By T. II. Baker. 



285 



south wall of the nave record this work, and the following entry is 

 in the churchwardens 5 book : — 



" Paid to Mr. Stokes who undertook the south side of o r parish church to 

 secure it being likely to fall, and took it downe and raised it up again for 

 y e sum of £121 0 0." 



He came from Yorkshire, and married Dorothy, daughter of 

 Mrs. Bishop, who lived in the manor house at Burton, which had 

 previously been occupied by Christopher Aubrey. Mrs. Bishop 

 died in 1711. He owned Burton Farm and Knoll, the latter 

 probably as copyholder under the Duchy, besides other property 

 in the town. His wife pre-deceased him, and by his will (dated 

 1730) he gave all his property to a distant relative, Elizabeth 

 Fairer, who by her will (dated 1753) bequeathed all her property 

 to Thomas Ellis, shopkeeper of Mere, and a cousin, John Farrer, 

 of London, to the exclusion of her nearer relatives. John Farrer 

 soon became bankrupt, and the property was dispersed. 



John Hardcastle is believed to have been a near relative of the 

 Eev. Thomas Hardcastle, of Yorkshire, who left the Church in 

 1666, and became the minister of a Baptist community in Bristol. 

 He suffered imprisonment two or three times for Nonconformity. 



Caleb Perfect, 



who held the living from 1734 to 1744, was brother of Robert 

 Perfect, Esq., M.D., who practised as a surgeon and physician at 

 Wincanton, and was the son of a gentleman who is said to have 

 lost all his money in the South Sea Bubble and subsequently 

 emigrated to the United States, Robert Perfect, of Wincanton, 

 had a son, William, who practised as M.D. at Bath, and whose son, 

 Robert, of Woolston House, Somerset, was J. P. and D.L. of that 

 county, and some time M.P. for Lewes, Sussex. There are three 

 sons of the last-named Robert Perfect who are beneficed clergymen 

 of the Church of England in the present day, one of whom still 

 preserves his connection with the county of Somerset as Vicar of 

 Stanton Drew, and who has kindly furnished the above information. 

 The following entry is in the Mere register : — 



" Rev. Caleb Perfect was buried December y c 29th, 1713." 

 VOL. XXIX. NO. LXXXVUI. X 



