By T. II. Baker. 



279 



compounds for £130. He hath already subscribed £20. He held 

 correspondence with the King's party, as appears by his own con- 

 fession. 



1646, Thomas Bannister, of Mere, paid £20. He with his son 

 Jasper, rents Mere Park, belonging to Lord Arundell, besides 

 paying thirds to Lady Arundell. (Falstone Day Book, Wilts 

 Arch. Mag., xxvi., 352.) 



1650, Hartgild 1 Baron, of Mere, gentleman, adhered to the forces 

 raised against the Parliament, for which his delinquency he humbly 

 prays permission to compound ; fine, £1 13.s. 4d This gentleman's 

 losses in the Royal cause appear to have been amply made up to 

 him. As the agent in " hazardous secret' service " he actually got 

 a promise from Charles II., when at Breda, for a pension of £200 

 a year for thirty-one years, which was duly ratified some time after 

 the King's return, about 1662. At the same time he also acquired 

 the office of Steward of the Court of Record in Windsor Castle and 

 the reversion (after John Hill) of that of ranger and bailiff of 

 Battle's Walk, Windsor. He was the first to announce (so it is 

 stated in one of his petitions) to the exiled Court at Breda the 

 determination of the Parliament of England to declare for a 

 restoration [Wilts Arch. Mag., xxiii., 326). 



Fire. 



Shortly after this period Mere seems to have suffered severely 

 from a fire, but, strange to say, there is no tradition extant relating 

 to it, and as no churchwardens' accounts exist for some few years 

 at this time, no information can be gathered from those valuable 

 historical documents, but from entries in other parochial registers 

 we find confirmatory evidence of the occurrence. 



In the parish register of Stanton Prior, Co. Somerset, is an entry : 



" For Meere in Wiltshire burnt &c. A brief was published Aug. 13th, 1671. 

 Collected Is. 6d. Wm. Richmond, John Brooknian, Churchwardens." 



In the register of Tudeley cum Capel, Kent : — 

 "1671. Mear Wiltshire 1*. Id." 



1 His own mode of spelling his Christian name, though only a variety of 

 Hartgill, the name of the victims of the Stourton tragedy. 



