have been taken into 

 custody. Four of them were on Friday lodged in Fisherton Gaol, where they 

 are to remain for trial till the next assizes." 



On March 26th is a further account : — 



" Since our last seventeen more of the deluded men who were concerned in 

 destroying the fences of the new inclosures on Mere Common have been appre- 

 hended and lodged in prison, viz., eight in Fisherton Gaol and nine in Dorchester 

 Gaol, all for trial at the next assizes." 



At the assizes held at Salisbury in August, 1810, Stephen 

 Longyear, Benjamin Gray, Robert Gray, Philip Flicker, James 

 Longyear, Aaron Gatehouse, William Shepperd, John Bidout, 

 William Snook, and William Hill were charged with having 

 riotously assembled at Mere and pulled down and destroyed the 

 fences of certain allotments of land, late part of the common, 

 inclosed under the late act. They were found guilty of having on 

 the 10th of March last riotously and tumultuously assembled 

 together at Mere and unlawfully destroyed certain fences on Mere 

 Common ; whom the judge, after pointing out to them the 

 heinousness of their offence, but taking into consideration their 

 long imprisonment, liberated (with the prosecutor's consent) on 

 their own recognizances of £100 each, for their personal appearance 

 to receive the judgment of the court when called upon by the 

 prosecutors and for their good behaviour for three years. This 

 appears to have had the desired effect, for no disturbance took place 



