Notes on the History of Mere. 



lord chief justice of the Exchequer, Sir John Archer, one of the justices of (Join. 

 Pleas, and to Thomas Preek, Esq., high sheriff of Dorsetshire. 



" ' Go in Peace,' containing some brief directions to young Ministers in their 

 Visitation of the Sick, useful for the People in their State both of Health and 

 Sickness, Loud. 1674, in large 12mo. 



" ' Mary Magdalene's Tears imped off ; or the Voice of Peace to an unquiet 

 conscience, &c. Lond., 1676, octavo, written by way of letter to a person of 

 quality, and published for the comfort of those that mourn in Zion. He hath 

 written other things fit for the press, which perhaps may in time see light. At 

 length this worthy divine dying at Compton Chamberlayne before mentioned, on 

 the third day of Novemb., in sixteen hundred, ninety and three, was buried in 

 the chancel of the Church there, leaving then behind him the character among 

 those that well know him of a modest, learned divine, and altogether fitting of 

 a greater station in the church than he eu joyed after the restoration of his 

 Majesty King Charles II. &c, as I have been informed by that primitive 

 christian, faithful and generous friend, Nich. Martin, master of arts, and vice- 

 principal of Hart-hall, near of kin to the said John Martin.' " 



Mr. Martin, of Stour Provost, having referred Sir Richard Hoare 

 to this memoir, remarked that : — 



" although he is there said to have had but little to keep him at the time of his 

 death yet the court-roll of Gillinghani proves he had a tolerable estate there, 

 and Mr. M. is happy to say it is now (1823) in the possession of a great-grand- 

 daughter of the celebrated Hugh Grove, of Chisenbury, and who is the widow 

 of a great-grandson of the above John Martin." 



Some brief memoranda of John Martin were printed in 1868 by 

 his descendant Albums Martin, Esq., of Windsor. 



Thomas Norms, 



born at Mere in 1741, was a well-known tenor singer. He com- 

 posed a chant used for the Magnificat. He died in Staffordshire, 

 1790. 



" On the 3d. inst. died at Himley, the seat of Lord Viscount Dudley and 

 Ward, Mr. Norris of Oxford, Bachelor of Music, whose professional abilities 

 have been long known and admired. He was a native of Mere in this county, 

 formerly a chorister of our cathedral, and pupil of the late Dr. Stephens, of this 

 city. As a singer Mr. Norris justly held the first place in the Oratorio depart- 

 ment ; and that superiority in openiug the Messiah and some other pieces he 

 maintained to his last public appearance. To an excellent tenor voice, Mr. N. 

 added great musical knowledge, and a most exquisite taste. For some time he 

 had been afflicted with an illness which occasionally was so violent as considerably 

 to obstruct him in his professional engagements. At the Abbey Music, such was? 

 his debility that he could not hold the book from which he sung, his whole frame 

 was agitated by a nervous tremour, and the insufficiency of his voice evidently 



