292 



Notes on the History of Mere. 



8. Matthew's District Church, and a sum of £50 to be invested for 

 the benefit of the Dorcas Society in Mere. The Assistant-Curates 

 at present working in the parish are the Eevs. William Chell, B.A., 

 and Arthur Groodman. 



Natives of Mere. 1 

 John Martin. 



The following memoir, given in Wood's Athenm Oxoniemes 

 (second edition), is quoted at length : — 



"John Martin, son of a father of both his names, who was a schoolmaster in 

 a little market town, called Meere, in Wilts, was born there, became a batler 

 of Trinity College in Lent term, an. 1637, aged 17 years, with hopes of obtaining 

 a scholarship there by the favour of Dr. Hannibal Potter, the president of that 

 house, upon whose account he first settled there ; but that design failing, his 

 father caused him to be entered into Oriel College, where, being put under a 

 careful tutor, he took one degree in arts, an. 1640. In 1642 the civil war 

 began, and whether he bore arms for his Majesty within the garrison of Oxon, 

 or was called home by his relations, I know not. Sure I am, that, having 

 a benefice promised him, he took priestly orders from the hands of Dr. Rob. 

 Skinner, bishop of Oxon, in Trinity college chapel, on the 21st of Dec, an. 

 1645, and two days after, he was instituted Vicar of Compton Chamberlayne, 

 in Wilts, by the presentation thereunto of Sir John Penruddock, who gave 

 him also the lecturer's place in the church there. Afterwards being settled, 

 as much as the then times could permit, he continued there in good repute, 

 till he was, among other religious'aud conscientious divines, ejected for refusing 

 the Presbyterian covenant. Being thus deprived by unreasonable men, he 

 rented a little farm at Tysbury, lived as a grazier in the times of usurpation, 

 was knowing and consenting to the generous, yet unfortunate insurrection of 

 the cavaliers at Salisbury in the latter end of 1654, at which time they were 

 headed by the most loyal and valiant Colonel John Penruddock, son and heir 

 of the aforesaid Sir John Penruddock; for which he the said Mr. Martin 

 suffered for a time by a close imprisonment, and had without doubt, gone to 

 pot, could the rebels have found sufficient witnesses that he had been engaged 

 in the said plot or insurrection. However, being made one of the trustees for 

 the estate of the said colonel, he, by his prudence, preserved it from seques- 

 tration, was in a condition to cherish his distressed family, and take his children 



1 In Coxe's Magna Britannia, Britton's Beauties of Wilts, and Stratford's 

 Wiltshire and its Worthies, &c, Francis Lord Cottington is mentioned as a 

 native of Mere ; but, as Sir R. C. Hoare points out (Modem Wilts, Hundred 

 of Mere, p. 158), the real residence of his family was at Godminster (spelt 

 Grodminston by Hoare), near B niton, Co. Somerset. As I have never found the 

 name of Cottington in an}' documents relating to Mere, or been able to find any 

 confirmation of the statement that he was born at Mere, I have thought it best 

 to omit his name from the list of natives. — T.H.B. 



